Saddam Hussein is scheduled to go on trial Wednesday. But as great as it will be to see the former tyrant in the dock, don’t expect much from the trial, which likely will be quickly postponed. That’s because the charges will be narrowly focused on the execution of more than 140 men and teenage boys, not the more heinous crimes attributed to Saddam, including the killing of an estimated 300,000 Shiites and Kurds. Also, observers worry that the incompetence of the special tribunal and the unfairness of the trial could undermine the verdict. And, ultimately, the biggest frustration will be that a death penalty wouldn’t be harsh enough punishment. As Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said: “Saddam should be executed 20 times.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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34 Comments
Was Saddam a horrible tyrant?
Yes.
That’s not the question. The question is who from the US helped him when it was illegal and how much . . .
Quite a bit of evidence is leading right back to Halliburton when Dick Cheney was CEO.
Another question is who gave/sold him the poison gas?
Galahad,”Quite a bit of evidence is leading right back to Halliburton when Dick Cheney was CEO.”Suppose the war is Cheney’s attempt to cover up that little embarrassment?
Sum1, Galahad, Jed,
The poison gas was in artillery shells given to Saddam by the United States, to aid his war with Iran. Rumsfeld made the deal. Those shells killed 25,000 Iranians in one day. Saddam used some of those leftover shells to put-down a Kurd uprising in northern Iraq. That was part of Bush’s ” Saddam gassed his own people” crap as a partial justification for invading Iraq. Bush left-out the ” good ” part about those shells being given to Saddam by the United States.
I think if Bush ever told the truth, his face would fall-off.
Ed…..
Ed,I do believe it was Powell who said “We know he’s got WMD’s. We have the reciepts!” So their origin wasn’t quite the dirty little secret you’re making it out to be.
I think you can count on this trial being dragged out, postponed, delayed, etc. for quite some time.
Saddam and an open forum is gonna be very very bad for certain members of the bush 2 and bush 1 administrations, the Reagan legacy, and US foreign policy. And those folks already got enough problems.
Jed
You seem aware of where the poison gas came from, but Bush certainly wasn’t telling all that to the American People in his “justification speech”
It seems to me that a president of the United States should be completely honest with the American People and soldiers about reasons for going to war. Soldiers are losing their lives and limbs for reasons Bush is keeping secret.
It’s certainly not about democracy, which cannot take place in Iraq, with a Shiite majority.
Is Bush making America a safer place to live and work with his conduct? The vast majority of Americans don’t think that we are receiving any benefits, now or in the future, by his actions. Iraq is bankrupting the average American and placing us at grave risk for yet another retaliation.
Killing the Arabs who furnish us the oil for our oil driven economy is some sort of a secret, which, evidently, he feels he can’t share with the American People.
Within the confines of that question, Jed, I think we can agree that that, in itself, qualifies as a “dirty little secret.” Or, at best, something we should be allowed to know.
It will be whitewashed from start to finish, as all “tyrant” trials are.The oil questions are lunacy, though. The world runs on oil. Stop oil, you stop the world. Ain’t going to happen.And all the so-called “environmental friendly” energy sources in the world can’t make up one iota of the energy needed to run the same world. So Saddam, Halliburton, et al, are going to do what they can do to wring the almighty buck from every source available to get at the oil. Every country does the same, not just this one. We have the might behind us to do it any way we want. Those are just the facts.You want it different? Walk…clean your clothes in the river (haha)…make a radio out of a crystal..grow your own food (organically). What??? You ain’t gonna do it??? Quit complaining.
Jed
The White House is controlling the photos of Saddam, only allowing those which are the least flattering to be released. The idea is to make Saddam look as disheveled and crazy as possible, in order the strengthen their case to destabilize Iraq. Nothing like a little PR to cover-up a major screw-up.
The “trial” will be confined to one event, 1982, so as to keep him from spilling all of the beans about the US involvement with Israel’s oil/land-grab. He will try to “tell-all, but without a microphone or camera, we’ll never see or hear it.
Bush has murdered 100 times more Iraqis than Saddam ever thought about, only unlike Saddam, Bush doesn’t have the least bit of control without spilling American soldier’s blood, lives, and limbs, daily.
The Shiites in southern Iraq wanted an Islamic republic, but Saddam was able to keep them under control. We have a thousand times more crime, killings and injustice in America then Saddam ever had when he controlled Iraq.
