[marron]

The only purpose for "trying" Saddam is to document at least some of his crimes. It should not be imagined that this is a "legal" trial; it is a war-trial, and its purpose is merely to document why Saddam must die.

Its outcome has to be a forgone conclusion. There is no way Saddam can walk free, the war against Saddam isn't over until he has stretched the end of a rope.

I suggest that sooner is better than later. He isn't giving up much information, so we don't really need him to document his crimes. The historians can do that. Unless he has something really juicy to offer, I see no reason to delay it past the week.

Do it, and do it now. The vaunted Zarqawi revenge attacks have been indistinguishable from the normal run of attacks, in fact the attacks have probably abated some. I suspect that the great revenge attack after Saddam hangs will be some poor guy blackmailed into offing himself outside a police station, and no one will notice amidst all the dancing and celebrating.

[Bobibutu]

FYI ...

"The vaunted Zarqawi revenge attacks have been indistinguishable from the normal run of attacks, in fact the attacks have probably abated some."


June 26, 2006 http://rapidrecon.threatswatch.org/
A Little Black Book
Steve
Just in case you missed it, from Jim Dunnigan at Strategy Page:

Al Qaeda in Iraq has been virtually wiped out by the loss of an address book. The death of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi was not as important as the capture of his address book and other planning documents in the wake of the June 7th bombing. U.S. troops are trained to quickly search for names and addresses when they stage a raid, pass that data on to a special intelligence cell, which then quickly sorts out which of the addresses should be raided immediately, before the enemy there can be warned that their identity has been compromised. More information is obtained in those raids, and that generates more raids. So far, the June 7th strike has led to over 500 more raids. There have been so many raids, that there are not enough U.S. troops to handle it, and over 30 percent of the raids have been carried by Iraqi troops or police, with no U.S. involvement. Nearly a thousand terrorist suspects have been killed or captured. The amount of information captured has overwhelmed intelligence organizations in Iraq, and more translators and analysts are assisting, via satellite link, from the United States and other locations.

[91B]

I can only think of one possible alternative outcome-Saddam confesses to organizing attacks against the U.S. during the 1990s (the assassination fo Bush I, and the attack on the WTC in 1993) of conspiring with Al Qaeda and of involving himself and his government in terrorist activities throughout the world. He must come completely clean on WMD (whatever the truth of the matter) and he must provide incontravertible evidence of all of the above. In exchange he will be imprisoned for life in the Kurdish sector.

I personally think the likelihood of any of that happening is very slim, so he will swing, but I would be willing to entertain the possibility.