No Way To Run A “Necktie Party”

This item from the New York Times blog The Lede tells us that the judge who sentenced Saddam Hussein to death recently voiced some regrets over the final moments of the former Iraqi strongman.

Chief Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman said that legal and religious rules were broken during the hanging that took place on December 30, 2006, according to CNN.

“It was uncivilized and backward,” he said. “In Iraqi law, there are no public executions. [The Sunni feast of Id al-Adha] is a time of love, tranquility and reconciliation, not a time for executions.”

This tells us that there was a lot more that was wrong with the trial than the atmosphere in which the sentence was carried out…

The court itself was set up illegitimately by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority, under conditions of an illegal war and occupation. It was funded with $138 million in U.S. aid. Every aspect of the case, including courtroom procedures, the prosecution’s case, even the layout of the courtroom were determined by the U.S. American advisors effectively controlled the process every step of the way--directly and repeatedly intervening throughout the trial to control the evidence and shape the outcome.

During the course of the trial, three defense attorneys were murdered and another abducted and wounded. One presiding judge was forced to resign because he was allegedly too sympathetic to the defense; his replacement had family members killed in one of the massacres Saddam (was) tried for. Prosecutors often delayed giving evidence to the defense or didn’t provide it at all. According to Human Rights Watch, microphones were sometimes shut off and translators stopped by the Iraqis and Americans in charge if defense testimony didn’t suit them.

A prime U.S. objective was covering up its own complicity in Saddam Hussein’s crimes against the Iraqi people, and making sure none of this came to light. The only charges against Hussein heard before his execution concerned the 1982 Dujail massacre (where 148 were killed after an assassination attempt on Hussein)--not Hussein’s massacres against the Kurds, his invasion of Iran, his use of poison gas, or his slaughter of communists after the 1963 Ba’ath coup--because all could have gotten into U.S. involvement.

And this tells us that Tauriq Aziz, formerly of Hussein’s regime, went on trial in Baghdad yesterday over his alleged involvement in the murder of 42 people, and Ali Hassan al-Majid – also known as “Chemical Ali” - is already on death row, having been convicted last year of leading a campaign in which tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds were massacred in the late 1980s (he is too ill to attend court proceedings related to his appeal because he has high blood pressure and diabetes, as the story tells us).

Remember when these were the only bad guys over these we had to worry about, featured prominently on the “deck of Iraqi playing cards” back when we only had to worry about 140 casualties among our military while President Clueless had his “Mission Accomplished” moment (I’d better stop – getting a little too painful).

And to give an indication of our “success” over there (and as always, I’m never blaming our military who were totally set up to fail by our ruling cabal), the “Lede” post tells us…

On Monday, (Hussein’s) 71st birthday was celebrated by hundreds of schoolchildren carrying flowers, dancing and singing in his honor (in his home village, Awja, near Tikrit), according to reports.

A Shiite back in Baghdad told Agence France-Presse that the occasion was a “sign of democracy in Iraq” since the mourners were “free to celebrate the birthday of a man … who brutalised this country for decades.” But the only adult interviewed by The Associated Press felt less than free. Indeed, he refused to disclose his name “due to fear of reprisals.”

Glad to see that “freedom is (still) on the march” (see the 2/21/05 Brussels remarks from here).