I read your article with interest. I do not share your opinions, but we appear to both be on the 'same page,' as the saying goes. Here, I'll include my thoughts, which I also just published:

Forgiving Saddam

As all have been informed, the former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, has been sentenced to death. The charges against him were for causing or contributing to the deaths of 148 people who, in their so-called 'positive-goodness,' conspired to assassinate him. He did not participate in the murders, nor was he there.

Originally, it was alleged that former President Hussein had mass-murdered over 50,000 of his own people, monthly, for thirty years. Remember that? But after diligent research and numerous tribunals and court proceedings, charges could only be leveled against him for crimes he did not participate in, nor was he there to witness said crimes.

HatefulReligious_'eye-for-an-eye'_VINDICTIVENESS/VENGENACE.

I put all those words together so they cannot be taken out-of-context. It's a new word, a long one, to describe a new phrase. You see, there is no FORGIVENESS nor COMPASSION in that phrase, for it is obviously a formula for HATRED. Only the religious have perverted that passage into a twisted form of 'love.'

There are three different versions or 'flavors' of religions conspiring to topple government in Iraq, right now. They conspire together, with other versions of other religions, globally, to concoct HELL of their own making to PROFIT/PROPHETEER from atop the rubble, misery and grief they concocted themselves.

These religions HATED government BEFORE SADDAM and HATED government AFTER SADDAM.

It was never about Saddam Hussein AT ALL. It's about religions, concocting HELL, to pit so-called 'beloved-neighbor' AGAINST BelovedNeighbor to DIVIDE communities into ever-increasing numbers of squabbling TRIBES --

-- instead of UNITING TRIBES in PeaceOnEarth AS COMMANDED.

I forgive former President Hussein of Iraq. Only the religious HATE and conspire to KILL, infiltrating governments, courts and educational institutions globally, with their nonstop HATREDS, PROVING ZERO INTEGRITY, AS THEY ALWAYS HAVE AND DO.

Only religions concoct excuses to HATE YOU -- and only governments LOVE ALL PEOPLE EQUALLY.

Respectfully, I request his life be spared FROM HatefulReligiousSupremacy.

Kind Regards,
Clayton Winton -- HFA
POB#2123
Priest River, ID 83856-2123
208-448-2215
 cwinton@priestriver.com

Iraqi court confirms Saddam Hussein’s death sentence

The confirmation yesterday of the death sentence against Saddam Hussein is the final act in a legal charade directed from Washington. The Iraqi Appeal Court upheld the verdict against Hussein and two of his co-accused—Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar—brought on November 5 for the execution of 148 Shiites from the town of Dujail in 1982. With the only avenue of appeal exhausted, all three can be hanged at any time within the next 30 days.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel hailed the court decision, declaring it to be “an important milestone” in efforts “to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law”. In fact, the Bush administration has repeatedly demonstrated its contempt for basic legal norms, riding roughshod over international and US law. It has pressed for the execution of Hussein as a means of demonstrating to the world that it is capable of killing its opponents with impunity.

The Appeal Court decision comes as no surprise. From start to finish, the trial of Hussein and senior figures in his Baathist regime has been a piece of political theatre with a preordained outcome. The Bush administration refused to place the former Iraqi strongman before an international tribunal, drew up the flawed rules for the Iraqi High Court and has overseen every aspect of the case via a large team of American lawyers based in the US embassy in Baghdad.

Washington’s Shiite-dominated puppet government in Baghdad has brazenly interferred in the trial, exploiting it to bolster support among its social base. Shortly after the verdict was handed down last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki preempted the outcome of the appeals process, telling the BBC that he expected Hussein to be hanged by the end of the year. Significantly, yesterday’s decision was first announced, not by the Appeal Court, but by a government minister—National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie.

International legal experts and human rights bodies have repeatedly criticised the legal process. In a statement issued yesterday, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the trial as “deeply flawed” and called on the Iraqi government not to carry out the execution. A detailed 97-page HRW report on the Dujail case issued last month highlighted numerous breaches of elementary legal process, pointing to government interference in the trial. The report concluded that the court’s conduct reflected “a basic lack of understanding of fundamental fair trial principles”.

In January, the chief judge in the case, Rizgar Muhammed Amin, was forced to resign after senior government officials denounced him for giving too much leeway to the defendants and defence lawyers. His replacement Raouf Abdel Rahman repeatedly overrode defence protests, expelling the defendants and their lawyers from the court. Defence challenges to the legitimacy of a court established through an illegal invasion were simply swept aside. Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who was part of Hussein’s defence team, yesterday described the legal process as a travesty.

The trial was never about justice. The first charge was deliberately confined to the Dujail killings in 1982 to avoid any reference to Washington’s close collaboration with the former Iraqi strongman, particularly in late 1980s. The Bush administration was deeply concerned that Hussein would follow the example of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and implicate the US in the crimes of the Baathist regime.

