Like a pendulum do….
Anyone know where a blogger can git one of them there fancy countdown clocks?
Bumped to top
Dec.29 Updates: Some of the response to this news is curious, if not downright illogical. “Executing Saddam won’t improve the situation in Iraq” would be one way to sum up the argument. The New York Times dives head first into the realm of absurdity, arguing the execution doesn’t “nurture hope for a better future” – as though allowing the spider-hole dictator to escape a legally delivered sentence to taunt his victims under state protection for the remainder of his days would signal some turning of a corner in Iraqi justice.
Well, executing Saddam has nothing to do with “improving” Iraq (though it’s hard not to argue that his demise would do so by default). Executing Saddam has to do with delivering justice to a mass murderer on behalf of his victims.
Jules Crittenden reflects on his time reporting from Iraq;
So now comes the part where a monster, reduced to a ridiculous cranky old man, will have a rope put around his neck and take his drop. For civilized people it is impossible not to feel some empathy with any man’s mortality in the cold moment of execution. In my house we have a joke. Saddam doesn’t like Fruit Loops. More for us. Now, No Fruit Loops guy is going to get it. Even more for us.
We all know the enormity of his crimes, and many of us know men and women who are dead because of him. But the only satisfaction I’ll feel with his death is to know that there is still justice that is carried to termination and not cynically subverted in this world. It is only more death on top of death after that.
More Updates – Word behind the scenes is that Saddam’s time is best measured in hours, not days.
Waiting… at Iraq the Model.
Post mortem note – And… the book is closed on one former murdering dictator. CBC made some noise about the haste of the execution, depriving the Kurds of their day in court. Apparently, nobody in their research department stumbled upon the fact that Hussein was nearing the magic age of 70, and the “get out of noose free” card that comes with that under Iraqi law.
Confederate Yankee’s source places the main event “at 4:22 AM… and every media source on the planet is wrong about the 6:00 AM execution.”
Video.
New- WMD found and neutralized, in Iraq.
…no, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blhillaryclock.htm
All of The Usual Suspects are simply shocked, shocked that the Iraqi government, after a trial and appeal, is going to execute this bloody tyrant.
Even a Cardinal, purportedly speaking for the Catholic Church, says capital punishment is contrary to Catholicism. Dunno what Bible the good Cardinal got that from…not the one I read.
The man has gotten far more Due Process of Law than he ever gave any of his hundreds of thousands of victims.
Hanging Saddam Hussein is truly a just act and necessary for the good and safety of the Iraqi nation.
I like to see a very vigorous defence of tyrants like saddam.
that way there can be no reasonable accusations of railroading later.
his days are very numbered. note that if this trial was stateside he would have some 5 to 10 years worth of appeals ahead. go figure.
CBCpravda —note the imploring pictures.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/12/28/saddam-lawyer.html
now if we could send Clifford Olson over as a counterweight we would be in business.
UN Human Rights Commissioner: Wait with Saddam execution
Reuters ^ | Dec 28, 2006
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour called on Iraqi authorities to act with restraint in regards to the implementation of ousted tyrant Saddam Hussein’s death sentence. “There were a number of concerns as to the fairness of the original trial, and there needs to be assurance that these issues have been comprehensively addressed. I call therefore on the Iraqi authorities not to act precipitately,” Arbour said. …-
free republic
Message from Citoyen Kyoto Dion: D’accord, and STOPIGGY, too.
So Saddam’s going to have to pay for his tyranny of the people of Iraq. To many of these cock roaches end up in France; as as guests of there government, so as not to offend french sensibilities. There is a tear in my BEER for him. Yes no prayers.
do you think we could convince them to do a “Pay per View” ??
It would be way better that another Leaf’s game
Very necessary if you don’t take out the garbage life becomes impossible. Saddam got due process far more than the victems of his regime. No loss to humanity anyone who bleats for him should get the same treatment they are the enemy of civilisation and should not be tolerated least they poision the well we must all drink from. he was a piece of crap who fathered the same.
So the great Canadian Ms Arbour says to not punish him even if it is upheld….well the Israeli government can be glad that she wouldnt hang them for the war crimes she has convicted them of.
Now I am not a believer in capital punishment, solely because mistakes get made, and I am uncomfortable with the State having the power to kill citizens as a result of due process.
However, in this case there is no doubt that the punishment fits the crime. And there is no doubt of his guilt, and he was no regular citizen, a special punishmnet for a head of state and government.
the cries of protest would be pretty quiet and muffled from me anyway on this one.
LEts just hope his death will change things for the better, or at least not the worse and those who suffered under his rule will be able to move beyond.
