"This is the least Saddam deserved," Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told Reuters.
At first refusing to stand before the judge, the 69-year-old ousted president, who has defiantly defended killing and torturing Shi'ite opponents, eventually rose shakily to his feet in the dock to hear the verdict and sentence read out.
As chief judge Raouf Abdul Rahman spoke, Saddam, his hands clenched behind his back, almost succeeded in drowning him out, yelling the Muslim battle cry of "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) and "Long Live Iraq!".
"The court has decided to sentence Saddam Hussein al-Majid to be hanged until he is dead for crimes against humanity," the judge said, ignoring a plea made by Saddam earlier in the trial that he should face a military firing squad, not the noose.
Abdul Rahman, prompted by the defence lawyers, ordered one of the guards around Saddam out of court for chewing gum and apparently laughing at the condemned man. Continued...
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Shaken Saddam Sentenced To Hang
Posted on Monday, November 06 at 09:41 by DiogenesContributed By
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By Rory Carroll / Guardian
Iraq's new rulers split yesterday over whether to execute Saddam Hussein if he is convicted of war crimes, with President Jalal Talabani facing calls to resign if he refuses to sign a death warrant.
The Kurdish rebel-turned president said he opposed capital punishment on principle.
"Personally, no, I won't sign," he told the BBC. But he hinted he may abstain and pass the decision to the two vice-presidents, Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shia, and Ghazi Yawar, a Sunni Arab, who with him comprise the presidential council. "My two partners in the presidency, the government, the house, all of them are for sentencing Saddam Hussein to death before the court will decide. So, I think I will be alone in this field."
Mr Talabani's stance prompted a sharp rebuke from the Kurdish bloc's main coalition ally, a cleric-backed Shia list.
A parliamentary deputy and spokesman, Ali al-Dabagh, said the United Iraqi Alliance unanimously favoured executing Saddam if so ordered by the special tribunal which is expected to start the trial next year. "If the court says he's a criminal, we will follow it," Mr al-Dabagh said. " is the president, and he should follow the law. If he doesn't want to sign it, he should resign the presidency."
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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”
<br />
“Now in theory, I know, the Kurds have a chance for their own trial of Saddam, to hang him high for the thousands of Kurds gassed at Halabja. This would certainly keep him alive beyond the 30-day death sentence review period. But would the Americans and British dare touch a trial in which we would have not only to describe how Saddam got his filthy gas but why the CIA - in the immediate aftermath of the Iraqi war crimes against Halabja - told US diplomats in the Middle East to claim that the gas used on the Kurds was dropped by the Iranians rather than the Iraqis (Saddam still being at the time our favourite ally rather than our favourite war criminal). Just as we in the West were silent when Saddam massacred 180,000 Kurds during the great ethnic cleansing of 1987 and 1988.<br />
<br />
And - dare we go so deep into this betrayal of the Iraqis we loved so much that we invaded their country? - then we would have to convict Saddam of murdering countless thousands of Shia Muslims as well as Kurds after they staged an uprising against the Baathist regime at our specific request - thousands whom webetrayed by leaving them to fight off Saddam's brutal hordes on their own. "Rioting," is how Lord Blair's meretricious "dodgy dossier" described these atrocities in 2002 - because, of course, to call them an "uprising" (which they were) would invite us to ask ourselves who contrived to provoke this bloodbath. Answer: us.”<br />
<p>---<br>Diogenes said:<br />
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
<a href="http://www.drugwar.com/castillonegroponte.shtm">http://www.drugwar.com/castillonegroponte.shtm</a> <br />
<br />
The Atrocities of a Pale Rider-<br />
John D. Negroponte<br />
<p>---<br>Diogenes said:<br />
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
I remember readig this and using it in argument once
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Diogenes said:
"I am Diogenes the Dog. I nuzzle the kind, bark at the greedy and bite scoundrels."
The bottom line is that the Iraqi's should be solving their own problems. The court that sentenced Saddam to death is not an Iraqi court, they may as well of had Dubya as the Judge and Dick as the Prosecutor.