Following the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979, the US actively encouraged Saddam Hussein to invade in 1980 as a means of undermining the newly established Islamist regime. The Dujail incident occurred amid a series of setbacks to the Iraqi army in the Iran-Iraq war. The execution of Shiite men and boys from the town of Dujail was carried out in reprisal for an attempt on Hussein’s life by members of Dawa—the same Islamist party to which Prime Minister Maliki belongs.

In 1983 and 1984, former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld went to Baghdad as a special presidential envoy to cement closer ties with the Hussein regime. Following those visits, the US provided military and economic assistance to Iraq, including for the development of the chemical weapons that were used against Iranian troops and Kurds allied to Iran. A second trial is currently underway into atrocities against the Kurds in the late 1980s—the so-called Anfal campaign. There is, of course, a complete silence in the court on US complicity.

Whatever Hussein’s undoubted crimes, the Bush administration is directly responsible for war crimes of a far greater order of magnitude in Iraq. More than 650,000 Iraqis are estimated to have died directly as a result of the illegal US-led invasion and occupation. The charge of which Hussein has been convicted—a reprisal for an attempt on his life—is standard operating procedure for the US military in Iraq, which has mercilessly bombed and strafed buildings and villages suspected of harbouring anti-occupation insurgents.

US troops routinely break into houses and arbitrarily detain Iraqis. Thousands continue to be held without trial in US-run prisons and subject to torture. High profile detainees have simply disappeared into the American gulag of secret jails and torture chambers. Many of the Shiite death squads that are now criticised in the American media had their origins in the “Salvador option” first implemented in 2004 following the appointment of John Negroponte as US ambassador. Hit squads operating under the cloak of the Interior Ministry are widely believed to have been responsible for the murder of three of Hussein’s defence lawyers.

The Appeal Court announcement coincides with the US administration’s plans for an escalation of violence against the Iraqi people. President Bush is preparing to announce a huge “surge” of between 20,000 and 50,000 US troops to Iraq for a bloody crackdown in Baghdad and in the western Anbar province against anti-US insurgents and the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. What is being prepared is a crime that will dwarf anything that Hussein ever carried out.

Those responsible for the criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq—Bush, Cheney and the rest of the gangsters in the White House—should all be put on trial for war crimes.

The UNO must be involved and the 'rule of law' seen to be being commenced by Saddam ands all other accused being tried under the UNO's supervision in a territory that is neutral. As opposed to as occupied.


Just look at the BBC's ‘seasonal’ stunt staged over the past 72 hours with the overly career-minded 'presenter' Kate Silverton being given a 'Seasonal padding' [we are embedded' she kept on saying in glorious recognition of her status as a British army-protected 'independent journalist'] at Basra.

What were the British military commanders doing openly boasting of having destroyed the Iraqi police station?

There is no Iraq as sovereignty and international law go.

So stop treating the references to Iraq as if it is a free country.

It ceased to be an independent, sovereign country under international and known laws in the middle of March 2003 and the world must be active NOW to freeing the country legally and lawfully

Until the freedom is established, no occupier court should be referred to as 'Iraqi' court., None can exist without freedom.

Get it?


Saddam has not had ASNMY trial.

He has had torture and persecution.

As has the population in the former Iraq

No matter what the charges are against any accused, rule of law demands that they are given fair trial. As recognised by international law.

None of the proceedings of the kangaroo courts in occupied former Iraq have been accessible to independent observation, let alone independent reporting.

To allow any further references to those e so-called courts being Iraqi ones , in the sense of independence would spell indescribable long term disaster to the order of international legality ..

It is for all our sakes in all parts of the world that we must oppose the continuing show of there having been any trial of Saddam Hussain at all and demand that Saddam be given fair trials over all the bona fide accusations against him which trials must be held with maximum openness and independence under the international initiatives without interference from the occupying states or their agents

Friends told me that the reason Saddam Hussein was selected and empowered by the West was to stop an activity in Iraq. Before Saddam, Iraqis were lining up Generals, Politicians, and the Rich, putting a noose around their necks. that was attached to a car, and then driving off at high speed.

Once Saddam Hussein is safely executed it may be possible to restart that sport,

Are there any suggestiona how to introduce scoring so that it can become an international sport deserving of Olympic status?

.

 http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-12-28T185429Z_01_KAR748875_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ.xml

If p(sic)resident Bush and his cronies in Europe, the Middle East and Australasia were decent, God fearing people, they would acknowledge that they had ousted Saddam according to what they had believe was correct at the time.

Having done so they should now step back from the same maladjustment of human nature as Saddam was empowered to display and call for the quashing of the execution order and for his imrisonment.

Anything else is political hypocrisy.