Actually, Saddam was our go-to man in the Middle East, but Israel wanted him gone, so good little Bush lied his way to war, as he was told to do. Actually, Bush didn’t lie, he just read what was written-out for him by the Israeli/neocon/Rove/cabal.
Pictures of Rumsfeld shaking Saddam’s hand are easy to find. The truth about why Rumsfeld was shaking Saddam’s hand isn’t.
If you “Google-up” the Senate hearings about how our Ambassador to Iraq gave Saddam a “green-light” to invade Kuwait { not speculation, but the actual minutes and testimony of the hearing } then you’ll see why he’ll never be allowed to talk.
So you think we should invade every country that has oil? Is that was G.W. should have said was the reason this country invade Iraq? Following that reasoning if I need money than I should rob a bank then? Hey I want a large screen TV, do you happen to have one in your home? I am 6-2 and two hundred pounds, I have five firearms, I even have a katana sword and a claw hammer. If you have less weapons does that mean I have a right to take the TV?
How about a garden hose and you have a full tank of gas. My car runs on gas, leave the cap off and I can bring a gas can.
Sorry wlaker you logic holds no weight.
I wonder how Saddam will be drugged for he “trial?” Will they make him hyper, as with a super caffeine or nervous and unable to concentrate.
They may prefer to have him hallucinating or, perhaps, even numb him down.
They might give him a case of diarrhea, making him wear a diaper all day.
Anyway, there’s just no telling what the Israelis will come-up with after what they did in Abu Graihb.
It should be interesting to see what “Facility 1391″ in Israel is able to produce.
Phillip: America’s puppet in Iraq; ” Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said: “Saddam should be executed 20 times.”
{ now, that’s a nice touch, and that picture of Saddam, is that what’s being handed-out? }
The Russians used to put-on some great “Show-Trials” I liked the one where our U-2 Pilot Gary Powers “confessed”
Now, that’s style.
R D ,You’re comparing apples and oranges. NOTHING is more valuable in this world as oil…even lives. Witness Iraq. It is about oil. Does that make it right? Hell no it doesn’t, but that’s the way it is.For all the talk from the Liberals, they will not change how the world is run. Maybe feed, clothe and house some needy people, but change the basics? Ain’t going to happen. Any thought of doing so is a pipe dream. That’s reality.I never said I agreed with it; I do understand it though.You got a better way? Please, by all means lets hear it. Use reality thinking though.Oil makes our clothes, gets us from pointr a to point b, grows our food, builds our houses, powers our communications netwaorks. How are you really going to change that?
Actually, J.M., coal, which we have abundant supplies of, can be made into gasoline. The Nazis did it 60 years ago when their oil supplies were cut off.
It’s estimated that this process when it’s up and running would cost the equivalent of 35 dollars a barrel. Way too expensive when oil was at 20 dollars a barrel.
But now that it’s at 65-70 dollars a barrel, it would be very cost effective, IF THE OIL COMPANIES AND THEIR PAID POLITICIANS HAD PURSUED THE TECHNOLOGY AND PROVIDED THE INFRASTRUCTURE.
Of course, with the all the oil in the US provided by less than half a dozen huge multinational companies and their happily well funded Republican allies, that is never gonna happen.
BTW, the gasoline produced from coal is cleaner burning and less polluting than ordinary gas–another plus.
But this administration would rather kill Americans in Iraq than develop a synthetic fuel alternative . . .
Galahad,The cost of converting coal to gas was $35 a barrel? Who did the estimate? much energy does it cost to convert it to gas? What type of energywould be required to convert the coal?I don’t buy that argument at all. Energy is expensive any way you look at it. As I said, the oil industry basically controls what does and does not get done in the world. Who controls the oil, controls the world. That’s just the way it is. Got a better idea? lets hear it. So far, I’ve heard concert coal. Okay. Big Oil controls coal. Anything else?As I also stated…it ain’t right, it’s just the way things are.Hey…how about turning Saddam into oil?
If there was a cost-effective synthetic fuel, big bus would be all over it. We already have ethanol, which burns too hot, and tears-up whatever is burning it.
The real problem is that Bush is giving the farm to the real problem.
They seem to have y’all trained not to deal with it.