“An ordinary clock” (tm PW) glimpsed in its brief moment of delusional utopian martyrdom
tic tic tic tock tock tock tock tock tock tock tock……beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
[deleted – wishing harm on those not convicted of this crime is crossing the line. Ed]
Love google:
England Swings (Roger Miller)
(D)Saddam Swings like a pendulum do,
A couple of his friends (A7)chemical Ali too-o-o,
(D)The war’s not over (G)We still have good men
Saving the futures for the (A7)little child(D)ren,
Now, you huff and puff,
don’t like guns on tv (A7)curl up on yer couch, or drive yer SUV,
(D)Take a tip before you (G)take your trip;
Let me tell you (D)where to go,
Go to (A7)Falujya,
Oh, (D)England Swings like a pendulum do,
Bobbies on bicycles, (A7)two by two,
(D)Westminster Abbey the (G)tower of Big Ben,
The (D)rosy red cheeks of the (A7)little child(D)ren,
I suppose the punishment will fit the crime, but is limited to the extent they can only hang the bastard once.
Isn’t Louise Arbour simply precious?
“After his sentence was given, Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, urged Iraq to ensure a fair appeals process and to refrain from executing Saddam even if the sentence is upheld.”
I’ve got news for ya, Louise. The appeal is automatic for a death sentence under Iraqi law, and the appeal was already held, and denied this past Tuesday. And Louise Arbour should be the last person in the world arguing for the abandonment of the rule of law simply because she dislikes the result.
Furthermore, representatives of the UN, which colluded with Saddam Hussein to create the largest fraud in the history of the world (Oil for Food scandal) really ought to keep their mouths shut regarding Saddam Hussein. Or Iraq. Come to think of it, it may be high time to put the League of Nations part deux out of its misery, too.
I’m not generally a fan of the death sentence, my litmus test being “could I throw the switch?”
I’m okay with this.
From “Groatian Moment” blog:
“Over the next few days, critics will undoubtedly pick apart various aspects of the Dujail Opinion. The English translation is a bit awkward, the text is redundant, and the prose certainly won’t be compared to the opinions of Oliver Wendell Homes or Learned Hand. But even the harshest critics of the Tribunal will have to admit that it did a competent job writing its Opinion, and that the Opinion does answer many of the questions about the fairness of the process.
On December 3, 2006, the Defense Counsel filed lengthy briefs appealing various aspects of the Dujail Judgment and Opinion. These will be considered and a final Appeals Chamber decision issued in a few months. Whatever the outcome, the 298-page Dujail Trial Chamber Opinion accomplished one of the most important goals of international justice. Much like the multi-volume set containing the judgment of the World War II Nuremberg Tribunal that is available at every law library in the world, the Dujail Trial Opinion sets forth a detailed and credible historic record, which may one day play a positive role in the establishment of peace in Iraq.”
I’m not sure what the controversy is with Saddam’s upcoming execution. He was tried by an Iraqi court for multiple murders, which seem to be well documented and are only a small percentage of the murders that are allegedly attributed to him. Why are the usual suspects over here making such a fuss?
I remember a few years ago when Benazir Bhutto’s father was tried by a Pakistani court and hanged for allegedly authorizing the murder of a single person; nothing near the same scale as Saddam’s crimes, and there was hardly a peep heard from the (usually) chattering classes who are making such a ruckus now. I suspect that what we are seeing today is a manifestation of BDS. If Bill Clinton were in the White House, I would expect the same response to Saddam’s execution as there was with the Bhutto execution.
Thank God he wasn’t tried and convicted in North America. Taxpayers would be shelling out for a decade or more of 3 ring circus appeals.
In Saddam’s case, the punishment fits the crime, and the sooner the better.
As a Christian, I’m not sure that I like anyone being sentenced to death by hanging, the guillotine seems faster and surer.
That being said, may God be the final judge on his life.
http://www.clocklink.com do countdown clocks but you need to know WHEN he’s a gonna swing!
as mean spirited carmudgeon, Saddam can suffer the fate of his enemies, in the manner of his enemies. Anyone have a can of mustard gas handy?
BTW, tickerfactory.com is but one place for those things.
Television networks have to make a decision about how they will broadcast Saddam Hussein’s execution as early as this weekend. Do you believe his hanging should be available to be seen on Canadian television screens?
Yes, Canadians need to see Saddam get what he deserves
34.4%
No, executions are gruesome affairs that do not belong on television
64.1%
Other, mornings@cfra.com
1.35%
Total Votes: 148
cfra.com
I’m for letting him live. In a cell. With one television. Tuned to the View. Until eternity.
Interesting how CFRA worded the question, that’s what I would call it an introduction to bias. It should be yes, no, opinion unformed.
We will not have a similar outcome after the 1 to 2 year media/lawyer fest of the Robert Picton trial.
