Hussein Execution Imminent?

[SWJED]

29 December Washington Post - Speculation on Hussein Grows.

American and Iraqi officials said Friday that the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is imminent and could occur as early as Friday night or Saturday morning in Iraq.

There were conflicting accounts on Friday of whether the U.S. military, which had been detaining Hussein, had handed him over to Iraqi authorities. The Associated Press and Reuters news services quoted Hussein's lawyers as saying that U.S. officials have transferred Hussein to Iraqi custody, but a U.S. official told The Washington Post at 8:45 p.m. Baghdad time (12:45 p.m. EST) that Hussein was still in U.S. custody...

[RTK]

I think they'll wait until daybreak.
It's easier to deal with the storm in the morning. It'll give the iraqi forces enough time to lock areas down and stop the madness before it starts.

And it needs to be Iraqi forces who quell the violence, not Americans, as this will usher in a new beginning for that country, much like we did it with the elections last year.

[SWJED]

Lawyers Work to Stop Saddam's Execution - AP.

Saddam Hussein will be executed no later than Saturday, said an Iraqi judge authorized to attend his hanging. American and Iraqi officials met to set the hour of his death.

Lawyers for Saddam made a last-minute appeal to an American court to avert execution in Iraq, asking a judge to block his transfer from U.S. custody to the hands of Iraqi officials...

[SWJED]

Official: Saddam to Be Executed Tonight - AP.

The official witnesses to Saddam Hussein's impending execution gathered Friday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities.

The Iraqi government readied all the necessary documents, including a "red card" - an execution order introduced during Saddam's dictatorship...

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saddam would be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, or 10 p.m. Friday EST. Also to be hanged at that time were Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, the adviser said...

[RTK]

Now the remaining question is how long will it take the footage to make it to YouTUBE.

[Strickland]

At the risk of being accused of being a communist, executing Saddam could be an extremely bad move for the US. It may have been better for us to turn him over to the International Criminal Court as was done with Milosevic, Bagasora, Taylor, etc. If we refused to push for Idi Amin's extradition before his death, or the criminal prosecution and extradition of Ta Mok, Pol Pot, or Mengistu, it may appear to Muslims that we only execute Muslim autocrats.

[Culpeper]

Long Live the Queen

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA



BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Some Arab media, including Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya and the U.S.-financed Al-Hurra, reported about an hour before daylight Saturday (about 10 p.m. EST Friday) that Saddam had been executed. State-run Iraqiya television cited reports of Saddam's hanging, but like the other television stations did not provide sources.

[SWJED]

Iraq Executes Saddam Hussein by Hanging - LA Times.

A defiant Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn Saturday in a secret concrete death chamber here as the Muslim call to prayer echoed over the capital. Hussein and 14 Iraqi government representatives were flown by helicopter to the site, according to Iraqi High Tribunal Judge Munir Haddad.

Guards escorted Hussein into the room, where he denounced the West and Iran. Hussein then climbed the high ladder to the gallows. As his executioners placed a noose around his neck, Hussein blanched but betrayed no emotion, Haddad said. Hussein refused to wear a hood.

The charged silence that settled over the execution chamber was suddenly shattered by four guards, all apparent followers of militant Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr -- a man whose ruthless ambition and dark charisma rivals Hussein's, many Iraqis say. "Muqtada Sadr!" they cried out triumphantly. "Muqtada Sadr!"

Hussein scoffed. "The last word he said was 'Muqtada,'" said Haddad, who described Hussein's tone as condescendingly sarcastic. "And then he was hanged."...

[SWCAdmin]

How many years from swinging would he still be if this was proceeding through the U.S. criminal courts?

[SWJED]

... at today's SWJ Daily News Links - includes a London Daily Telegraph video of Saddam's last moments on the gallows just prior to execution.

[Jedburgh]

... at today's SWJ Daily News Links - includes a London Daily Telegraph video of Saddam's last moments on the gallows just prior to execution.

I've been waiting to see that for a very long time. Hell with any other context, consequences, blowback, or whining about judicial improprities - it gives me incredible emotional satisfaction to see him swing.

[pcmfr]

How many years from swinging would he still be if this was proceeding through the U.S. criminal courts?

Or worse yet, the Hague?

[Strickland]

I find it ironic that Saddam was convicted and executed for crimes against humanity as manifest in his execution of 152 Shi'ites after a failed assasination attempt in 1982. Question - which nation was doing everything possible to financially and militarily support Saddam, his continued hold on power, and his aggressive war against Iran (other Shi'ites) in 1982?