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After the verdict)

I was overwhelmed with joy and relief as I watched the criminals being read their verdicts. For the first time in our region tyrants are being punished for their crimes through a court of law.

Until this moment and while I’m typing these words I’m still receiving words of congratulations in emails, phone calls and text messages from friends inside and outside the country. These were our only means to share our happiness because of the curfew that limits our movement.

This is the day for Saddam’s lovers to weep and I expect their shock and grieve to be huge. They had always thought their master was immortal so let them live in their disappointment while we live for our future.

This is a day not only for Iraqis but a historic day for the whole region; today new basis for dealing between rulers and peoples are found.

No one is above the law anymore.

I was particularly pleased by the way Judge Raouf Rasheed handled the session; he was reading the court’s decision and at the same time chastising members of the current government for their misbehavior and threatened to throw them in custody regardless of their ranks!

We are living a new era where there’s much hope despite the difficulties…our sacrifices have a noble cause, that is to build a new model that obviously terrifies other tyrants.

I believe it wasn’t Saddam alone who was shaking and shouting in hysteria when the verdict was read; I can see hysteria takes over all of Saddam’s followers and apologists.

Today we had turned a page that was full of pain and ugly crimes that were committed by the same criminals who were shaking in the hands of Iraq’s new justice.

We were among the first to bring Saddam’s crimes in Dujail to the surface in this blog almost three years ago even before cases were chosen or a tribunal was formed.

I did that because one of my friends was a direct victim of that crime when he was thrown in prison in the middle of the desert when he was only 7 years old along with his mother and a younger sister and lost 30 members of his extended family over the years of that tragedy.

Some people back then questioned the credibility of my friend’s story and couldn’t believe the crimes of Saddam were that cruel and inhuman. But today that the truth is out there for the whole world to see, the criminals stand small and shaking while the families of the victims stand proud seeing justice served.

Right now volleys of bullets ring not far from where I sit, some are fired to express joy while others are fired in a desperate expression of denial but I have no doubt who is going to prevail. Although the road is long but we are walking forward and will not look back.

I salute the honorable special tribunal that challenged threats and risks and insisted on keeping up the work until the end, and today it brought back the pride of the land that wrote the world’s first laws.

I salute the witnesses who risked their lives to reveal the truth and expose the crimes of the dictator.

I salute the brave men and women of the coalition who came to this land and made this day possible.

Congratulations to all my Iraqi brothers and sisters on this glorious day.

omar note: (http://www.IraqTheModel.com)

Now, Saddam is officially going down the toilet!

I wish I could have live-blogged the proceedings and the announcement of the verdict but I was facing some technical difficulties.

Anyways, you can go over to Pajamas Media where you can find a good roundup of related news and opinion including Mohammed's first reaction.

Story by PajamasMedia.com, commentary by IraqTheModel.com

This is a wonderful summary of the triumph of freedom and the rule of law over a tyrannical and despotic thug. The judges and lawyers (except for Ramsey Clark) who had the courage to make this a real and verifiable trial, thus demonstrating to the Iraqi people that the rule of law works, really deserve respect. This, the elections, the negotiations for and agreement on a constitution and form of government - all HUGE milestones for the new and free Iraq. Congratulations to all the Iraqi people today!

we need to email the media an insist they cover the comical but very relevant exchange between Saddam's lawyer and the judge.

The lawyer ranted at the judge about the verdict - and the judge came unglued over him. He threatened legal action against the lawyer and told him to get out of the court - and in case the lawyer didn't understand him in Arabic -the =judge repeated it in English, gesturing "Out! Out!"

And who is his lawyer - the HEAD lawyer of Saddam's team? John Kerry's partner in shame - Ramsey Clark. Clark, Kerry and Jane Fonda were hitched at the hip and led the antiwar rallies against the Viet Nam war and the troops.

Leopards don't change their spots. If we get the media to run the exchange between the Iraqi Judge and Clark - there will another layer of people that will make the connection especially if we remind the media. And the Kerry connection is relevant for mentioning thanks to Kerry's suicide last week.

It's also relevent as a counterpoint to the repeated reference to the Rats claim that we had control over the court and the timing of the verdict.

Remember, there are a lot of younger voters who have no reference to the Kerry/Clark/Fonda trinity in the 70's. They need to get a heads up.

There's a simple formula for getting a story covered...it's their own formula - and we have used it successfully.

Here it is.

(Copy/paste list to your files for quick find in future)

Media emails – the formula: if they hear from 40 to 45 people on a story, they will cover it.
CAUTION: do not mass email - they won’t look at it – email singly- also : Short and sweet or they wont look at it! Include a link, if you have one.

e.d.hill@foxnews.com

Brit.Hume@foxnews.com
Myword@foxnews.com John Gibson
Weekends: Bigstory-weekend@foxnews.com John Gibson
Cavuto@foxnews.com
Special@foxnews.com
Hannity@foxnews.com
Oreilly@foxnews.com
Special@foxnews.com (Brit Hume)
Studiob@foxnews.com (Shepard Smith)
writemalkin@gmail.com (Michelle Malkin)
hardball@msnbc.com
Drudge@drudgereport.com
captainsquartersblog.com
letters@canadafreepress.com Canada Free Press
hhewitt@hughhewitt.com
pundit@instapundit.com
Beltway@foxnews.com
Rush@eibnet.com
joe@msnbc.com

To get to FOX News direct – go to this link, BELOW - scroll down to small box on left = where it says Send news tip to FOXNews.com

Type your message and click submit…this might prove to be effective! (they don’t even request your name/email, etc)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77538,00.html

and the Washington Times page with box for comments:
http://www.washtimes.com/contact-us/

ees pinin for ees boys.

We have been dreaming for such a day to come and it will be a true turning point, not only for Iraq but for the middle east, for it will be the first time a ruler gets paid back for what he'd done by a court of law.

You know, I would have been perfectly happy if the soldier that found Saddam in that hole had offed him with a grenade right there. Avoided all the media BS and propaganda. But I do believe there is real value in this statement.