Saddam to meet his maker today or tomorrow

[bob sacamano]

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsD ... 53003120F6

Iraq on alert as Saddam Hanging Could Happen Saturday
Iraq is nervously awaiting the execution of Saddam Hussein, which the White House thinks could happen as early as Saturday, amid fears it could trigger yet more violence in the blood-soaked country.
The head of Iraq's interior ministry command center, Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, said the country's beleaguered security forces would be on high alert for a hanging expected to exacerbate sky-high sectarian tensions.

"Certainly, this is a big event, putting into effect the execution of this serial killer," he said. "We will take measures proportionate to this event. We will put all our forces on the streets so that no lives are jeopardized."

On November 5, when Saddam was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death, protests erupted in some parts of Iraq and authorities declared a three-day curfew to head off attacks by Sunni insurgents.

Khalaf said that such a measure would be decreed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, but that his forces stood ready to act once informed of the date of the execution, which has yet to be confirmed.

On December 26, a panel of appeals court judges confirmed Saddam's sentence and ordered that he and two former aides be hanged within 30 days.

Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie refused Friday to put a date on the execution, but told Agence France-Presse that the hanging would be announced in advance and not carried out in secret as some have speculated.

Maliki's main backer, U.S. President George Bush's White House, thinks the ousted dictator could go to the gallows as early as Saturday, the first day of the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, the Muslim "Feast of Sacrifice."

"It's the government of Iraq's decision," a senior U.S. official said at the Bush ranch in Texas. "It's not going to be tonight our time, or tomorrow their time, it's going to be maybe another day."

Asked whether the execution could spark violence by Saddam loyalists, the official said: "They start violence for any reason they can come up with."

In the almost four years since a U.S.-led invasion drove Saddam from office, the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation has been engulfed in a rising tide of violence between warring political and sectarian factions.

Iraq's Shiite Arab majority and breakaway Kurds welcomed Saddam's fall, but many members of the Sunni Arab minority flocked to the banner of Islamist or pro-Saddam insurgent groups fighting his U.S.-backed successors.

The execution, when it comes, can be expected to further deepen the sectarian divide. Shiite hardliners hope that it will knock the heart out of the insurgency, but other observers fear violent reprisals.

Meanwhile, Iraq's deadly daily diet of bloodshed continued.

On Friday, gunmen opened fire on a cafe in the town of Hindiya south of the capital and killed an off-duty policeman and a bystander, Captain Muthanna Hassan of the Babil province police told AFP.

In a separate attack by unidentified gunmen in nearby Mussayib another policeman was killed and five wounded, he added.

Once the formality of hanging Saddam and his cohorts, who were convicted of killing 148 Shiite villagers, is out of the way, Bush and Maliki still face a major battle to restore peace to a shattered nation.

Maliki has promised to put more Iraqi army troops onto the streets of the capital as part of a new Baghdad security plan, but Bush has yet to unveil a promised "new way forward" for the 129,000-strong U.S. force.

On Thursday, Bush met his top security officials at his ranch.

"I've got more consultation to do until I talk to the country about the plan," Bush told reporters afterwards. "I'm making good progress toward coming up with a plan that we think will help us achieve our objective."

Washington is expected to unveil its new plan early in the New Year.(AFP)

[the_professor]

Can't wait to watch it on YouTube...

[w squared]

Once the formality of hanging Saddam and his cohorts, who were convicted of killing 148 Shiite villagers, is out of the way, Bush and Maliki still face a major battle to restore peace to a shattered nation

Formality? These may be exrecable excuses for human beings, but to define deliberate, state-sanctioned execution as a "formality" is obscene. We're talking about a state judicial organ deliberating deciding to end human lives...not something to be trivialized.

I haven't followed the Saddam trial any more closely than being a BBC listener results in, but the impression I got was that neither side was particularily interested in seeing justice done. The court was interested in being seen to punish the guilty, and the defense was interested in using the trial as a grandstand in order to preach the illegality of the court, the government, and every single aspect of the way in which they were being treated. Not a situation likely to produce a truly valid verdict of either guilty or innocent.

