World hide and seek championship over!

[Proudhuff]

Am I the only one who thinks Slobby was tried in Holland because he couldn't involve the western/CIA sevices in his defence? Where as old Saddam has some nice info on where he got his WMD, who okayed his genocide etc and who backed him over the last 20 years as a bulwark against Islam. Hence tried in-country where these questions will not be asked?

no wonder Toni and Dode show want him deed asap...

[The Amstor Computer]

I've read quite a few suggestions that Saddam Hussein may not get to trial - the "Iraqi Jack Ruby" hypothesis.

I'm hoping for a full, fair & open trial, held in Iraq with international support & assistance. No-one should be protected - whether it's the former & current US administration, French prime ministers or IGC members - and the bastard should be given a fair hearing.

I doubt we'll get it, though. Too many people have too many things to hide, and an open account of Saddam Hussein's reign isn't going to be high on their agenda.

[Richmond Clements]

And now we have Jack Straw warning us that Saddam is not capaable of telling the truth... now why would he be trying to get us all to believe that?

[Proudhuff]

Well he lied about those WMD, he said he had them and could use em, blow me, 250 days later nuffink,
pants on fire I say

[Dudley]

There will not be any form of international justice practised here.  The occuping force, the US, has invoked the Geneva Convention on prisoner's rights, but is not a signatory to the International Court and has refused to allow the UN any influence.  Most likely outcome is a fair-ish and open trial in Iraq (Saddam Hussein being tried, ironically enough, by judges he himself appointed), followed by a public hanging or exection by firing squad under Saddam's own laws.

The US & the UK should succeed in keeping all questions about who supported the original Ba'athist coup and armed it for 20 years, as the trial will focus on only the murderous aspects of the Ba'athist regime.

So to summarise: fair-ish trial, guaranteed death.  I don't support it, but it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

[The Amstor Computer]

"Most likely outcome is a fair-ish and open trial in Iraq (Saddam Hussein being tried, ironically enough, by judges he himself appointed), followed by a public hanging or exection by firing squad under Saddam's own laws."

Not sure about this, but I was under the impression that the legal system in Iraq wasn't in any state to conduct even a reasonably fair trial.

Saddam Hussein's capture *should* be a good thing for Iraq, but given the record of the US administration during the war so far, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they fucked this up. Fingers crossed that they don't.

I still worry that this is going to be a sideshow & that his capture is going to have little effect on the ongoing guerilla actions. There may be elements who were fighting for him (though pretty obviously not directed by him) who are going to be weakened by this, but the nationalists and the foreign fighters may well be given a boost by his capture. The worst-case scenario would be to have the more militant groups among the Shi'ite population enter the fray, free from the fear of Saddam's return.

[Noisybast]

More of Wagner's eerie predictions, eh?

"Prominent foreign terrorist-type meets his end in preordained western show trial"http://www.2000adonline.com/covers/2000ad/mediumres/1336.jpg">

[MIKE COLLINS]

.. and some guy in the US agrees with you...
http://www.geocities.com/dobiedog_1/saddam.jpg">

[Krustabi]

Let's all grow Saddam style beards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Queen Firey-Bou]

so do we think it should be a world trial or one for the Iraqi people to decide? ( not that we or thay will get any say in the matter, ys dubya ys sir anything you say sir)

"ah said president buuush sends his regaaards"

wanker.

[Dudley]

But how impressive of Saddam to learn English (which he didn't speak previously IIRC) while he was down the hole!  Or even better how clever of the Americans to use the one US Army private with that sort of command of Arabic to lead the arrest team!!

...Dudley

[Floyd-the-k]

Dudley puts it well - couldn`t happen to a nicer guy.  As well as his various crimes, he could be tried for:
 - being anti-American and in posession of oil
 - being as bad as the governments of China, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Burma but much easier to get at
  - being something effective to do after Afghanistan
  - being easier to find than Osama bin Laden
...........and so on.  NOw we are going to hear a lot about how awful he was, how many people he tortured etc.  If he had done what the US wanted him to as far as inspections go, they would have been happy for him to still be torturing them.
  ho hum,

Floyd

[Dudley]

Yeah, I get all of that side of it, protested fairly vocally against the war, am going to change my vote because of it, etc.  But surely it's important for opponents to the war to try to hold both thoughts in their heads at the same time, to whit:
1) Saddam is an evil, torturing megabastard who was far worse than he needed to be simply because he's an evil, torturing megabastard
2) That doesn't mean our Prime Minister had the right to rip up international treaties and obligations, undermine the UN, lie, lie, and lie again, break human rights legislation and fan the flames of anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world that were set alight by British actions more than 90 years ago...draws breath, sense I'm losing audience

...Dudley

[Slippery PD]

Yeah you might lose your audience....

Thing is that neither side of the international community comes out of this with their innocence showing.

USA, UK, Australia et al, have all been duplicitous regarding Saddam.  They have turned a blind eye to his evil and his torture chambers as long as he was on their side.  As soon as he became a percieved threat to their safety and oil, the gloves came off.  I think the US handling of the peace has been particularly suspect.  No contracts for non coalition countries???  Using the oil revenues to fund the war effort???  All against international war laws....

However, Germany, France et al can hardly come out of it wearing angels wings.  The French in particular, were protecting their own business interests in Iraq (dont believe for a second that theres some altruistic motive behind this), Chiraq has gone out of his way to butter up Saddam and keep money in the State propping up his regime.  The same can probably be said for Russia as well, both of whom have a vote on the security council, making the law against Iraq unlikely to be ratified there.

Personally, the hyporacy thats been shown by all members of the western international community has been awful.  The Arab nations themselves can hardly hold themselves up as paragon either, many of them supporting certian terrorist activities or funding extreme fundamentalist Muslim sects to distract from their own internal strife (....stand up Saudi Arabia....), many of whom are no less dictators than Saddam.....

One thing for certain is that the international community is fractured and split, its going to take some huge diplomatic efforts to heal a lot of these wounds.

Yer "Rambling on too much" Slips


 

[Mr C]

Looks like the Americans don't want Saddam to face an international trial. They want him to facea nice homebrewed kangaroo court where the chances of his coming out not guilty are lessend dramatically. Bush did go on the record yesterday to say that he wanted Saddam dead.

Anyway, if Saddam was to face international justice, he could call people that personally sold him weapons during his rise to power, people like Donald Rumsfled and Jacques Chirac, both of whom are seen in films, meeting  and shaking the ex-tyrants hand with big shit eating grins on their faces. Could be slighlty embarassing.

Anyway, at least Bush Snr has a nice Christmas present now.