Iraqi leaders weigh Saddam execution (MSNBC)

[MrCoffee]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The official witnesses to Saddam Hussein’s impending execution gathered Friday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime’s atrocities.

The Iraqi government readied all the necessary documents, including a “red card” — an execution order introduced during Saddam’s dictatorship.

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saddam would be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, or 10 p.m. Friday ET. The time was agreed upon during a meeting between U.S. and Iraqi officials, said the adviser, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Edited because i forgot the link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/

[Missy M]

1. It's really something that this Iraqi government, with help from the US...

is doing the same type of atrocity they accuse Saddam of, including using a "red card" introduced by Saddam.

[MrCoffee]

3. that jumped out at me too...the red card and the Green Zone

it's almost farcical, if it weren't so sick.

[high density]

6. Yeah, this seems really strange/hypocritical to me

I don't give two shits about Saddam Hussein, and yes he's a horrible person, but this entire process has been so fake and staged. So many billions of dollars and thousands of lives just for this moment... It makes me sick to think about it.

[MrCoffee]

7. good thing Chimpy bought himself some time to plan

it'll be such a stroke-fest over Saddam's corpse that we won't mind an extra 50,000 or so troops being deployed.

[high density]

8. I haven't turned on TV 'news' much since the election

But I can certainly imagine the circle jerk that is and will be going on over this.

[daleo]

2. The execution will be in the Green Zone, on a highly symbolic date

"Earlier reports said al-Maliki feared fueling religious tensions if Saddam were executed during Eid, a Muslim holiday that starts Saturday.

An execution during Eid would be highly symbolic. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son and many Shiites could regard Saddam’s death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, who are resentful of new Shiite power."

A bit more about U.S. military involvment in the execution:

"The U.S. State Department denied comments from Saddam’s chief defense lawyer and Iraqi state television that U.S. forces had already handed the former president over for execution.

But whatever the case, formal custody may not be very significant since U.S. troops seem likely to remain on hand to the end as Washington is concerned the process goes smoothly.

One senior Iraqi government official told Reuters that U.S. troops would hand Saddam over only “when he climbs the gallows.” Saddam has been held at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport, but the place of execution has been kept secret."

[burrowowl]

4. River Bend also weighs it in her latest

post:

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

[PDittie]

5. Before 10 pm EST

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saddam would be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, or 10 p.m. Friday EST. Also to be hanged at that time were Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, the adviser said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saddam_12

[Eugene]

9. Pentagon: U.S. Forces on High Alert (AP)

The earlier AP headline was: Pentagon: US Forces Ready for Violence

Pentagon: U.S. Forces on High Alert

By LOLITA C. BALDOR
The Associated Press
Friday, December 29, 2006; 6:28 PM

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon said Friday that U.S. fighting forces in Iraq are ready
for any escalation of violence there _ even as condemned former President Saddam
Hussein waged an 11th-hour appeal in American courts to spare his life.

"U.S. forces in Iraq are obviously at a high state of alert anytime because of the
environment that they operate in and because of the current security situation,"
said spokesman Bryan Whitman, in advance of an appeal filed here on Saddam's
behalf by his lawyers.

Whitman said U.S. forces will "obviously take into account social dimensions that
could potentially led to an increase in violence which certainly would include
carrying out the sentence of Saddam Hussein."

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122900686.html

[Warren Stupidity]

10. "the adviser, who declined to be named"

because he knows that any Iraqi associated with this farce is soon going to be dead, his family is soon going to be dead, his friends are likely to soon be dead.

"Oh look a civil war, let's add some more fuel" - the Dumbass New Direction In Iraq.

[madeline_con]

11. "... he is not authorized to speak to the media. "

How conveniant.

[superconnected]

12. I fully expect to be able to click on the video and watch it

on every newspapers website by tomorrow morning.

Of course I won't watch it though.

Everyone will just be able to. And then, oh yeah, it becomes normal to watch executions that the us public should support.

[superconnected]

13. Hey the new, American acceptance of public executions, stance,

will go hand and hand with the voting machine fraud that steals the presidential election and the new rules that come in! We really well be a Christian taliban. 1 year.