That said, if there had been some way to magically install a court that was guaranteed to produce an impartial verdict, and gather all pertinent evidence, there is no doubt in my mind that the verdict would have been "guilty". I personally do not take exception to the application of the death penalty in this case on moral grounds...however, on practical gounds, creating a "martyr" for the baathists may simply complicate an already horrendous sectarian and factional civil conflict in Iraq.

Messy, and getting messier. Sometimes I think that the only thing that will end the killing in Iraq is the same thing that worked in Lebanon. Fatigue.

[shimmydampner]

Or just put him back. Make it his punishment to clean up the mess that his absence has created.

[Brewguy]

...Not a situation likely to produce a truly valid verdict of either guilty or innocent....

In what world is this ever about guilt or innocence?

In every part of this world deposed leaders (especially 'for life' leaders like monarchs, dictators, etc.) who are removed by force, are paraded before some form of a 'court' - and put to death. Period.

It has happened before, and it will happen again. It is just the way of things.

[Dash-Ate]

Tell us how the world is "safer" with him gone? That was a load of crap/

the USA is the #1 weapons dealer in world. they call the shots and supply weapons to dictators and terrorists if you have the cash.


When they showed pictures of dead americans Rumsfeld started squawking about how they are "barbarians" and on about the Geneva Convention.
Now when has the USA ever followed the geneva convention? They torture, they don't give fair trials to ANYONE that they capture. they published the photos of bodies of saddam's sons on the front page of the newspaper!!

[niss]

What do you mean how is the world safer with out Saddam? Theres one less person who tried to kill "Dubyas" daddy.... That is why they went to war isnt it?

[bob sacamano]

Sometimes I think that the only thing that will end the killing in Iraq is the same thing that worked in Lebanon. Fatigue.

care to elaborate?

[Driving Rain]

"We will video everything... All documentation will be videoed. Taking him [Saddam Hussein] from his cell to the execution is going to be videoed, and the actual execution will be documented and videoed."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iraqi National Security adviser Mouffak al Rubaie

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/ ... 4318.shtml

Video may not be made public
Why video tape it then.

[grimey]

It'll likely be leaked if it's not released officially, or sold as a snuff film.

[mbflyer]

Intersting how fast this moved in relation to cases in North America.

I was reading an article in the paper a few weeks back on all the police officers that were shot in Winnipeg. One thing I couldn't get over was how fast the system moved back then - perp. shoots cop in Jan, found guilty at trial in Mar, hung in Sept.

Now look at the wait before trial starts.

( sorry to get a little off topic)

How many appeals does Saddam get ? Do they think that by hanging Saddam, the violence in Iraq will decrease? Not likely.

[bob sacamano]

How many appeals does Saddam get ? Do they think that by hanging Saddam, the violence in Iraq will decrease? Not likely.

By iraqi law, when a death sentence is served, you automatically get to appeal.

[xsbank]

I think he's a creep, but I don't agree with capitol punishment - the state is supposed to be above that kind of behaviour.

Too bad nobody in Iraq agrees with me.

[bob sacamano]

He's supposed to be killed on Saturday by 6am baghdad time.

p.s. it's not what the people of iraq want, it's what bush wants (is told to want).

[niss]

What makes him special enough that he escapes a UN tribunal for war crimes?

Slobadam had to answer to the UN as did some Nazis in Nuremburgh.

The only person I recall (granted my knowledge on this is very limited) who was captured, tried, and executed by a sovreign state for crimes against humanity was Adolf Eichman.

Is there anything other than politics that affects this? Is there some legal reason Saddam wasnt handed over to the UN?

[Inverted2]

What makes him special enough that he escapes a UN tribunal for war crimes?

Slobadam had to answer to the UN as did some Nazis in Nuremburgh.

The only person I recall (granted my knowledge on this is very limited) who was captured, tried, and executed by a sovreign state for crimes against humanity was Adolf Eichman.

Is there anything other than politics that affects this? Is there some legal reason Saddam wasnt handed over to the UN?

When will your people answer to the UN?

[200hr Wonder]

Dead is dead.... I say let him rot in jail I think it would do more good.

[Vickers vanguard]

What makes him special enough that he escapes a UN tribunal for war crimes?

Slobadam had to answer to the UN as did some Nazis in Nuremburgh.

