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Saddam verdict lacks details

The final court session and verdict today were fast, direct and clear, but not clear at all.

In less than 10 minutes, Saddam Hussein was told he was guilty of crimes against humanity, but never exactly how or why.

Was it the witness testimony that proved Saddam's guilt?

Was it Saddam’s own acceptance in court of overall responsibility for the draconian punishment his regime carried out of the villagers of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt in the town?  Was it documents the prosecution said Saddam signed ordering the deaths of Dujail residents that ultimately swayed the judges?  We still do not know.
   
The full verdict, a document of several hundred pages, explaining how and why today’s judgment was reached was not released.  U.S. officials said it should be ready by Thursday.  So why issue the verdict today?  U.S. court advisors told reporters today it was delayed mainly for technical reasons.  All insist the verdict was not politically timed and that it was an Iraqi decision; there is no reason to doubt their word.
 
The furthest the chief judge went today to explain why Saddam was sentenced to death was to say Saddam was found guilty of Article 12 A, through Article 15 B, of the Iraqi High Criminal Court Law (the tribunal trying Saddam's constitution).  All that means, examining at the law, is that Saddam was guilty of "willful murder" because he had  "ordered, solicited or induced the commission of such a crime, which in fact occurs or is attempted." Saddam Hussein was found guilty of ordering murders.  Who he murdered, how, when and what proved his guilt, we are told, will be explained on Thursday.
 
It was not sufficient for the International Center for Transitional Justice, an NGO that has been monitoring the trial since the beginning.  In a statement tonight the group said, "Today's verdicts were delivered in a 40-minute session that gave little indication of the judgment's detail and reasoning." 
 
On the “Today” Show this morning Michael Scharf, one of the leading experts on the Saddam trial, said the Dujail case was easy to prove and that his guilt was clear.  I believe Scharf is correct.  There was an assassination attempt on Saddam in 1982 and the Iraqi dictator oversaw a massive revenge campaign, even awarding medals to some of his henchmen for punishing his enemies and their families and neighbors.  But the lack of clarity today adds fuels to critics who say Saddam's trial was politically motivated and that the verdict was rushed to meet American political deadlines -- the very accusation Saddam Hussein's lawyer made today.

Saddam was almost certainly guilty, but why? It's still unclear.

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122 COMMENTS

OK now that Saddam is going to swing what is going to happen to Bush, Cheaney and Rumsfield for committing similar crimes?

The one image that never seems to go away, is the one of the Kurdish Dad with his baby in his arms.Both dead...
That to me was very clear

No reason to doubt their word? That seems a little naive to me. If the sentence won't be ready until Thursday, why not wait until Thursday to announce it?

Richard, you're more pawn than professional.

Saddam Hussain the lost leader has been sentenced to death.The details of the trial has not been released because of some technical difficulty.The US officials demand the papers by thursday.There are three days in between.Is it for overcoming the technical problems or for manupulations? Do we still need to say it was not politically motivated?

However guilty Sadaam is, it'll always be tainted by the 2 judges that were removed before hand. Which basically means... There was no democracy here. Why hold a trial?

>So why issue the verdict today?

Easy: Because Karl Rove said so (US Midterm elections).

Of course it was politics, the war itself was politics.
When 9/11 happened Americans were saddened with the exception of Karl Rove who was elated, terrorism would scare more people than communism.
It boils down to this was it worth 3,000 american soldiers lives to get rid of Saddam and start a civil war in Iraq.

treason,mutiny.assasination attemt on the head of the state is a grieviest offence -punishable with death sentence.
if any attemt of mutiny,treason/assasination attempt on any european/western head of the stae had occured-won`t they punish the guilty?
what is the big fuss if saddam hussain punished the traitors.why make him guilty of this act?

This is obviously politically motivated... even Homer Simpson could have tried and convicted him. The timing of the release of the verdict is just another republican 'coincidence'/attempt to save their collective butts.

...the big fuss is that revenge was carried out upon the innocent. Of course treason and attempted assasination is a capital crime, but so is mass murder.

THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS THAT A MAN GUILTY OF EXTREMELY HORRORIFIC CRIMES WILL BE SERVED THE JUSTICE THAT SO MANY OTHERS HANE NOT HAD.

