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OPEN ROPE THREAD
The Saddam Hussein verdict may be delivered shortly.
UPDATE. Peaceniks complained when Saddam had his teeth examined, was photographed in saggy old underpants, and endured insufficiently luxurious living conditions. They’ll be relieved that Saddam is soon to be liberated of these earthly concerns.
Either a short rope or a stretchy one. Either would work nicely.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 05 at 02:27 AM • permalinkAssuming he’s sentenced to death, stand by for leftoids claiming the verdict was orchestrated to help Republicans in the mid-term elections.
Posted by Stone Cold on 2006 11 05 at 02:40 AM • permalinkThe thing about this death thing is that when it’s over, it’s over. There will be yelling and ranting and bombing and lawyers flying here and there and meetings and grim pronouncements and then..
the guy will drop from the scaffold
and
we will ALL just move on. Maybe with a cold beer. Or, if you’re Muzzie, a bag of candy.I don’t suppose they’d consider doing a “two for the price of one” deal and swing Kofi at the same time?
*sigh*...one can only dream.Posted by Crusader-Rabbit on 2006 11 05 at 02:41 AM • permalinkFrom “CANNIBAL: THE MUSICAL” -
Hang the bastard, hang him high!
Hoist his body to the sky.
When his body stops jerking we’ll know,
It’s the end of him, it’s the end of him,
It’s the end of him!
And the end of the show!Posted by richard20_bris on 2006 11 05 at 02:55 AM • permalink#4 You weren’t kidding. From the article:
The former leader’s lawyers have also attacked the timing of the planned verdict - days before the US votes in mid-term elections.
I have a different problem with the timing - He should have been convicted and sentenced years ago and has instead been the subject of UN style efficiency. For the same reason, Koffi Annan will probably be indicted for Oil for Food and any number of other criminal activities long after everybody has forgotten who he was. Certainly after the media have lost interest.
A shame.
#14 PeterTB: Sorry chaps, but I can’t support the death penalty even for this piece of work.
Imagine Adolf Hitler in Spandau, say, living almost as long as Rudolf Hess, having visitors and being a very potent focus of Nazi Worship for decades after 1945.
ADD all Hitler’s henchmen who were executed after Nuremburg.Now, If THAT seems like ‘justice and wisdom’, or even common security sense, let us all know.
And the Associated Press have already declared that they are against the death penalty and
accused the Iraqi PM of duplicity(Slightly) OT: If you’re tired of waiting for an Australian TV channel to air “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War against the West” (what? And bump “Rove Live” or “Quizmania”? I hear the programmers cry) then you can obtain the torrent here. (You’ll need BitTorrent, Azureus or similar).
Fox News are airing it five times this weekend for those of you within reception range.
#18 Barrie
Imagine Adolf Hitler in Spandau, say, living almost as long as Rudolf Hess, having visitors and being a very potent focus of Nazi Worship for decades after 1945.
And Nazi loyalists taking hostages demanding he be released.
I used to believe it would be cathartic for Saddam’s crimes to be detailed one by one for all the world to see. But now I realise that it is pointless, as he’s played to the Media and turned the trial into a circus. He should have been turned over to those Iraqis who shouted curses at his image on the television monitor when his capture was announced. A little Mussolini-style citizens’ justice would’ve been better.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 11 05 at 04:13 AM • permalink#10 defenestration has its drawbacks, notably illustrated by the second defenestration of prague where the outcome was less than satisfactory
While the history buff in me is rather partial to the short drop and sudden stop (dance mofo dance), I’m still a think the leg of ham is the way to go, preferably wielded by a big Kurdish guy.
What about if they grease the rope with pig fat? How would that effect his chances with the virgins?
Either way, just make sure the drop is too short for a clean break…
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 05 at 04:24 AM • permalinkA MELBOURNE grandmother has accused Muslim cleric Sheik Taj el-Din el-Hilaly of inciting racial hatred and of sexual discrimination.
Elaine Davidson made her complaint against the “divisive” mufti to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission this week.
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 05 at 04:38 AM • permalinkTo handle the verdict uprising the SMH reports: NSW riot squad to double in size. But what about SMH report on the crime family of Middle Eastern background in south-west Sydney had imported the RPGs weapons within the past four years, at the height of a drug turf war against a rival family.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2006 11 05 at 04:55 AM • permalinkI just noticed that I have the same tie as the chief judge is wearing. How fucking wierd is that?
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 05 at 05:03 AM • permalinkA quick google of “saddam death” shows headlines screaming that there’s going to be a bloodbath, but from this a couple of weeks ago:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq’s prime minister says Saddam Hussein’s execution would help undermine the insurgency as the ex-president’s genocide trial heard more testimony Thursday of poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages two decades ago.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he hoped the trial, which began in August, would not last long and “shortly a death sentence will be passed against this criminal tyrant, his aides and the criminals who worked with him.”