The only person I recall (granted my knowledge on this is very limited) who was captured, tried, and executed by a sovreign state for crimes against humanity was Adolf Eichman.

Is there anything other than politics that affects this? Is there some legal reason Saddam wasnt handed over to the UN?

When will your people answer to the UN?

.....................Beautiful

[Driving Rain]

[quote="niss"]What makes him special enough that he escapes a UN tribunal for war crimes? quote]


You got to love the Italians and the Romanians. After shooting, beating and pissing on Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, the good people of Italy stung them up over a gas station.





KANGAROO COURT/MERRY CHRISTMAS

CRUMPLED CORPSES

Video footage of the proceedings, parts of it deemed too shocking for a television airing, shows the Ceausescus spitting defiance throughout, right up until the moment their wrists were bound with lengths of old rope as they were dragged outside.

"They thought we were complete nobodies," Gheorghiu said. "I hated them both with such a passion I couldn't control myself."

Nicolae, 71, walked from the courtroom singing snatches from the Internationale, a socialist anthem, and proclaiming history would judge him well. His wife, the more feared of the two, was less resigned, screaming at everyone to go to hell.

Seconds later they were crumpled corpses beside a muddy wall - Nicolae buckled backwards on his knees staring at the sky and Elena slumped sideways in a pool of her own blood.

"They said they wanted to die together so we lined them up, took six paces back and simply opened fire. No one ordered us to start, we were just told to get it over with," Gheorghiu said.

"I put seven bullets into him and then emptied the rest of my magazine into her head," Carlan said. "Bits of her brain were spattered here on the floor," he added, surveying the cracked cement beneath a wall still pockmarked with bullet holes.

"Then people from all directions started shooting," he said. "I was scared but I had this huge sense of relief. I could feel the hopes of 23 million people pumping through my veins."



I think her last words were Nicolae, Romania doesn't still have the death penalty do they?""

[Driving Rain]

What makes him special enough that he escapes a UN tribunal for war crimes? quote]

You got to love the Italians and the Romanians. After shooting, beating and pissing on Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, the good people of Italy stung them up over a gas station.





KANGAROO COURT/MERRY CHRISTMAS

CRUMPLED CORPSES

Video footage of the proceedings, parts of it deemed too shocking for a television airing, shows the Ceausescus spitting defiance throughout, right up until the moment their wrists were bound with lengths of old rope as they were dragged outside.

"They thought we were complete nobodies," Gheorghiu said. "I hated them both with such a passion I couldn't control myself."

Nicolae, 71, walked from the courtroom singing snatches from the Internationale, a socialist anthem, and proclaiming history would judge him well. His wife, the more feared of the two, was less resigned, screaming at everyone to go to hell.

Seconds later they were crumpled corpses beside a muddy wall - Nicolae buckled backwards on his knees staring at the sky and Elena slumped sideways in a pool of her own blood.

"They said they wanted to die together so we lined them up, took six paces back and simply opened fire. No one ordered us to start, we were just told to get it over with," Gheorghiu said.

"I put seven bullets into him and then emptied the rest of my magazine into her head," Carlan said. "Bits of her brain were spattered here on the floor," he added, surveying the cracked cement beneath a wall still pockmarked with bullet holes.

"Then people from all directions started shooting," he said. "I was scared but I had this huge sense of relief. I could feel the hopes of 23 million people pumping through my veins."



I think her last words were Nicolae, Romania doesn't still have the death penalty do they?""

[Brewguy]

...Is there some legal reason Saddam wasnt handed over to the UN?...

Why would he have been? It wasn't the UN that captured him, was it?
It's not the UN that hands out "Victor's Justice" - it's the victors who do.

As I said earlier, leaders / heads-of-state that are removed from power by force, are paraded before some form of court (usually a show trial, rarely (if ever) an impartial court seeking actual justice), and are put to death. Period. It is just the way of things ... always has been, always will be.

For those unfamiliar with victor's justice, here is a very brief history lesson (the rest of you, just skip past the "quoted" text sections...):

(2nd) English Civil War: King Charles I
In December 1648, the 'Rump Parliament' was ordered to set up a high court of justice in order to try Charles I for treason in the name of the people of England. The show trial reached its foregone conclusion, and found Charles I guilty of high treason, as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy". He was beheaded on a scaffold in front of the Banqueting House of the Palace of Whitehall on January 30, 1649.