Ed,On this one I both agree and disagree with you:True about a cheap synthetic.Not true about being trained. It’ds simply a matter of understanding how the world works, and coming to the real conclusion that there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it.Mark my words: If a liberal is elected, not a thing concerning energy supplies in the world will change, Halliburton included. Money talks…and makes the rules. That’s life.
JM
70 dollar oil is threatening Iran with a nuclear strike from channel 3 in Israel by Bush. Americans don’t know about that and it’s not being reported by American newspapers.
I agree with you that little changes with one party or the other in power.
Bush { who I helped elect the first time in 2000 } is the problem, who must stop killing Arabs and put a halt to Sharon, who is now walling-in Jerusalem, denying access to the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, and destroying Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, under the cover of the so-called Gaza “pullout.” { open-air prison }
If “brainless” doesn’t stop, we’re going to get ourselves nuked.
Our borders are undefended.
J M Walker…..
70 dollar oil.
Rice Won’t Rule Out Force on Syria, Iran| WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday refused to rule out U.S. troops still being in Iraq in 10 years or the possibility that the United States could use military force against both Syria and Iran.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice represents the interests of Israeli greed and not those of the People of the United States.
Here’s a simple question:
What possible reason would the United States use in justifing launching an attack against Syria?
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=CAWOO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-10-19-12-48-20
Ed,OIL!
J M Walker
Wrong answer.
Syria doesn’t have any oil.
Try again, my friend, this time with gusto.
J M Walker…….
The Kangaroo Court cobbled together in Iraq by the international criminal George W. Bush, asked President Saddam Hussein of the sovereign State Iraq his name. His answer: “Who are you?”Saddam’s answer was correct. As President of Iraq, he was invaded by a foreign power in violation of international law and the Geneva conventions. He does not and should not recognize Bush’s Kangaroo Court, as his case belongs in the World Court in the Hague in Brussels, if anywhere.The last time the United States invaded a sovereign State, its President, Slobodan Milosevic was brought to the World Court in the Hague in Brussels ,tried and convicted of war-crimes, and crimes against humanity.But George W. Bush cannot bring President Saddam Hussein to the World Court in the Hague, because the United States no longer belongs to that Court. The United States withdrew it’s membership in the World Court to protect Prime Minster Ariel Sharon of Israel, having been charged by his own Government with complicity in the massacre of Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside Beirut, from being indicted by that Court.Mr Sharon was forced to step down by an Israeli tribunal investigating the 1982 Lebanon killings.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/8/newsid_4172000/4172055.stm
If the United States was still a member of the World Court, both George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon would both be indicted for violations of international law and war-crimes, and crimes against humanity, and the Geneva Conventions, as was President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. George W. Bush has murdered over 100,000 Iraqis, without any justification. And Ariel Sharon has murdered and displaced millions of Palestinians.The United States lacks any moral or ethical right to try President Saddam Hussein for crimes which are dwarfed by its own crimes against humanity committed, not only by itself, but those committed knowingly in concert with Ariel Sharon, and others of the rogue State of Israel.George W. Bush has disgraced America by using the office of President of the United States for criminal activities and betrayed the American People’s trust by making false statements to justify such criminal behavior in concert with the known war-criminal and unprincipled, deceitful, Ariel Sharon of the rogue State of Israel.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/025235
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1817749.stm
Ed,I never said invading Iraq was the correct thing to do, nor do I support the invasion of any country, unless they specifically declare war on us.Syria still has control of the fundamentalists that have control of middle east oil. It all boils down to oil, zionist plot or no zionist plot, muslim plot or no muslim plot, Bush or no Bush…liberal…democrat…republican…communist…whatever…it’s all about oil. Call it what you will,but that wont change a thing. Oil is the power structure in the world now. Nothing else comes close. Everything else is smoke and mirrors.
Walker
I understand that importance of oil, you’re certainly right about that. I’m talking about the difference between 1 dollar a gallon and { right now } 3 dollars a gallon and 28 dollar crude and 70 dollar crude and the fact that 70 dollar crude is bankrupting the American People.
I taking about the cause of 70 dollar crude, which is clearly the threat Israel is making against Iran, which supplies 60 % of the world’s oil.
If Israel was not making that threat, then oil would come down. It’s just that simple.
Israel has been getting away with murder, now they’re getting away with 3 dollar gas.
That is breaking the working man.