“Definitely, with his execution, those betting on returning to power under the banner of Saddam and the Baath (Party) will lose,” al-Maliki told reporters Wednesday in Najaf.
Regardless of which way it goes, it will certainly be interesting
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 11 05 at 05:29 AM • permalinkSaddam’s impending demise is worth celebrating with a drink:
Hang Man’s Joke
1 part Vodka
3 parts Coke
3 parts Strawberry Juice—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 11 05 at 05:32 AM • permalinkIf there is to be an all out civil war in Iraq, let it come. We can leave and let them slaughter each other until there is no one left. If they can’t take what was handed to them on a platter, then they deserve what comes, and we’ve learned a valuable lesson—that a compassionate, sensitive, altruistic war kills more people than any war fought to kill the will to fight in an enemy ever did—a lesson that Sherman taught us way back in 1865. If we’ll take the lesson, it will save the lives of our troops next go ‘round. That there will be a next go ‘round has been assured by the way this round has been fought.
Saddam ought to have been shot on sight. This trial was but an excuse and a stage for propaganda for the enemy. The fact that the guilty verdict will be used as an excuse to escalate the civil war is evidence enough of that.
Remember that he won’t be hung in the immediate future. They will allow for endless reviews (think California) which will take years. The whole farce is a formula for assured bloodshed.
I heard a snippet that the Judge tossed ramsay clark out on his ass. Searching now
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 11 05 at 06:00 AM • permalinkFrom Kuwait News Agency:
“One defendant acquitted, Clark kicked out of courtroom BAGHDAD, Nov 5 (KUNA)—Defense attorney of Saddam Hussein, former US attorney general Ramsey Clark was kicked out of the courtroom by Judge Rauof Rashid Abdulrahman, during the ruling session of Al-Dujail trial.
The judge justified his action by saying that Clark, a member of Saddam’s international defense team, offended the court and the Iraqi people.
“Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 11 05 at 06:03 AM • permalink#47, Salty, apparently after a single review by 9 judges, Saddam will swing within 30 days.
At least thats what they just said on sky news…
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 05 at 06:09 AM • permalinkUpdate: Another talking head just said “by the end of the year”.
Well I supose thats as good a Christmas present as Iraq can wish for atm…
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 05 at 06:13 AM • permalinkThe only thing Islam understands is tyranny.
Islam and freedom go together like oil and water.We perhaps would all be better off if Saddam was profusely apologised to, released, reinstated as President of Iraq, rearmed with more and better weapons and let loose on all the Islamic world.
Then we crush him.
Jolly good show, although a pity the old additions were not wheeled out.
“You are to be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, where you are to be hanged, but not till you are dead; for while still living, your body is to be taken down, your privy parts cut away and burnt before your eyes and burnt before your face; your head is then cut off, and your body divided into four quarters.”
A punishment for treason, not what he was condemned for, certainly. But it has a long sense of tradition to it.
Posted by Simon Darkshade on 2006 11 05 at 06:34 AM • permalink#55, Yeah that sounds about right from what I’ve heard so far, my understanding is that he only gets one appeal.
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 05 at 06:34 AM • permalinkCNN is showing a press conference where a ‘court official’ has said that the appellate court has no specific deadline and will take as much time as it needs to consider its decision.
On the basis of that (and that Saddam’s trial has taken more than a year), I believe his execution will probably take place next year.
When Leunig gets home tonight he will be so upset he’ll kick the duck!
Posted by curious george on 2006 11 05 at 06:53 AM • permalink#65, crash:
Otherwise how can we claim to be decent people who want a safer and better world for ALL.
Since when? Better world for all? Even the enemy?
I don’t know about the rest of y’all but the only world I want for my enemy is a really miserable, ugly, painful, degrading, dehumanizing, nasty and quickly disappearing world.
#65, “We at this blog are expected to observe a reasonable standard of behaviour surely. ”
If you think drawing and quartering is that bad, you really dont want to hear my honest opinion then…
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 05 at 09:22 AM • permalinkWe at this blog are expected to observe a reasonable standard of behaviour surely.
Otherwise how can we claim to be decent people who want a safer and better world for ALL.
Can we just calm down a little,just askin?We’re talking about the tyrant who started the Iran-Iraq war. Who invaded Kuwait. Who launched the “Anfal” campaign of extermination against the Kurds—gassing them, ordering entire villages executed. Who mounted a campaign of extermination against the marsh Arabs.