At the restoration (in 1660), thirty-one of the fifty-nine Commissioners who had signed the death warrant were still living. Those who were still available were put on trial. Six were found guilty and suffered the fate of being hanged, drawn and quartered. The captain of the guard at the trial, an influential preacher, and the leading prosecutor at the trial were executed in a similar manner. The Colonel who signed the order to the executioner of the king and commanded the guard around the scaffold and at the trial was hanged. The bodies of Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton which had been buried in Westminster Abbey were disinterred and hanged drawn and quartered. In 1662, three more were also hanged, drawn and quartered.

French Revolution: King Louis XVI
Louis was tried and convicted of high treason before the National Convention. He was sentenced to death (21 January 1793) by guillotine by 361 votes to 288, with 72 effective abstentions.

Stripped of all titles and honorifics by the egalitarian, Republican government, Citizen Louis Capet was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd on 21 January 1793. It took two attempts to sever his head; his neck too thick to yield to one blow. On his death, his eight-year-old son, Louis-Charles, automatically became to royalists and some foreign states the de jure King Louis XVII of France, despite France having been declared a republic.

Russian Revolution: Emperor Nicholas II
The Emperor and his family were executed at 2:33 A.M. on the morning of July 17, 1918. According to Yurovsky he read to Nicholas a letter from the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet saying: "In view of the fact that your relatives continue their offensive against Soviet Russia, the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet has decided to sentence you to death."

he bodies of Nicholas and his family, after being soaked in acid and burned, were long believed to have been disposed of down a mineshaft at a site called the Four Brothers. Initially, this was true — they had indeed been disposed of there on the night of July 17. The following morning — when rumors spread in Yekaterinburg regarding the disposal site — Yurovsky removed the bodies and concealed them elsewhere. When the vehicle carrying the bodies broke down on the way to the next chosen site, Yurovsky made new arrangements, and buried most of the bodies in a sealed and concealed pit.

Benito Mussolini
On April 27, 1945, in the afternoon, near the village of Dongo (Lake Como), Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were caught by Italian communist partisans.

The day after, April 28, Mussolini and his mistress were both shot, along with their fifteen-man train, mostly ministers and officials of the Italian Social Republic. The executions took place in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra, and, at least according to the official version of events, were conducted by "Colonnello Valerio" (Walter Audisio), the communist partisan commander after being given the order to kill Mussolini, by the National Liberation Committee.

On April 29 the bodies of Mussolini and his mistress were found hung upside down on meat hooks in Piazzale Loreto (Milan), along with those of other fascists, to show the population the dictator was dead. This was both to discourage any fascists to continue the fight and an act of revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader became subject to ridicule and abuse by many who felt oppressed by the former dictator's policies.

The Nuremberg Trials
A series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, from 1945 to 1949, at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice. The first and best known of these trials was the Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which tried 24 of the most important captured leaders of Nazi Germany. It was held from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946.

* The trials were conducted under their own rules of evidence; the indictments were created ex post facto and were not based on any nation's law; the tu quoque defense was removed; and some claim the entire spirit of the assembly was "victor's justice".

Article 19 of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal Charter reads as follows: "The Tribunal shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence. It shall adopt and apply to the greatest possible extent expeditious and nontechnical procedure, and shall admit any evidence which it deems to be of probative value."

US Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone called the Nuremberg trials a fraud. "[Chief US prosecutor] Jackson is away conducting his high-grade lynching party in Nuremberg," he wrote. "I don't mind what he does to the Nazis, but I hate to see the pretense that he is running a court and proceeding according to common law. This is a little too sanctimonious a fraud to meet my old-fashioned ideas."

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)
Also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal or simply as the Tribunal, was convened to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" (crimes against peace), "Class B" (war crimes), and "Class C" (crimes against humanity), committed during World War II. The first refers to their joint conspiracy to start and wage the war, and the latter two refer to atrocities including the Nanking Massacre. War crimes charges against more junior personnel were dealt with separately, in other cities throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

The tribunal convened on May 3, 1946, and was adjourned on November 12, 1948. Twenty-five Japanese military and political leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and more than 300,000 Japanese nationals were charged with Class B and C crimes, mostly over prisoner abuse.

