Saddam smiles in the face of evil

by **Seamus OBlimey** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:11 pm

Saddam spends three days in hospital then gets the giggles in court.. "Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has told his trial he wants to be shot not hanged if he is condemned to die. Shooting was the appropriate means of execution for a military man like himself, he said. Prosecutors want the death penalty for the ex-president, on trial with seven others for crimes against humanity. The defendants deny the charges. Sources quoted by news agencies later said Saddam Hussein had ended a hunger strike by having lunch at the court. "Saddam ate beef and rice and cola with bread which he brought from hospital," one source told Reuters news agency. The former leader reportedly began the hunger strike on 7 July in protest at the killing of three of his lawyers. A thinner-looking Saddam Hussein told Wednesday's hearing: "I was brought against my will directly from the hospital... The Americans insisted that I come against my will. This is not fair. "Three days ago I was taken to hospital and today I was brought here forcibly from the hospital. I was fed intravenously and by a nasal drip," he said. Execution Later he spoke of his preference for facing a firing squad rather than a hangman's noose. "I advise you as an Iraqi, if you were in a circumstance in which you have to issue a death penalty, you have to remember that Saddam is a military man and in this case the verdict should be death by shooting not by hanging," he told the judge. The prosecution has called for the execution of the former president and two others for the deaths of 148 villagers during a crackdown in the village of Dujail after an assassination attempt in 1982. The BBC's Jane Peel in Baghdad says that during Wednesday's hearing, Saddam Hussein showed all his trademark defiance, at times interrupting and arguing with both the judge and a lawyer appointed by the court to act on his behalf. Lawyer boycott His defence team has been boycotting the trial to demand tighter security, after the deaths of their three colleagues, and replacement lawyers have been named. Saddam Hussein told the chief judge he rejected the lawyers appointed by the court to defend him. "Your honour, I refuse to appear before this tribunal, but this tribunal can do as it wills," he added. Judge Abdel Rahman responded: "Your lawyers were informed of the hearing and they chose not to come, despite the fact that they have billions of dollars and sit in a neighbouring country, where they incite violence." Most of Saddam Hussein's legal team is based in the Jordanian capital, Amman. The trial, which began in Baghdad last October, is in its closing stages. Prosecutors will be summing up their case after the defence summation procedure comes to an end." <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5217698.stm">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...217698.stm</a> Sorry I can't post the pic now, someone's nicked my photobucket. It's on the link. Caption "The ex-leader appeared to enjoy at least some of the day's proceedings"

by **Mentalgongfu** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:55 am

This Guardian version puts it in a different light. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1831097,00.html">meanwhile in Iraq</a> Saddam asks to be shot, not 'hanged like a criminal' · Trial resumes after hunger strike over lawyers' deaths · Ousted dictator calls on Iraqis to fight Americans Julian Borger in Washington Thursday July 27, 2006 The Guardian Saddam Hussein asked yesterday to be executed by firing squad, not hanged "like a criminal", if he is sentenced to death by an Iraqi court hearing charges of mass murder against him. Saddam made the plea at his first court appearance since ending an 18-day hunger strike. Clutching the Qu'ran, he seemed thinner as he appeared before chief judge Raouf Abdul Rahman. His voice was weaker but he was as combative as ever. "I was brought against my will directly from the hospital," the 69-year-old said. "The Americans insisted that I come against my will. This is not fair." Saddam and seven former officials from his regime have been on trial since last October for the torture and killing of 148 people, including women and children, in the Shia town of Dujail in 1982 in retaliation for an assassination attempt. He was represented yesterday by a court-appointed lawyer, who refused to be filmed and spoke through a microphone that made his voice unrecognisable. Saddam condemned him as an "enemy of the people". "Half my lawyers were killed," he told the judge. "Is it too much for you to protect them?" Saddam's legal team is boycotting the trial until they are given better protection, after three defence lawyers were killed. The latest to be assassinated, Khamis al-Obeidi, was taken from his home in a Sunni neighbourhood by men in police uniforms last month and found shot dead near Baghdad's Shia district of Sadr City. His colleagues blamed Shia death squads in the interior ministry for the killing. Baghdad is rapidly being engulfed by sectarian killings, prompting the announcement on Tuesday by George Bush and the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, of the deployment of Iraqi and US reinforcements. As Mr Maliki presented the plan to Congress yesterday, news came from Baghdad that 17 people, including two children, had been abducted by gunmen in police uniforms from a building in Baghdad. With the trial nearing its end, he declared: "Remember that Saddam Hussein is a military man. If sentenced, it should be with a firing squad, not hanging like a criminal." After taking power, Saddam put himself at the head of the army, but he never served as a regular soldier. He used yesterday's court appearance to urge Iraqi insurgents to drive US-led occupying forces out of the country. In a bitter exchange, the judge countered that the guerrillas were mostly killing Iraqis. "If it is true you have fighters, make them attack the American camps not public places, markets and cafes. "Tell them not to blow themselves up, to blow up the Americans," Judge Rahman said. Saddam replied: "I call for Iraqis to stand together and to forgive each other, but against the enemy, I call on them to fight, to kill Americans." He began a hunger strike earlier this month as a protest against what he insists is an illegitimate tribunal, and claimed yesterday to have been force fed "through my nose to my stomach". He is due to face a second trial next month on charges of genocide against Iraqi Kurds.

by **Seamus OBlimey** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:40 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>"If it is true you have fighters, make them attack the American camps not public places, markets and cafes. Tell them not to blow themselves up, to blow up the Americans," Judge Rahman said.<hr></blockquote> Thanks Mental, maybe that explains the mirth. I was wondering more of medical mishaps a la Arafat, Sharon, Milosevic. Any similarities? I know <blockquote>Quote:<hr>You're old and you're ill and you're soon gonna die You've nothing to lose as you fill up the sky<hr></blockquote> <a href="http://www.southern.net/southern/label/CRC/">Crass</a> But are these guys so propped up by drugs that their condition depends on a doctor, or even a medical team? Should they be allowed to drive a car, never mind a country? Or are they high enough in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy">hierarchy</a> to be whisked away to their garden of delights when the shit really hits the fan? Or both? Oh and 'Smile in the face of evil and dance' is a Moonflowers song that sprung to mind when I saw that pic.

Saddam smiles in the face of evil

Saddam smiles in the face of evil

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