The new courthouse being built in Calgary is going to be “terrorist proof” all special materials. Seems to me since it is full of lawyers and criminals we should have built it from paper mache and sawdust mixed with sterno.
Hunter,
By the end of the French revolution, some guillotine blades were so dull from hitting vertebrae that often, victims were effectively bludgeoned to death by the blade, or had their necks stretched and dislocated, resulting in paralysis or they were killed from a crushing injury…I have read where often the executioner had to help the head off the body by using a little muscle and a few tugs and twists..
When done correctly,hanging is a near 100% effective way of putting a person to death.
Hanging would be humane compared to the ‘executions’ manifested by Saddam and his two sociopath sons. Feeding people to lions, anyone?. Hmmmmm. I wonder if some of the lions at the Kuwait City Zoo that were shot, wounded, and left to suffer by Iraqi troops in 1990 are still around & looking for a snack?
Oh, forget it….I agree with shaken.
Feeling a little to the right of Atilla the Hun today, Kate? While he can’t begin to suffer enough for his crimes, at least not in an earthly sense, relishing his execution is slightly disturbing as well.
the trick is to make sure the knot in the rope is positioned just so, and the drop is enough to wrench and snap the neck.
adios saddam. tick tick tick ……
Actually Tom, if you’re to be historically and ideologically accurate in your criticism of my “relishing” the prospect of a state-sponsored execution, you’re probably better to accuse me of being a “little to the left” of Joseph Stalin or Mao Tse-Tung.
Waste of a good rope, you ask me. I understand there’s a really big plastic shreding machine down there that hasn’t seen much use since Saddam got deposed, maybe they could fire that sucker up for one last fling.
Live by the plastic shreder…
so true Kate. the lefties easily win this horror
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide
Apropos of the apparently imminent hanging of Saddam Hussein, the US Library of Congress has available online the digitized versions of the famous Alexander Gardner photographs he made of the June 1865 execution by hanging of the four Abraham Lincoln assassination conspirators.
These are, to say the least, remarkable photos. (As they’re US government property, they’re therefore under copyright-trademark-patent common law, not copyrighted and available for public use.)
A technical note about hangings: the so-called “hangman’s noose” is the knot used with 1/2″ to 3/4″ rope, with the noose drawn snugly about the throat just below the jaw, with the large knot directly under either the left or right ear. When the condemned is dropped, it’s typically a five to six foot drop. (The Lincoln execution photos include several before and one after photo that illustrate this.) The momentum of the fall, the knot and the abrupt jerking at the end serve to instantly break the condemned’s neck when he drops the length of the rope, causing (if done properly) instantaneous death.
As a further historical footnote, the hanging of the four Lincoln conspirators was done correctly. They had a lot of experience in hanging of murderers in those days.
The fate of the first group of Nuremberg Tribunal condemned wasn’t as lucky. The hangman, a US Army MP Sergeant and official hangman from the military prison at Leavenworth, botched the job. Some of the hanged nearly had their heads cut off, causing a bloody, foul mess below the gallows. Some of those convicted Nuremberg defendants not sentenced to death were made to clean up the blood and other body substances off the floor.
(Kate, as a matter of historical interest and pertinence, you might want to download and post those Lincoln assassin execution photographs. So far as I know, they’re the only known official photographs of a hanging, in any Western nation. Apropos, given the upcoming identical fate of Saddam Hussein.)
“Saddam Hussein Hanging LIVE Thread
Since it now seems very imminent, I decided that it was an appropriate time to start this up. Links to information and pictures (if we get them) can be posted here.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759930/posts
The macabre, ghoulish public (gallows) execution is now used to describe every sort of party, otherwise known as a ‘gala’ event.
See, now when did it become our perogative to dole out justice? I understand keeping him locked up where he can’t hurt anyone else but killing him? I’m not one of those weird activists either, I’m just honestly asking, what ends will this achieve? Saddam WANTS to die, he’s all excited cause he gets to be a martyr.
Posted by: Tom at December 29, 2006 10:16 AM
…just to clarify, that was another “tom”, but I’m sure the IP addy would give it away.
“what ends will this achieve? Saddam WANTS to die, he’s all excited cause he gets to be a martyr”
I don’t think that he wants to die, if he did he would have come out of that hole guns a blazing.
He knows the inevitable is coming and he’s trying to put on a brave face, imo.
See, now when did it become our perogative to dole out justice?
What are you talking about? This justice was doled out by Saddam’s fellow Iraqis.
what ends will this achieve?