The crimes perpetrated by Japanese troops and authorities in the occupation of Korea and China, particularly Manchuria (Manchukuo), were not part of the proceeding. China held 13 tribunals of its own, resulting in 504 convictions and 149 executions.

Ok, so here are your more modern (UN related) examples...
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was brought to trial for war crimes, but died before the trial could be concluded
Milosevic was found dead in his cell on March 11, 2006 in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention centre, located in the Scheveningen section of The Hague.
In June 2006 the Supreme Court of Serbia decided that Milosevic had ordered the murders of political opponents Ivan Stambolic and Vuk Draskovic. The Supreme Court accepted the previous ruling of the Special Court for Organized Crime in Belgrade which targeted Milosevic as the main abettor of politically motivated murders in the 1990s.

Milosevic's defenders say the Court's ruling is of little value because he was never formally charged or given an opportunity to defend himself against the accusations. His defenders further highlight this ruling as evidence of Serbia's American-influenced flawed democratic and legal processes.

Liberian President Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor served as President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003. He was a prominent warlord in the Liberian Civil War in the early 1990s, was elected president, was forced into exile, and now faces trial.

On June 16, 2006, the United Nations Security Council agreed unanimously to allow Charles Taylor to be sent to The Hague for trial and on June 20, 2006, Taylor was extradited and flown to Rotterdam Airport in the Netherlands. He was taken into custody in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention centre, located in the Scheveningen section of The Hague. Taylor's trial is provisionally scheduled to begin on 2 April 2007

I could go on and on with more examples, but this is already far too much reading (I'm sorry everyone - I freely admit to having got carried away). Milosevic died in custody before his trial ended, so we don't know how the UN would have handled a guilty verdict ... I guess we'll just have to wait & see what the UN tribunal does with Charles Taylor. But in any case, these people that are removed from power are generally executed - either by revolutionaries within their own country or by the victorous army they loose to.

Sorry for you anti-death-sentence people who are offended by these show trials, but they have historically been a normal part of (international or civil) war. In armed conflict, people die. And as humans tend towards seeking justice (or vengance?), someone must "pay" for all this death. And that someone is normally the leader(s) of the loosing side.

[Driving Rain]

Sorry for you anti-death-sentence people who are offended by these show trials, but they have historically been a normal part of (international or civil) war. In armed conflict, people die. And as humans tend towards seek justice (or vengance?), someone must "pay" for all this death. And that someone is normally the leader(s) of the loosing side.

