I think it's odd the media is quiet about hanging Saddam.

[Smarmie Doofus]

The attached is from today's NY Times, well buried as an appendage to a related Hussein story on p.16. No other sign of any media interest in legal efforts to keep Saddam from the gallows... but Yahoo has room for a headline about 4 anorexia deaths in Brazil.

So what's the plan.... get him into the ground ASAP? Especially before he has a chance to testify at the Kurd genocide trial?

Really, you'd think that this legal end-around thru the American court system might be worth a split-second or two on broadcast news.

Oh... be sure to read on for Judge Walton's quote. Truly a candidate for Esquire's Dubious Acievement Awards for 2006 ...if they still bestow them.







In Washington on Wednesday, a District Court judge refused to intervene in the death-penalty case for Mr. Hussein, turning down a request by American defense lawyers to temporarily block the execution. Lawyers for Awad al-Bandar, a former Iraqi judge sentenced to death along with Mr. Hussein, had filed a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf in United States District Court seeking to halt the execution on the grounds that he did not receive a fair trial.

The lawyers, including Ramsey Clark, the former United States attorney general who served on the defense team in the Baghdad trial, maintained that the federal court had jurisdiction because Mr. Bandar was effectively being held in American military custody in Iraq.

The judge, Reggie B. Walton, rejected the claim, saying he did not have jurisdiction. But he did allow the defense lawyers to appeal the issue in hopes of persuading the American courts to intervene.

Noting that the Iraqis had set up the tribunals by which Mr. Hussein and Mr. Bandar were tried, Judge Walton asked, “Why should I step in and interfere with the operations of a sovereign nation?”

Mr. Clark said in an interview that he had filed the petition at the request of Mr. Bandar’s son after Mr. Hussein refused to allow him to do so. In a conversation in Iraq at the time of Mr. Hussein’s sentencing last month, Mr. Clark said he tried to persuade the deposed leader to appeal to the American courts to block the execution. “He said it would be interpreted as his seeking mercy from the United States,” Mr. Clark said, “and he would never permit it.”
« Previous Page

* 1
* 2

Iraqi employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Najaf, and Suevon Lee from Washington.

[hlthe2b]

1. hoping to build anticipation...

for sweeps week? :eyes:

[itsmesgd]

2. CNN is calling it a "developing story"

They have a new graphic already on tv for the pending execution, The correspondents are all inside the greenzone, and they are all cleaning up their appearance and attire to look their best when they break the news.