I have taken the liberty of copying this reply on the Captain’s Quarters blog by jdwhit:
Something to think about for those of you apposed to the death penalty under any circumstance. Suppose that Saddam was given a life sentence and locked away in some impenetrable jail cell with no possibility of escape or parole. How long do you think would pass before some jihad lunatic threatened death and destruction of innocents, held hostages, or threatened a WMD attack to gain his release. Do you really think that he would be locked away to never be heard from again? We have no choice but to execute him if we want to be rid of him.
Correct me if I am wrong but I thought this exact type of crime is what the World Court at the Hague was supposed to be for. Now, why wasn’t Hussein tried there? So I have to ask–why was this trial even held in Iraq?
Many of the crimes Hussein has been convicted of were committed while he was a friend of the US. Nothing was done then, not until they decided to atack Iraq. something smells here.
FOX cites an AP source: To take place sometime before 6 AM, Baghdad time.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=27
I’d feel better about this if Saddam was tried in the Hague, but, unfortunately (and, unlike Nuremberg), the Hague court does not have the death penalty.
I agree with those who have suggested
we feel pity for anyone in this position, but we also need to remember what this guy did. As well, it may make other dictators re-think their actions.
As it is, it looks like victor’s justice, but despots who win wars are rather reluctant to submit themselves to justice.
What gets me is the “now you’ve really got them p*ssed off, and they’re really going to be trying to kill Coalition troops and civilians now” crap. Yeah, the Baathist and Sadamite dead-enders have been holding back all these years now, until now. (Didn’t the Left say the same thing about killing Zawaqari?)
He was no good but he’ll be dead soon and that is fine by me.
Hang in there Saddam!
Saddam is being executed by Iraq because he was found guilty in Iraqi courts of ordering the mass murder of over 100 Iraqi innocent men and boys in retaliation for an assassination attempt.
The only person who would argue for jurisdiction to be transferred to the Hague is a person who wants to see him walk free or spared through unending legal arguments for the rest of his natural life.
George, when Hussein was a friend of the US they didn’t want to kill him. Then the US was at war with Iraq–these changes happen, George–and now supports the Iraqis who want to kill him after a fair trial.
What smells is your inability to adjust yourself to reality rather than blame the US and probably Bush.
Get over it.
P.S. Since when is the International Court a reliable or even legitimate body? On what grounds, George?
Usually as a rule I don’t like the death penalty for several reasons.
1) A few innocent always get caught up in the system.
2) I think its too quick. The perpetrator should be put in a hole for 40 years.
3) I think life is sacred, & being a Christian I have reservations on taking upon oneself the prerogatives of God. Worse, allowing the State to have them.
There are exceptions though. In this case all Saddams being kept alive would result in. Is a whirlpool of more death in his name. Factions using him as there brand name. This is more like curing an infection from a body than just one man’s just death for individual criminal actions. This is no martyr. He was a warlord & will die as such. As a symbol of death the Iraqis want him gone. As an individual, his killings where enough to gag a serial killer. All done at the behest of his own self.
He justified his genocidal murder both personnel & political as the will of the State. He was the one who instigated the chemical bombings, wars & such. Of personnel slaughter , we even have him shooting an opponent in there so called Parliament at the time on tape. A man completely lawless.
All know the proclivities of his sadistic son’s.
Of his guilt there is no doubt.
The Louise Arbour’s of the world. In other words our self made aristocracy. Are as scared as the nobles with their Kings where about Killing monarchs or the elite in the age of tyrants. They consider themselves above the law, so are appalled when a ruler or leader like themselves get justice. They fear justice for there own crimes. Its why in Canada are no big wigs involved in adscam who are now in jail. The rulers have always feared the “mob” as they call it. It why so much distain was heaped on America, when it didn’t have “there betters” running a nation. The commoners running the government? How vulgar , was the usual European sentiment.
In one way or another your sins catch up with you eventually. God will judge this man.
Saddam’s execution will serve as a powerful symbol to all the dictators in the region. Don’t think that they won’t feel a chill go up their spine as they realize the very same thing could happen to them.
So while I might have favored popping his top as soon as he was spotted in the spider hole, I have to admit that the public relations benefit to an execution will be extremely valuable.
I will also say that anytime some monster kills a bunch of people along with the other horrible things, their final punishment on all of us is forcing us to deal with them. Because of their horrible deeds, they make it the responsibility of good people to administer justice. Most of the time the people offing them would rather not have to contaminate themselves by killing anyone ever. But people like Saddam administer one last coup de grace on us all by making us take their lives as well. (Of course by that time, knocking him off has become a pleasure to look forward to; in my part of the country a hundred years ago, families flocked to a public hanging, bringing picnic lunches.)
“>>>Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, who also appealed in U.S. court, is expected to be executed along with Saddam. Also slated for execution is Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s half brother and former intelligence chief.