There sure are lots of ways to go.
Asphyxiation – Any method for depriving the prisoner of air, includes compression of the neck, crushing of the chest and the use of chemical agents to prevent oxygenation of the blood and/or muscle function.
Burning – Especially favoured for religious heretics and general God-botherers.
Brazen bull – The prisoner is shut up inside a brass bull, a fire is set under the bull and the prisoner is slowly roast to death.
Breaking on the Wheel – The prisoner's arms and legs are placed in turn across 2 heavy beams and the bones are broken with a large hammer. Optionally, each limb may be fractured multiple times. The broken limbs are then threaded through the spokes of a large wheel, which is hoisted to the top of a tall pole so that birds can eat the prisoner alive.
Boiling to death – The prisoner is tied up and placed in a giant cauldron of cold water, which is heated slowly to provide an extremely painful and slow method of execution. Burial – The prisoner is generally covered with earth while alive but immobilized and suffocates.
Cannon – The prisoner is tied before the mouth of a cannon, which is discharged to provide a showy and severely messy form of execution. Alternatively, cannons loaded with grapeshot may be used for mass executions as an alternative to a firing squad.
Crucifixion – This method was popular in Roman times but it is somewhat out of fashion now.
Crushing by a weight – The techniques used for this method of execution vary greatly from place to place and it may be used to provide a quick death or a slow ordeal. A common technique is crushing by elephant or a herd of cattle or horses. The elephant variation has been used in South and South-East Asia for over 4,000 years, and the Romans and Carthaginians also used it.
Death by a thousand cuts – If prolonged skilfully, the prisoner may die of septicaemia rather than blood loss.
Decapitation – The usual methods involve beheading by sword, axe or guillotine. The guillotine is the most reliable method, if it is properly maintained, as it removes the element of skill from the process.
Deification – The prisoner is treated like a god for up to one year; but, optionally, for as little as 8 minutes; before he is ritually stabbed to death so that his spirit can leave the physical plane and become one with the gods.
Disruption – Each of the prisoner's legs (and, optionally, his arms) is attached to any combination of horses (or other suitable animals), winches and other pulling machines (e.g. the rack), and a small tree which has been bent to the ground and pegged with a quick release mechanism. The pulling devices are operated simultaneously to pull the prisoner apart.
Drawing and quartering – Combined with hanging, this has been voted 'the most cruel and unusual punishment of all time'. As practiced in Britain, the method comprised: dragging the prisoner to the place of execution on a wooden hurdle, hanging by the neck until severely distressed but not dead, disembowelment and burning of the entrails and genitalia while the prisoner watched, then beheading and division of the body into four parts. The 4 body parts, and the head, were then displayed in separate public places as an awful warning to others.
Drowning – Mass drowning was popular during the French Revolution. Modern ultra-quick-setting cements have revolutionized the traditional Mafia eradication method involving a concrete overshoe.
Electrocution – The method generally comprises use of an 'electric chair'. Electrodes are attached to the prisoner's shaven head and leg. 500-2,000 Volts are applied across the electrodes for 30 seconds initially. The prisoner's body is allowed to cool and a doctor checks to see if the prisoner's heart is still beating. If so, the shock treatment is repeated. This cycle is continued until the prisoner is dead. Sometimes, the prisoner can catch fire so an extinguishing system is an essential accessory for the death chamber.
Exsanguination – As Mr. Bliar's government has been bleeding the country to death with Stealth Taxes since 1997, this would be an extremely appropriate penalty for him.
Firing squad – Some organizations use a team of 4-8 men (although up to 15 men can be used if the commander of the firing squad wants to show off). The prisoner may be strapped to a chair or secured upright against a stake. Death occurs through a catastrophic drop in blood pressure to the brain. If the job is botched, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly. The Chinese are the most economical, favouring a single shooter delivering a single bullet to the back of the prisoner's neck. His family is then billed for the ammunition expended.
Forced suicide – The prisoner was generally obliged to take poison in ancient times. Shooting is a common option now but the Japanese and others have their own ritual ways of ending an inconvenient life.
Garrotte – This method was a favourite of the Spanish until 1974. The basic technique involves tightening a rope around the prisoner's neck using a stick as a lever. A length of wire with wooden handles at either end may also be used. The Spanish revised the method to include a chair with restraints for the prisoner. The executioner used a crank to tightened a metal band placed around the neck. Optionally, a metal bolt or blade may be mounted at the back of the neck to facilitate breaking the neck or severing the spinal cord.
Gassing – The prisoner is strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber and pellets of sodium cyanide are released into a container of sulphuric acid beneath the chair. The hydrogen cyanide gas released causes suffocation as the haemoglobin in prisoner's blood takes up the cyanide in preference to oxygen.
Hanging – According to the method chosen, the victim dies of strangulation and/or the effects of a broken neck.
Impalement – A method highly popular with Vlad Dracula, Romanian hero, in the late 15th Century, and a standard Persian punishment at the time of Alexander the Great, 19 centuries earlier.
Induced Spontaneous Human Combustion – This is a highly experimental, modern technique which uses a high-powered maser (microwave laser).
Iron Maiden – The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg Castle was 2 metres tall and 1 metre wide. The double doors at the front were fitted with dozens of iron spikes, which were designed to provide slow torture rather than a quick death. The spikes were arrange to miss vital organs and let the victim stay upright and suffering for several days. The soundproof doors could be opened individually to let the executioner check up on the extent of the prisoner's suffering.
Lethal injection – The method generally involves 3 separate injections: sodium thiopental induces unconsciousness which is supposed to last until the other two injections have taken effect; pancuronium/tubocurarine stops all muscle movement (except that of the heart), and causes collapse of the diaphragm and eventual death by asphyxiation; potassium chloride slows the heart rate to cause death by cardiac arrest.
Pressing – a popular execution method for witches. The prisoner was laid on the ground, covered with a board then rocks or weights were then placed on the board until death through crushing occurred.
Poisoning – The number of methods available is a reflection of human ingenuity. Natural poisons, manufactured chemical agents, stinging insects and animals with a poisonous bite may all be used.
Sawing – The prisoner is hung upside down and then sawn in two, starting at the groin. The brain of the inverted prisoners receives sufficient blood supply to keep him alive and aware at least until the saw severs major blood vessels of the abdomen. In Oriental countries, the prisoner remains upright and sawing starts at the head to provide a much quicker death. Bisecting male adulterers was considered extremely apt as it let both women share his body.
Scaphism – The prisoner is stripped and secured within a hollowed-out tree trunks with head, hands, and feet protruding. He is then force-fed milk and honey until he develops severe diarrhea. More honey is rubbed on his body to attract insects and he is left to die through a combination of dehydration, starvation and septic shock caused by insect bites and contamination of his wounds. Death can take in excess of 2 weeks. Alternatives include pegging the prisoner out across an anthill, and tying him to a tree to die through starvation and blood loss caused by biting insects such as mosquitos and horse flies.
Searing – Wounds are inflicted on the prisoner with a sharp blade then molten lead or another hot liquid is poured into the wounds until the criminal expires.
Starvation – As related in Edgar Poe's story The Flask of Amontillado, this method usually includes walling up the person condemned to starve to death.
Stoning – The prisoner is wrapped in a sheet and buried – from the waste down for man and up to the neck for women. A crowd then pelts the prisoners with small stones to cause death through progressive damage.
Strangling with silk robe – an Ottoman-style capital punishment for royal persons whose blood may not be shed. Not really appropriate for Mr. B. Liar.

