The Hanging Of An American-Made Despot: A Rush To Injustice

Saddam Hussein will go down in history as a minor fascist in the mold of Hitler and Stalin (who was his political hero) who managed to dominate a psuedo-secular, pseudo-religious nation that was created by British, French and American schemes after the success these allied nations experienced in World War I. All of the Middle East was essentially created by the scheming of various British, French and, in a minor role, American generals and diplomats (who were actually politicians).

Certainly Hussein will be remembered for the atrocities he committed against Iranian soldiers during the Iraq-Iran War in the 1980s. He will also be remembered for the persecution of Kurdish members of Iraqi society, including the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds and their allies. Like Stalin and Hitler, Saddam Hussein was a bit of a paranoid lunatic that dealt with political opposition and dissidents through the devices of secret police and covert intelligence agents. In Hussein's case, he had two of his sons, a couple brothers, some nephews and other family members conducting these secrets operations, which included making people suddenly disappear, torturing people until they produced the "right" answers, and detaining people without trial, recourse, legal representation or a determination as to how long they would be held (sounds like George W. Bush and his gang without the family nepotism... but perhaps an incestuous political team composition). Then, too, Saddam will be remembered for the ego-maniacal manner in which he promoted himself in Iraq, the ruin of Iraq's economy by skimming money away from those in need, and the huge sums of money he spent on palaces, luxurious homes, military equipment and secret police operations, not to mention the money spent to assure the loyalty of those who held influence and controlled certain aspects of Iraq's political machinery.

Saddam Hussein was a despotic dictator that was perfect for the job given his environment, location and culture. But he did not arrive as the kingpin of corruption and despotic reign by himself. During the time he was engaged in war against Iran, the US and other western allies of the US provided Hussein with all kinds of support, including money, arms, information and affirmation of his role as the proper and appropriate leader of a sovereign nation... even though we knew how he came to power, maintained control over those that opposed him, treated those that protested against him and what he did to those that dared to take up arms against him. In the process we managed to sell out the entire Kurdish population in Iraq (and probably the entire Middle East) because we chose to support the dictator for immediate geopolitical advantages rather than think about the long-term effects of our own actions.

Now, in the hanging of Saddam Hussein, we stand to do the same thing all over again. While there was not a rush to judgment in regard to Hussein, there were serious doubts about the legality, legitimacy, authority and justice administered in the court that heard the case against Hussein. Additionally, since Hussein was in the custody of the United States government and occupational forces, there are questions as to whether there was due process provided by the entire trial arrangement. But most of all--and this is without question by anyone that has a sense of decency and/or justice--there was undue political influence regarding the sentence and the timing of the sentence given to Hussein.

Think about it. Hussein was no nastier or evil than some of the despots, would-be dictators and international war criminals that came out of the break-up of Yugoslavia. Serbians, Slavs, Croatians and others involved in the combat that resulted once Tito was no longer in the picture committed atrocities that included torture, detentions, murder, disappearances, use of outlawed weaponry and more. But none of these war criminals were rushed through a process that resulted in a death sentence that was executed in such a fast paced manner. In fact, there were several layers of appeals, several layers of due process, long-term incarceration, long-term manhunts, and almost a decade (or more) before any of the sentences became finalized. Yet, Saddam Hussein's sentence was rushed through to the end. The appeals to US authorities were denied without any real consideration of the legitimacy of the appeal or jurisdiction. Even though he was captured by US troops, held by US authority (even in de facto US custody to the end), US courts denied jurisdiction and standing. Even the precedents used in the ruling to deny appeals to US jurisprudence were clear manipulations designed to avoid taking responsibility for something for which we as a government should be responsible for... justice in a land that is under our control and authority.

Considering the number of stays, delays and appeals that we allow those condemned to death in our own nation, I cannot help but wonder what was the rush in the case of Saddam. Could it be that there were some ulterior motives, hidden agendas and undue influences in the process of prosecuting Hussein? Is there a political motivation behind the rush to hanging the evil bastard? If so, which evil bastard is behind the rush? (Anyone care to take a wild guess?)

So Saddam Hussein is dead. God--Allah, according to his religious tradition--is left to judge Saddam while those that actually loved, cared for, or appreciated Hussein are left to mourn his death. His opponents are dancing in the streets in Baghdad and his supporters--most of whom are already conducting the Iraqi insurgency--are vowing revenge and retribution. George W. Bush and his gang probably stopped to pour a drink and raise a galss in a congratulatory toast of accomplishment. But I maintain that the death of Saddam Hussein is a tragedy.

Saddam's death is not a tragedy because he was innocent of the crimes for which he was being tried. He was surely guilty of so many evils and crimes that no political leader should be allowed to perpetrate. But the tragedy is in the way this entire trial, sentencing and execution of that sentence was held. The tragedy is also in the details of history that demonstrate the complicity of US and other western nations in Hussein's rise to power and the recognition and endorsement of the same for politically expedient reasons. The tragedy lies largely in the sacrifice of ideals, principles, values and decency that was offered in the name of getting the job done quickly, quietly and with as little discourse on the matters of ethics, morality and humanity as possible.

Dictator Who Ruled Iraq With Violence Is Hanged for Crimes Against Humanity

Saddam Hussein, the dictator who led Iraq through three decades of brutality, war and bombast before American forces chased him from his capital city and captured him in a filthy pit near his hometown, was hanged just before dawn Saturday during the morning call to prayer.

