Charges against saddam dropped

[Geggy]

huh interesting

Court Drops Charges Against Saddam (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070108/D8MH0V480.html)

Jan 8, 4:31 AM (ET)

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Saddam Hussein's trial for the killing of 180,000 Kurds in the 1980s resumed Monday with the late dictator's seat empty, nine days after he went to the gallows. The court's first order of business was to drop all charges against Saddam.

Six co-defendants still face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in a military campaign code-named Operation Anfal during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.

Shortly after the court reconvened Monday, a bailiff called out the names of the accused and the six men walked silently into the courtroom one after another.

Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa said the court decided to stop all legal action against the former president, since "the death of defendant Saddam was confirmed."

Saddam was sentenced to death for the killing of 148 Shiites and hanged on Dec. 30 in a chaotic execution that has drawn global criticism for the Shiite-dominated government.

All seven defendants in the Anfal case, including Saddam, had pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Saddam and one other man also pleaded innocent to the additional charge of genocide.

The six remaining defendants - all senior members of Saddam's ousted regime - include his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged use of chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds.

The other defendants are former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim al-Tai, who was the commander of Task Force Anfal and head of the Iraqi army 1st Corps; Sabir al-Douri, Saddam's military intelligence chief; Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, former governor of Mosul and head of the Northern Affairs Committee; Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces and Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office.

[Geggy]

i'm beginning to understand why the execution of saddam was so swift, because the US was involved in supplying weapons during the massacre of the kurds in the 80's and the hanging was possibly to silence him.

[El Blanco]

Silence him after parading him in front of cameras for a trial that went for several months after holding him for well over a year.

Ya, real swift. Tool.

[Grislygus]

I love how the fact that we gave weapons to Saddam is a big secret.

[sspadowsky]

This is all an elaborate ruse. I think they're going to re-animate him and put him back in power and then attack him again.

[El Blanco]

Weekend at Bernie's WWIII

[Abcdxxxx]

It's their version of impeaching a President and then pardoning him several years later. It's the whole "here's your honor through death, then we'll forgive you" code.

[Courage the Cowardly Dog]

Oh yeah to silence him from telling the world what they already know. Cause the guy who supplied the gun that Dick Cheney used to shoot his lawyer, HE is responsible and the man who killed hundreds of thousands of people IS TOTALLY INNOCENT!

BTW they aren't pardoning him they are merely not trying him cause he is already dead and it is a waste of time. They can't dig him up and hang him again.

dumbass.

[El Blanco]

That would actually be really cool. Although, you wouldn't get the satisfying snap out of his neck anymore.

[kahljorn]

My only question:

Are they pardoning anyone else or still charging them?

[Courage the Cowardly Dog]

My only question:

Are they pardoning anyone else or still charging them?

if you read the article everyone who is still alive is being charged.

[Geggy]

Think about it saddam pled innocent to the genocide of kurds and in the most fortunate time for the US politicans, he was executed just before he could present a case in attempt to prove his innocence. In any case now saddam cannot reveal any unwished parts of history during the media attended trials that could implicate the americans who supplied the weapons and order the attack on iran. Good thing al-maliki, the all new iraq dictator installed by the bush administration, rejected all demands to stop the swift execution so he can protect his US buddies.

[Abcdxxxx]

Saddam's innocence? WHAT INNOCENCE, YOU IMBECILE?

[Uncle_Sham]

he was hanged like this :lol :fart :hangman

[Grislygus]

Oh, yeah. All of those screaming tantrums he had in court? Just a diversion until proving his innocence was a sure thing. I thought everybody knew that.

How old is Geggy, anyway?

[Geggy]

Wait where did I say he was innocent?

[Uncle_Sham]

the title.

[kahljorn]

that was mostly a rhetorical question.

[DehydratedPorkMan]

All I gotta say is...
"Whoops."

[Courage the Cowardly Dog]

Think about it saddam pled innocent to the genocide of kurds and in the most fortunate time for the US politicans, he was executed just before he could present a case in attempt to prove his innocence. In any case now saddam cannot reveal any unwished parts of history during the media attended trials that could implicate the americans who supplied the weapons and order the attack on iran. Good thing al-maliki, the all new iraq dictator installed by the bush administration, rejected all demands to stop the swift execution so he can protect his US buddies.

That's where you said he was innocent.

[derrida]

actually, i couldn't find the verb to be anywhere in that passage, nor really anything else proclaiming innocence. care to diagram?

[kahljorn]

yea, me either, but I could definitley see geggy trying to pass the buck from sadam to the United States.

[Abcdxxxx]

"he was executed just before he could present a case in attempt to prove his innocence"

[ScruU2wice]

What did they execute him for if they're dropping the charges of the crime of genocide? I though that's why they hung him

[Grislygus]

They hung him for a single genocidal act, they're dropping charges for any other ones he may have committed.

[ScruU2wice]

oh.

[derrida]

The killing of 150 men and boys in Dujail wasn't a genocidal act. And they didn't charge him for genocide for it. The genocide charge (applied to Saddam's anti-Kurdish campaigns), was one of the charges that was dropped.

[kahljorn]

"prove his innocense" and being innocent are different ;/ criminals plead innocent in court all the time and they're given a chance to prove it but it doesn't necessitate actually being innocent; it just means there's a trial where all evidence is submitted before they are commited guilty.
"Innocent until proven guilty" isn't as literal as it sounds ;/

also, I think geggy's more concerned with the evidence coming out in trial that would pin the US than he is with saddam actually being innocent.

[Geggy]

Saddam Execution Rushed to Hide Information — Russian Ex-PM
Created: 15.01.2007 10:40 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 20:38 MSK


MosNews


The execution of Saddam Hussein was rushed to prevent the former Iraqi leader from revealing facts that could compromise the United States, former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov has said.

Saddam was executed in an “unexpected” way so “he could not have the last word” and reveal compromising information on the relationship between the United States and his former regime, the PTI news agency quoted Primakov as saying in a televised interview on Sunday.

If Saddam Hussein “had said everything (he knew), the current United States president (George W Bush) would have been greatly embarrassed,” said Primakov, a Middle East expert formerly on good terms with Saddam.

Primakov highlighted the military cooperation between Washington and Baghdad during the 1980s when the United States was fighting the fundamentalist threat from Iran.

He also alleged that Saddam made a deal with Washington before the 2003 invasion of Iraq to allow the United States to occupy the country without meeting any opposition.

Primakov made two confidential visits to Iraq at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly before the US-led invasion of the country.

Saddam was executed for crimes against humanity on December 30, which coincided with the first day of the Eid al-Adha feast and drew widespread Muslim condemnation.


Oh really i did not know that duh

[Grislygus]

"Excuse me, sir, about Alexander Litvinenko..."

"THE UNITED STATES HAS BEING SILENCED SADDAM HUSSEIN! THIS IS TRAVESTY!"

[El Blanco]

He also alleged that Saddam made a deal with Washington before the 2003 invasion of Iraq to allow the United States to occupy the country without meeting any opposition.


Uhhhh......

OK, besides there obviously being opposition, what exactly has been Hussien's payoff?

And again, shtty job of silencing him. They put him on public trial in front of the media to rant all he wants.