"Chemical Ali" Gets 4th Death Sentence

[Soylent Brice]

Saddam Hussein's Cousin Convicted of Ordering the Gassing of More Than 5,000 Kurds in 1988

(AP) Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging on Sunday for ordering the gassing of Kurds in 1988, killing more than 5,000 in an air raid thought to be the worst single attack of its kind on civilians.

It was Ali Hassan al-Majid's fourth death sentence for crimes against humanity in Iraq. The previous three have not been carried out, in part because survivors of the poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja wanted to have their case against al-Majid heard.

Relatives of Halabja victims cheered in the courtroom when chief judge Aboud Mustafa handed down the guilty verdict against al-Majid, one of the chief architects of Saddam's repression.

Nazik Tawfiq, a 45-year-old Kurdish woman who said she lost six relatives in the attack, fell to her knees upon hearing the verdict to offer a prayer of thanks.

more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/17/world/main6107641.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

of course there's no mention of it in this article, but you might remember that this had a little to do with it...

U.S. And Iraq Go Way Back
Report: Documents Show Cozy Relationship During Iran-Iraq War

(CBS) Newly released documents show that U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, played a leading role in building up Iraq's military in the 1980s when Iraq was using chemical weapons, a newspaper reports.

It was Rumsfeld, now defense secretary and then a special presidential envoy, whose December 1983 meeting with Saddam Hussein led to the normalization of ties between Washington and Baghdad, according to the Washington Post.

The newspaper says a review of a large tranche of government documents reveals that the administrations of President Reagan and the first President Bush both authorized providing Iraq with intelligence and logistical support, and okayed the sale of dual use items — those with military and civilian applications — that included chemicals and germs, even anthrax and bubonic plague.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/31/world/main534798.shtml

it'd be nice to see rummy et.al, to get handed a nifty sentence like this.

[Enrique]

1. we already killed him in battle a number of times

now they're going to execute him four more times?

[lapfog_1]

2. I was just going to add

the same sentiment you added at the end.

Be nice if we could convict the people that SOLD the chemical weapons to them and hand out a similar sentence.

[Soylent Brice]

5. indeed, but i'm of the mind that may never happen, unfortunately.

either people don't care, or they accept behavior such as this from those that are in charge (by choice or indirectly through apathy).

[Generic Brad]

3. Four death sentences sounds like overkill

One should get the job done.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Maybe he has a magic whistle, like Tony in the Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus

just swallow the whistle before they hang you, and you can be executed over and over without dying.