So where is Osama bin Laden? You remember him,the real Terrorist Behind The 9-11 Attack on the US Now
don't you? And how many of you forgot that George W
Bush,Dick Cheney And The Bushies Lied About WMDs in
Iraq? Who Knows That Bush Used The WMD Lie so he
could carry out his personal vendetta against Saddam
Hussein,for as Bush claims,"Trying to kill My Daddy,
George H W Bush,"and now tell me you still trust
the Liar in Chief George W Bush? Face Reality Here
George W Bush,Dick Cheney,and Donald Rumsfeld as as
big of War Criminals as Saddam Hussein,and it was Bush who cut and run in Afghanistan,without getting
Osama bin Laden! Bush even closed the CIA Osama bin
Laden Unit! Still Trust Bush & The Republicans?

One soon-to be-dead dictator. More than 3000 dead American service members, more than 300,000 dead Iraqia. Somehow the equation just doesn't balance out.

You bleeding heart democrats sure have short memories!! Go back and look at who was in control of our government when we were atached by the Japanese in the begining of WW-2. Same-O Same-O When you say that the Republicans caused 9/11 you are just plain stupid with a big S.

Lets all go to the polls tomorrow and try to start the undoing of what " W " and his cohorts have done.

how many people have been killed by dictators nortured
by American govts why cerebrate suddams trial only.The
timing raises more questions that answers and the hullaballu on the compaign trails bears the whole testimonl.

Since the start of the Iraq conflict many US soldiers and Iraqi civilians have been murdered by suicide bombers. Does this suggest anything like perhaps these terrorists in Iraq have had some practice, and perhaps there was some link to the 911 guys, and just maybe disrupting their world is preventing further terrorism which is a good thing right? Is it at all possible?

Thankfully the most powerful nation can tackle multiple problems simultaneously, while continuing to producing results. All while tools like the author of this column feeds his children by stirring the pot of tofu stew for his congregation. Next..

Smells like we only brought the Iraqis 'Bush Democracy', where self-government doesn't 'count' unless the people of that nation elect someone who will bend-over and obey the US Gov't it seems. Bush trumpeted 'Freedom' and 'Democracy' as the cure to MidEast ills. A cure so powerful, it was worth the pain of the injection: the bungled Iraq occupation.
However, when a free democratic election was held in Palestine....that democracy is suddenly not good enough.

Bin Laden who wrote most of Bush's speeches is still writing them! Sadam, though a very bad man, never had a civil war and hundreds of thousands civilians blown up, nor suicide bombers, or terror in Iraq until Bush invited them there, (Bring Em on!) after designating the Iraqi country a terrorist battleground. God Bless America where we kill only for good and moral pursuits like injecting American values to an unwilling country. Bush's menace in Iraq has far exceeded Sadam's already but Bush did all for the American way so it's all good because it's the best bloodshed a trillion American dollars can buy! Not much has changed since we imposed our culture on the indigenous Americans a couple hundred years ago! At least we spent the trillion on a good cause like bullets and bombs instead of funding SSI or providing health care to 40 million adults and children.

Go "W"! Can we get the hanging on Pay-per-view?

Sheesh! The sad part isn't even whether or not the "Timing" of S.H.'s sentancing was intentional, but that so many of us have such serious doubts about the integrity of our leaders. Maybe we should find a new criteria for electing our officials. The present criteria that elects the person that trashes our airwaves with the most B.S. or our highways with the most paper signs (didn't Ladybird get littering made a crime), apparantly elects individuals with serious integrity problems!

Where was america when stories and pictures of dead babies craddled in their mothers arms? where we stood silent for over 20 years, why was the world silent and even supported Irak during the war against Iran, why do we have internatinal laws, like the tyrant of Yogoslavia, Sadam should be tried also in the Hague like every politician criminal before him, I like to see Sadam hang, but it should of being done in an INTERNATIONAL COURT, not by someone who has revenge in his eyes and blood dripping for his mouth like a vampire. It's a shame to play a game of politician to gain their own revenge and also have an agenda to benefit only themselves, while our young men and women are dying for a cause that was just based on lies and deceit. Lets look around if we want to play police of the world, and look Darfur Somalia or even the US of A, wher we killing each other for few Pennies. it's a shame to see this happening around us and we just turn a blind eye, and say to ourselves " well in did not happen to me"

Karl Rove believes the American people are happier watching football or Desperate Housewives than reading a book or newspaper and are, therefore, easily manipulated. Provide enough patriotic indignation and they will vote any way he tells them to vote. 9/11 may not have been planned by Cheney/Rumsfeld and their spokesman in the Oval Office, but it was certainly handy to provide that wave of patriotism. It made it easier to justify the Iraq war, which they had been planning since the day Clinton beat their previous spokesman.

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