Ain't we an inventive bunch? I would like to offer my services. My idea is to fasten a prisioner to the keel of a water bomber. After doing 100 or so scoops I then land gear up on a gravel runway. I know I can hear the engineers complaining already, they always get the messy jobs.

Just be glad your not this guy.
King Edward II was eradicated with an anally inserted red-hot iron.

[bob sacamano]

What makes him special enough that he escapes a UN tribunal for war crimes?

Slobadam had to answer to the UN as did some Nazis in Nuremburgh.

The only person I recall (granted my knowledge on this is very limited) who was captured, tried, and executed by a sovreign state for crimes against humanity was Adolf Eichman.

Is there anything other than politics that affects this? Is there some legal reason Saddam wasnt handed over to the UN?

When will your people answer to the UN?

You're an anti-semite

[Dex]

Well the US and other countries want him dead quick, so as not to implicate in detail other countries (people, corps, etc) in future trials for crimes worse than the one he was just convicted of.

[bob sacamano]

According to arabic news channels, it's a done deal. saddam is now playing a round of golf with reagan.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlene ... S-IRAQ.xml

Saddam's letter to the Iraqi people

To the great nation, to the people of our country, and humanity,
Many of you have known the writer of this letter to be faithful, honest, caring for others, wise, of sound judgment, just, decisive, careful with the wealth of the people and the state ... and that his heart is big enough to embrace all without discrimination.
You have known your brother and leader very well, and he never bowed to the despots and, in accordance with the wishes of those who loved him, remained a sword and a banner.
This is how you want your brother, son or leader to be ... and those who will lead you in the future should have the same qualifications.
Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if He wants, He will send it to heaven with the martyrs, or He will postpone that ...so let us be patient and depend on Him against the unjust nations.
Remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence. ...
I call on you not to hate, because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps one away from balanced thinking and making the right choice. ...
I also call on you not to hate the peoples of the other countries that attacked us and differentiate between the decision-makers and people. ...

Before I leave you, can anyone tell Bob Sacamano that I'll be waiting for him in hell? Those cubans he sold me weren't real, they were made in el salvador.

Alright, I'm outtie, peace out ma niggas.

(ok, so the last paragraph I added, but the first part was authentic).