The final stages for Mr. Hussein, 69, came with terrible swiftness after he lost the appeal, five days ago, of his death sentence for the killings of 148 men and boys in the northern town of Dujail in 1982. He had received the sentence less than two months before from a special court set up to judge his reign as the almost unchallenged dictator of Iraq.

The Defiant Despot Oppressed Iraq for More Than 30 Years

The hanging of Saddam Hussein ended the life of one of the most brutal tyrants in recent history and negated the fiction that he himself maintained even as the gallows loomed — that he remained president of Iraq despite being toppled by the United States military and that his power and his palaces would be restored to him in time.

The despot, known as Saddam, had oppressed Iraq for more than 30 years, unleashing devastating regional wars and reducing his once promising, oil-rich nation to a claustrophobic police state.

US Federal Judge Rejects Saddam Bid For Stay Of Execution

A US federal judge has rejected an eleventh-hour bid by lawyers for Saddam Hussein seeking a direct stay of execution. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a 6-page ruling late Friday evening following a telephone conference with lawyers in the wake of court papers filed around 1 PM Friday afternoon.

Kollar-Kotelly wrote: As Judge Reggie Walton recently concluded in a strikingly similar matter, this “Court lacks habeas corpus jurisdiction over an Iraqi citizen, convicted by an Iraqi court for violations of Iraqi law, who is held pursuant to that conviction by members of the Multi-National Force-Iraq.” Al-Bandar v. Bush, et al., Civ. A. No. 06-2209 (RMC) (D.D.C. Dec. 27, 2006) (denying motion for temporary restraining order to prevent transfer of petitioner to Iraqi custody); see also, Al-Bandar v. Bush, et al., Civ. A. No. 06-5425 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 29, 2006) (denying motion for stay or injunction enjoining transfer of petitioner to Iraqi custody pending appeal). A United States court has no “power or authority to review, affirm, set aside or annul the judgment and sentence imposed” by the court of a sovereign nation pursuant to their laws. Hirota, et al. v. General of the Army Douglas McArthur, et al., 338 U.S. 197, 198, 69 S. Ct. 197, 93 L. Ed. 1902 (1948); Flick v. Johnson, 174 F. 2d 983, 984 (D.C. Cir. 1949). Accordingly, this Court has no jurisdiction to prevent the transfer of Petitioner Hussein to the custody of the Iraqi government, as that would effectively alter the judgment of an Iraqi court.

Saddam Lawyer Condemns Execution As 'Aggressor's Injustice'

Saddam defense lawyer Curtis Doebbler, one of the two Americans on Hussein's Dujail trial team, has condemned the ousted Iraqi president's execution in a statement sent to JURIST only minutes after his client was hanged in Baghdad at dawn Saturday local time:

The execution of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is an unfortunate display of arrogant aggressor's injustice by the United States of America under the leadership of American President George W. Bush. It sets back achievements in international criminal law many decades and sends a clear message to people all over the world that the United States' aggression cannot be stopped by the law. It is truly a sad day for international justice and sad beginning to a new year.

One cannot imagine a greater inspiration to violence against America and her allies than the action taken this morning. The way that the former Iraqi President, and now brave martyr, stood up to the most powerful, deadly and lawless army in the world almost single-handedly for more than a decade will undoubtedly contirbute, as an inspiration, to violence against American interests all over the world.

Justice, But No Reckoning

My personal battle with Saddam Hussein — which began in 1972 when I abandoned my medical career in Mosul, Iraq, and joined the Kurdish armed resistance — is at an end. To execute such a criminal, a man who reveled in his atrocities, is an act of justice.

The only issue for me is the timing — executing him now is both too late and too early. Too late, because had Saddam Hussein been removed from the scene many years ago, many lives would have been saved.

Killing Saddam now, however, for ordering the massacre at Dujail in 1982, means that he will not face justice for his greatest crimes: the so-called Anfal campaign against the Kurds in the late 1980s, the genocidal assault on the Marsh Arabs in the 1990s, and the slaughtering of the Shiite Arabs and Kurds who rose up against him, with American encouragement, in 1991.

The sight of a tyrant held to account, if only briefly, has been an important precedent for the Middle East. The shabby diplomacy that has allowed dictators to thrive is now discredited.

Sadly, however, we have not had full justice. Saddam Hussein did not confront the full horror of his crimes. Building on previous initiatives by Arab nationalist governments to persecute the Kurds, he turned ethnic engineering and murder into an industry in the 1970s. Hundreds of thousands were evicted from their homes and murdered. Swaths of Kurdish countryside were emptied of their population, men, women and children taken to shallow graves and shot.

Initially, the United States backed those of us who took to the hills to save our lives and freedom, but in 1975 (and here is an irony) Gerald Ford agreed to stop financing us in order to settle a border dispute between Iraq and Iran. As so many times since, human rights were no match for a desire to keep the oil flowing.

For Bush, Joy of Capture Muted at the End

The capture of Saddam Hussein three years ago was a jubilant moment for the White House, hailed by President Bush in a televised address from the Cabinet Room. The execution of Mr. Hussein, though, seemed hardly to inspire the same sentiment.

Before the hanging was carried out in Baghdad, Mr. Bush went to sleep here at his ranch and was not roused when the news came. In a statement written in advance, the president said the execution would not end the violence in Iraq.