Headlines Handcuffed in His Former Palace, Saddam Defiant

[voiceofreason]

BAGHDAD - He arrived handcuffed and in chains at a courtroom in a complex that was once one of his palaces. But although Saddam Hussein has been overthrown and captured, he had not lost his defiance.

"I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq," he told a hearing where he was read seven charges, according to pool reporters in the courtroom at Camp Victory, a sprawling U.S. base that was previously a lavish hunting estate with a man-made lake.

His trial is in his former palace. What a slap in the face! Classic...

 

[tzedek]

quite a slap in the face. lol kinda funny how he still thinks he is the president of Iraq.

 

[morelos]

quite a slap in the face. lol kinda funny how he still thinks he is the president of Iraq.

he is.

we call bill clinton "mr president" and we always refer to ex-presidents as presidents.

honestly, i think it's ridiculous to make a circus out of this. saddam hussein should just be exiled if they want to rebuild a country without him. he didn't break the rules in the 1980s and 1990s because he had legal authority to make and change them as he went along.

it would be like arresting former slave-owners, were any alive, and charging them of things now considered crimes in america which weren't crimes then.

it's bullshit to kill yet ANOTHER person in the name of "freedom." when you take away lives, you take away rights; doing so in an organized fashion is just one MORE way to fuck people over and demonstrate to them that they are anything but free.

so now iraq has a new oppressor: the US. big whoop.

 

[voiceofreason]

he is.

we call bill clinton "mr president" and we always refer to ex-presidents as presidents.

honestly, i think it's ridiculous to make a circus out of this. saddam hussein should just be exiled if they want to rebuild a country without him. he didn't break the rules in the 1980s and 1990s because he had legal authority to make and change them as he went along.

it would be like arresting former slave-owners, were any alive, and charging them of things now considered crimes in america which weren't crimes then.

it's bullshit to kill yet ANOTHER person in the name of "freedom." when you take away lives, you take away rights; doing so in an organized fashion is just one MORE way to fuck people over and demonstrate to them that they are anything but free.

so now iraq has a new oppressor: the US. big whoop.

We "ABSOLUTELY" should not have gone in to "get um" for George, but you've got to admit the finger waging is pretty funny coming from a guy who may be beheaded soon.

He is out to lunch...

 

[tzedek]

i dont think that they use beheadings for punishment.... i may be wrong. i read a while ago that he may be hung tho. morelos - i have a question. im not trying to be disrespectful or anything like that but you said that they are making a circus out of this. how so? as far as i see he is having a fair trial.

 

[morelos]

i dont think that they use beheadings for punishment.... i may be wrong. i read a while ago that he may be hung tho. morelos - i have a question. im not trying to be disrespectful or anything like that but you said that they are making a circus out of this. how so? as far as i see he is having a fair trial.

he is? as far as you see? you must be very near-sighted, or you're just not looking in the right direction.

he does not have access to the witnesses of his choice. he is being tried under supervision of a government put together by the united states and comprised entirely of his enemies (good choice, george). his defense team has already been complaining of insufficient access to their client. they claim he is under 'iraqi legal custody' but that clearly means nothing as he is being held in a "secret, US-led coalition facility" and his food, shelter, and even clothing are the responsibility of the united states.

it's been made into a spectacle because things like the quote i gave you before are making it onto news broadcasts. anyone can make up a lie and once they say it on the radio 50% of the people who hear it believe it, 40% don't care and less than 10% try to verify it if it sounds suspicious.

follow the trial on the bbc whenever you can; the bbc will give you information with less (but still formidable) pro-american bias. if they wanted to make it a fair trial, they would insist on waiting until iraq's interim government had been replaced with an elected body, and THEN charge and try mr. hussein.

so those are just the ones i could come up with off the top of my head. i'm sure i could research and find you more information if you're interested. but you could, too. i didn't take your comment as an attack anyway, but it does make me worry that you're not looking hard enough or skeptically enough at the media coverage.

now, on a side note:

when asked about some of the mass gas attacks on kurds, saddam said, "i was not aware of it when it happened and i did not order it." people are LIVID about this. they want to see hussein hang from a high tree.

my response is to remind them that defense secretary donald rumsfeld said the EXACT FUCKING SAME THING about the criminal abuse of iraqi civilian prisoners by the US military. why does it fly for rummy but not for hussein?

as long as you can prevent your reality from interacting with those of others, your reality can be whatever the fuck you choose to believe it is.

