Saddam's VP To Be Hanged

AP: "An Iraqi court on Monday raised the sentence against Saddam Hussein's vice president to death by hanging for the killings of Shiites in the town of Dujail."

Mark one down for the good guys.

MSM Apparently Forgot Saddam/Osama Link

Curt over at Flopping Aces has a great post on the media's whitewash of the Saddam/Osama connection - how they talked about it before the War, how the Dems believed it, etc. He includes this video from 1999 (via Powerline), an "ABC news report which details all the connections between Saddam and Osama:"



Curt also compiles a little reminder of the Dems' prewar feelings on the Saddam/Osama connection:

We have solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida going back a decade.
- George Tenet 2002

there was that relationship that went from opposing each other to not opposing each other to possibly working with each other.
- Patrick Fitzgerald 2004

Certainly there's a connection between Iraq and al Qaeda
- General Wesley Clarke 2002

In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.
- Sen. Hillary Clinton 2002

Read the whole post; it has far more information than I could shamelessly steal.

NYT Editorial: "Who will hang George Bush?"

From Media Blog:

NYT Edits Out Op-Ed's Final Line: "Who Will Hang George W. Bush"

Michael Moynihan, a friend of mine who works at the Swedish think tank Timbro, sends along this item:

A story you might be interested in: The New York Times published an editorial a week or so ago by Slovenian Marxist Slavoj Zizek ostensibly on the Saddam execution. It was a typically muddled affair, pieced together from earlier Zizek screeds. But it seems that the Times (and the IHT, whose op-ed editor Serge Schmemann told me that he hadn’t seen the original) edited out Zizek’s final sentence, which was published unexpurgated in both Sweden (Aftonbladet) and Spain (El Pais). And what was the offending line? “Which is another reason to ask: Who will hang George Bush?”

You can find the El Pais version reprinted on a number of Spanish-language anti-war web sites. Just search Slavoj Zizek and "¿Quién ahorcará a George W. Bush?"

I like how the New York Times sees nothing wrong with publishing these nutty rants, so long as a generous dose of white-out is applied to anything that might tip off readers to their true nuttiness.

Congratulations, NYT, for only publishing news and opinions with "integrity."

Chuck Rangel - Saddam's Execution Was a Lynching

Oops. I almost forgot. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day everyone. Of course, everyone in my state is pissed off that public schools have class today - the logical argument that the PSs are pressing here is that if kids have the day off they're not going to do anything to further their knowledge of King, whereas if they're in school they can be indoctrinated.

In honor of MLK, Chuck Rangel was on Fox News and called Saddam's hanging a lynching. Good form Chuck. The video and some good commentary can be found on Hot Air, here.

Meanwhile, In Bahgdad

Two more bad guys, dead in Iraq:

Saddam's Half Brother and Revolutionary Court Chief Hanged

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court were hanged before dawn Monday, Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said, two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was executed in a chaotic scene that has drawn worldwide criticism.

Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, had been found guilty along with Saddam of in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad.

"They (government) called us before dawn and told us to send someone. I sent a judge to witness the execution and it happened," al-Faroon said.

Two officials in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, confirmed that the hangings took place around 6 a.m. local time.

The executions reportedly occurred in the same Saddam-era military intelligence headquarters building in north Baghdad where the former leader was hanged two days before the end of 2006, according to an Iraqi general, who would not allow use of his name because he was not authorized to release the information. The building is located in the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

The two men were to have been hanged along with Saddam on Dec. 30, but Iraqi authorities decided to execute Saddam alone on what National Security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie called a "special day."

Last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the government to delay the executions.

"In my opinion we should wait," Talabani said Wednesday at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. "We should examine the situation," he said without elaborating.

Saddam's execution became an unruly scene that brought worldwide criticism of the Iraqi government. Video of the execution, recorded on a cell phone camera, showed the former dictator being taunted on the gallows.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that Khalilzad asked him to delay Saddam's execution for 10 days to two weeks, but added that Iraqi officials rejected the demand.

A lawyer for the two men told The Associated Press recently that they were taken from their cells and told they were going to be hanged on the same day Saddam was executed.

Issam Ghazawi, a member of Saddam's defense team for the past two years, said he met individually with Ibrahim and al-Bandar recently, and that Ibrahim told him they were escorted from their cells and told they were also going to be executed.

"The Americans took me and al-Bandar from our cells on the same day of Saddam's execution to an office inside the prison at 1 a.m. They asked us to collect our belongings because they intend to execute us at dawn," Ibrahim reportedly said.

He said the two men were also told to write their wills.

Al-Bandar and Ibrahim were taken back to their prison cells nearly nine hours later, according to Ghazawi.

"Their execution should be commuted under such circumstances because of the psychological pain they endured as they waited to hang," he said.

Ghazawi quoted as Al-Bandar as saying he "wished to have been executed with President Saddam." Ibrahim, the lawyer said, "was in the worst condition. He kept crying over the death of his brother and said it was a great loss for the family and the Arab world."

After Saddam's execution but before Ibrahim and al-Bandar's, Human Rights Watch released a report calling the speedy trial and subsequent hanging of Saddam proof of the new Iraqi government's disregard for human rights.

"The tribunal repeatedly showed its disregard for the fundamental due process rights of all of the defendants," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.

I still can't believe that they mocked Saddam before hanging him. What barbarians. Someone should ask this guy what he thinks about the brutality of making fun of Saddam before his execution (I don't want to call this video graphic, but horrible comes to mind):



*** Update - Jan. 15, 9:54 am ***

For idiots out there, that video is a man being tortured by Saddam's thugs back during his reign. I didn't think I had to label it.

Saddam Fluff Piece: He Was Sooooo Brave!

Here's a horrible fluff piece (via, al-Reuters) about how composed Saddam was in the face of his vengeful execution: turning down tranquilizers, offering a Cuban cigar to a US guard, and upping his exercises routine. Why one would bother being in shape moments before their soul was ripped from their body, unrecognizably charred, and destroyed as chaff before a gale in Hell, I can't figure out?

Charges Dropped Against Dead Saddam

Saddam may be dead (hanged for his killing of 148 Shites), but his co-conspirators are still on trial for the genocide of 180,000 Kurds. Iraqi court reconvened and dropped all murder and genocide charges against Saddam (since he's dead), but there are still men who need to be brought to justice, including Saddam's cousin, "Chemical Ali," for the genocide of hundreds of thousands of people.

Of course, the story wouldn't be complete without mention of Saddam's "chaotic" execution that has "drawn global criticism." Boo-hoo.

Hanged in a "more dignified way"

Reports al-Reuters:

President Bush said Saddam Hussein could have been hanged in a "more dignified way" and one his closest Arab allies said on Friday a video of Shi'ite officials taunting him on the gallows was "barbaric".

Apparently killing someone in a "dignified way" without being "barbaric" looks like this:















In case your curious that's a dead Kurdish woman and her dead baby after Saddam had them gassed.

Saddam's hanging could have been more "dignified," but seeing as he's now in eternal Hell, I think being taunted by his executioners is the least of his worries.