Posted on 11/04/2006 7:51:17 PM PST by silentknight
Iraq urges calm ahead of Saddam verdict
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago
SNIP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's prime minister on Saturday urged his countrymen to accept the impending verdict against Saddam Hussein without violence, then in the next breath declared the former dictator must get "what he deserves" with the decision that could send him to the gallows.
Any relation to Jethro?
That means December 15th then at the latest.
lol
Oh yeah, deathbed pretense of being a "good Muslim" after years of drinking J&B and killing your hookers after you'd finished with them. Dead Monster Walking.
They'd like to see him acquited and reinstated where everything could go back to 'normal' and we could slink out of Iraq with our tail between our legs.
Yup. They're still looking for her.
Greta will be reporting further details later today.
Well, there's Madonna - where's the baby?
You could poke an eye out with one of those.
Let the firing squad take shots at him while he is hanging... everyones happy!
I'm off to la la land ... with a smile on my face
The POS is gonna hang!
And I, for one, thank you VERY much for doing the dirty work.
the Saddam live portion will be coming up on video shortly. People are apparently bracing for the reaction as it happens.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
And they were quite, quite mad even before that.
I saw that life on Iraqi TV via the internet. Aparently the judge expressed anger at a letter he received from Clark in which he described the trial as a 'joke'. The judge thought that Clark not only insulted the court but himself too.
The judge doesn't speak English and only shouted the word 'out!' Clark didn't know what was happening until the guards came to remove him!
(AP) Iraq's High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang, as the visibly shaken former leader shouted "God is great!"
His half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the former Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to join Saddam on the gallows.
After the verdict was read, a trembling Saddam yelled out, "Life for the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!"
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison. Three other co-defendants were convicted of murder and torture and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. One defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Baghdad was under a total curfew to guard against violence and shops were shuttered and pedestrians and vehicles almost completely absent from the streets of the city of 6 million people.
Iraqi security forces and U.S. troops mounted additional patrols, but no major incidents had been reported by midmorning, said police Maj. Mahir Hamad Mousa of the al-Khansa station in Baghdad's Jadeeda district.
"There is close cooperation between Iraqi and coalition forces in maintaining the curfew," Mousa said. "We have fully prepared for this duty," he said.
The verdict's announcement marks a political and social watershed for Iraqis who endured more than two decades of brutal rule under the former leader.
A guilty verdict would likely enrage hard-liners among Saddam's fellow Sunnis, who made up the bulk of the former ruling class. The country's majority Shiites, who were persecuted under the former leader but now largely control the government, will likely view such an outcome as a cause of celebration.
Saddam and his seven co-defendants had been tried over a wave of revenge killings carried out in the city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam, and Saddam faces additional charges over an alleged massacre of Kurdish civilians.
Even with the verdict imminent, Saddam's lawyers and some Sunni politicians called for the court proceedings to be suspended.
"It has become clear to the Iraqi people and the whole world that this court is politicized 100 percent," Salih al-Mutlaq, head of the second largest Sunni parliamentarian block, told the Doha-based al-Jazeera satellite channel.
Al-Mutlaq accused the U.S. and Iraqi governments of interfering with the work of the court and said a verdict would further polarize Iraqi society, already traumatized by sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis.
"This verdict will be the last nail in the coffin of the national reconciliation plan and the political process," al-Mutlaq said. "I call upon Arab leaders and ... to interfere for the sake of Iraq's unity."
The head of another prominent Sunni group, Harith al-Dhari, said any verdict should be delayed until after the departure of U.S. forces, who toppled Saddam following their March 2003 invasion of the country.
"If this court issues the verdict, I would consider it to be illegal, illegitimate and political," al-Dhari told al-Arabiya, viewed throughout the Arab world.
Echoing those sentiments, the Association of Muslim Scholars, a hard-line Sunni clerical group, demanded that Saddam's trial be postponed until "the occupation leaves."
One of Saddam's lawyers, former Qatari justice minister Najeeb al-Nu'aimi, said Saddam and his co-defendants had not been given sufficient time to present their cases.
"The court is not neutral. It lacks legitimacy," al-Nu'aimi said.
The curfew was only lightly observed in Baghdad's sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City, where the Mahdi Army militia of radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr holds sway.
Local police commander Col. Hassan Challoub said special reaction teams made up of the Iraqi police, army and the Interior Ministry commandos units are on patrol in the city.
"No incident and nothing abnormal is reported so far," Challoub said.
BTW .. one more thing
I haven't heard any riots in Iraq about this verdict
CNN now going to "Broken Government" ... actually not. I couldn't resist ;) ROFLMAO!
Quote: I will die with honor and with no fear, with pride for my country and my Arab nation but the U.S. occupiers will leave in humiliation and defeat, they quoted Saddam as saying. They will see rivers of blood for years to come. It will dwarf Vietnam.
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