http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...how/327987.cms
Quote:
Saddam sentenced to death by hanging
[ 5 Nov, 2006 1520hrs IST REUTERS ]
BAGHDAD: A US-backed Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced toppled leader Saddam Hussein to death by hanging for crimes against humanity.
The ousted president, visibly shaken, shouted out "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) and "Long live the nation!".
The Iraqi High Tribunal also handed down death sentences to former revolutionary chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander and Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti. Former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison.
The charges stemmed from the killing of 148 Shi'ite men in Dujail after an assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982.
A death sentence or life imprisonment generates an automatic appeal, delaying any execution by months at least. Saddam has said he wants to face a military firing squad, not the hangman.
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Two things: One, the timing.
WHY aren't Democrats screaming about the timing of this?
Republicans have been crying foul for weeks over Foley, Ney, Haggard, and other news of scandal and misbehavior among their ranks. Oh, no! That news was timed to coincide with the election! We're the poor little victims of the big bad Democrat politics machine.
The timing of this verdict is
transparently political. I don't see how any rational person could not conclude that this was timed deliberately to coincide with the elections. Why aren't the Democrats on the offensive about that the way the Republicans would be?
Thing two: the verdict itself.
This is yet another disaster being spun as victory. Saddam should be kept to rot in a cell for the rest of his life. Instead he's being formally martyred by the Iraqi puppet government. The US will be blamed by the Saddam-loyalists, and they'll take it out on our troops. Prepare for massive insurgency activity, on a scale we've never seen before. Hanging Saddam may very well be the thing that breaks Iraq into full-scale civil war.