~ dan ~

 

[voiceofreason]

he is? as far as you see? you must be very near-sighted, or you're just not looking in the right direction.

he does not have access to the witnesses of his choice. he is being tried under supervision of a government put together by the united states and comprised entirely of his enemies (good choice, george). his defense team has already been complaining of insufficient access to their client. they claim he is under 'iraqi legal custody' but that clearly means nothing as he is being held in a "secret, US-led coalition facility" and his food, shelter, and even clothing are the responsibility of the united states.

it's been made into a spectacle because things like the quote i gave you before are making it onto news broadcasts. anyone can make up a lie and once they say it on the radio 50% of the people who hear it believe it, 40% don't care and less than 10% try to verify it if it sounds suspicious.

follow the trial on the bbc whenever you can; the bbc will give you information with less (but still formidable) pro-american bias. if they wanted to make it a fair trial, they would insist on waiting until iraq's interim government had been replaced with an elected body, and THEN charge and try mr. hussein.

so those are just the ones i could come up with off the top of my head. i'm sure i could research and find you more information if you're interested. but you could, too. i didn't take your comment as an attack anyway, but it does make me worry that you're not looking hard enough or skeptically enough at the media coverage.

now, on a side note:

when asked about some of the mass gas attacks on kurds, saddam said, "i was not aware of it when it happened and i did not order it." people are LIVID about this. they want to see hussein hang from a high tree.

my response is to remind them that defense secretary donald rumsfeld said the EXACT FUCKING SAME THING about the criminal abuse of iraqi civilian prisoners by the US military. why does it fly for rummy but not for hussein?

as long as you can prevent your reality from interacting with those of others, your reality can be whatever the fuck you choose to believe it is.

~ dan ~

Morelos,

Hello it's Iraq... He is being tried by his people in his court system. Why are you dinging their legal system? I thought you wanted to leave them alone?

How would having an "elected body" change the course of his trial?

Do you know you're bending over backwards to look protect a mass murderer? There is no question that he did these things to the people of Iraq. Are you thinking it was all just a big understanding?

Did you do this for Jeffrey Dahlmer? Because he was a rookie in comparison...

 

[morelos]

Morelos,

Hello it's Iraq... He is being tried by his people in his court system. Why are you dinging their legal system? I thought you wanted to leave them alone?

How would having an "elected body" change the course of his trial?

Do you know you're bending over backwards to look protect a mass murderer? There is no question that he did these things to the people of Iraq. Are you thinking it was all just a big understanding?

Did you do this for Jeffrey Dahlmer? Because he was a rookie in comparison...

hold it, cowboy, and don't get so impassioned right away. as you've pointed out before, i usually have a point.

he's not being tried by his people in his court system. the entire iraqi legislative and judiciary systems have been rewritten by an APPOINTED "constitutional congress" in the shadow of our own. and the leaders trying him are, and i will REPEAT THIS, also appointed by the united states.

waiting until an elected government were running iraq to try him would mean that a real, representative body of individuals would have their say over both the trial and the legal system's response. to me, that seems much more fair.

and yes, even a dictator like saddam hussein deserves a fair, legal trial. how can you have any faith in the system if it's not applied, double-blind, in every case?

~ dan ~

and i'm not protecting saddam hussein. pit our mass murderer vs their mass murderer, and i'll root for the underdog every time; integrity, honesty, and decency are already out the window. and their guy is much smarter.