Ed,Now it’s down to nuts and bolts. I’m afraid you and I will never agree on Israel being a “rogue” state. I think there is way more at stake than Israel/middle east conflicts. It may be the cause of some of the cost per barrel, but it goes way beyond that when it comes to the price being $70 a barrel. That’s consortium time.
Walker
I travel the Dallas freeways most mornings between 5 and 6:30 AM.
People have maxed-out their credit cards on this 3 dollar gas, lost their jobs and traffic drops more everyday. Now it’s down by half.
Especially worrying is that truck-traffic is away down. That smells like real trouble.
UAW just gave-up some serious health benefits to keep their jobs. One man told me that it cost him 74 dollars to fill his pickup. He said: “I can’t keep doing this.”
I deal in facts and probably based on facts.
Israel can either chose to live peaceably with it’s neighbors, as we do with Canada and Mexico and even Cuba, or try to expand by force. Ariel Sharon said: ” I could easily make peace with Syria.”
With worldwide communication so readily available, propaganda is a much harder sell. Almost to the point of impossible. World opinion of Israel has reached: Israel is the greatest threat to world peace, and Israel has its “right-wing” to thank for that.
Israel’s safety is just as important as everyone else, and strong-arm tactics never make any people safer.
Does democracy lead to the end of terrorism?
The Bush administration says it does, but experts are increasingly doubtful.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1020/dailyUpdate.html
Ed,As I said, you and I will disagree on Israel. I see human bombs in the form of young children as a major impediment to peace in the middle east. Israel does not do that, Palistine does not.
Opps…palistine does.
Walker
You’re not stupid. That silly argument is beneath you.
Palestinians fight with whatever they have, just as our Rangers do. Rangers also fight to the death.
I sure the Palestinians would be more than happy if you’d loan them some Tanks or Helicopter Gun-ships.
Walker, We can agree to disagree. Come to think of it, that may well be the beginning of peace.
Best, Ed
Ed,The problem is that now that we’ve unilaterally removed Saddam, right or wrong, he’s got to be killed, and soon! As long as there’s any hope he can be returned to power, his supporters are going to do anything it takes to further destabilize Iraq. This was, or should have been apparent from the very beginning of this little excursion, and since we went ahead and invaded, now we’re stuck with following through, or seeing even more bloodshed. His trial isn’t a trial, it’s just formalizing a necessity!
Jed
You’re suggesting replacing principle with expediency. There is no end to that. Bush is actively threatening both Syria and Iran, so he’s only giving lip-service to morality and bankrupting this country in the process. His plans are to keep right-on spreading this God-awful butchery.
He’s a war criminal, nothing more, and made that choice as would any child-molester.
Soldiers lives are at stake and we need to leave Iraq now, not later, but right now, before the next one dies.
We ask soldiers to go to war, to give their lives if necessary, and we owe them something better than Bush, better than a lie, better than saving face, better than the murdering degenerate greed of the rogue State of Israel.
We owe Bush’s lies absolutely nothing.
The slaughter and maiming of our soldiers needs to stop now. They need to come home to their families in one piece.
Best, Ed
Ed,I don’t consider sending bomb laden children into a crowd of civilians as being a just way to fight injustice. There is no comparison with the rangers fighting to the death.The fact that Saddsm is paying the families of these suicide bombers to perform their terrorist acts tells you something about how the terrorist mind works.How do you justify the slaughter of innocence by children? I can’t.And I agree that we need to bring our troops home and stop the nonsense.
Walker
I disagree: We pay the families of our soldiers killed in battle. Congress just raise the amount 10 fold.
So much for that.
How do you justify the slaughter of children: 1000 lbs dropped on sleeping Palestinian families, jammed into 4 story apartment houses.
Entire villages bulldozed in the wee hours of the morning with only a few escaping being chushed { 17,000 occupied houses bulldozed }.
IDF given orders to shoot Palestinian childern { 529 head shots confirmed by the Red Cross }.
When an IDF soldier emptied his entire clip into a 10 year-old unarmed Palestinian girl, a MK member said ” He sould be given a medal”{ the radio conversation between soldiers trying to shoot her was recorded while they were laughing }
Imagine any member of our congress saying that.
IDF orders approved to shoot demonstraters {women } in the legs upheld by the Israeli Supreme Court.
Rachel Curry, bulldozed, back and forth while screaming: They’ve broken my back. IDF Officer in cab of bulldozer with driver.
And the list goes on, and on, and on.