We might cry at the end of “Old Yeller”, but that’s for the memory of what Old Yeller was before he got rabies. Saddam was nothing but rabid, his entire life; his end is cause for joy. His is one of those cases in which the end of a human life does not diminish, but rather enlarges, humanity.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 11 05 at 09:48 AM • permalinkCrash, its times like this we need to send an example. To coin a phrase, ‘hangin’s too good for him’.
Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2006 11 05 at 09:55 AM • permalinkPart of me would prefer he get the Gas Chamber - with the same mix he used on the Kurds.
I’m against the Death penalty on principle - it corrodes the soul of the executioner - but while he lives, Ba’athists might take hostages.
I hope his death is swift and painless. Not for his sake, but for ours. It’s not justice, but it’s the best we can do, for our sakes, not his.
I just wish it had been swifter. 15 years ago would have been good. 20 even better.
And yes, I’d be quite willing to put the rope around his neck and incur the Karmic Burden for doing that. It needs doing.
Sorry chaps, but I can’t support the death penalty even for this piece of work.
I can.
The key is to avoid making him a rallying point - but I don’t know how that might be achieved.
Hang him.
And crash: all we really need is for you to put spaces after your commas. Is your space bar broken? Try cleaning out your keyboard with one of those cans of air. Really, it makes whatever you write difficult to read, and sometimes your run-on sentences with no spaces confounds the software here and breaks the page. (There was a post several posts back where this happened, usually it’s a long url but this time the culprit was one of your screeds, and I just left it—it would have taken me forever to break it up.)
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 05 at 10:24 AM • permalinkEverything you need to know about process of judicial hanging.
It’s common punctuation, the same as on a typewriter. comma—space bar. It’s not difficult—I see you manage to do it sometimes.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 05 at 10:59 AM • permalinkHave an Iraq wide lottery, One winner gets to chose the method the other to perform it.
As long as they can prove they lost a family member.
Televise it.
Romania anyone?Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 11 05 at 11:06 AM • permalinkI’m thinking tradition: We seal him up in a barrel lined with nails (pointy ends in with him) and roll it down a long hill into the sea.
Or, cut off his arms and legs and let him bleed to death.
Or stone him. Or sew him into a bag and beat him to death with big sticks.
See, I’m trying to be culturally sentive here.
Kill him how ever they want. Dead is dead, afterall.
Its what’s done after that concerns me.
I believe the proper manner of dispensing with the remains would be to dump them into a woodchiper.
Take that slury to a pig farm and feed it to the pigs.
Feed the pigs to dogs.
Feed the dog poop to another batch of pigs.
Parade those pigs through the streets as the new possessers of the pig-doged Saddam.
Then keep a breeding population of those pigs, who’s poop will always be fed to the dogs and every year on the date of his hanging (or whatever execution form), parade them pigs around as a reminder.
Do that for as long as there is a place called Iraq and a langauage called arabic.
If we were being “culturally sensitive”, we would force him to kneel in the nearest soccer stadium and let a big, burly guy in Hammer pants behead him with a scimitar. But I suppose hanging is final enough.
However, I’ll save my celebrating for when he’s actually swinging. It sounds to me like they’re going to try and draw out the appeals process for as long as possible before they finally do the job. I’m betting the guy will die in prison before they get around to it.
And crash: all we really need is for you to put spaces after your commas. Is your space bar broken? Try cleaning out your keyboard with one of those cans of air.
I hate to think why crash’s keyboard might be clogged up. ;)
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 05 at 11:47 AM • permalinkFor this year’s Halloween, Canada’s History Channel had a documentary on British hangmen. Apparently to break the neck properly the knot should be on left side of the head just under the chin and not on the right side (or t’other way around but IIRC it was the left) to avoid strangulation instead of the proper neck-break.
Also, by chance, Grimmy, on the same network they are showing the excellent Deadwood series about the Wild West town in its earliest years. In it, one of the miscreants gives murder victims to Mr. Woo, ostensibly a butcher from the frontier town’s Asian community, to feed to his pigs.
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 05 at 12:50 PM • permalinkI’m not a big fan of the death penalty. It needs to be applied, well, judiciously. That being said, Saddam is the poster child for extermination. First, he would continue to be a pawn if imprisoned for the ridiculous “prisoner swaps” we see all the time with Hezbollah, Hamas and the Israeli’s. Secondly he was a MASS MURDERER. Not just of his enemies. Of their children and other innocents. He killed in the most ghastly ways imaginable. To let those actions stand with a sentence of life imprisonment would encourage others of his ilk. Nope: he needs to die. I agree with Achillea. The Iraqi’s have, through the loss of their blood and treasure, earned the right to put him down in whatever way they see fit.
Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 11 05 at 01:28 PM • permalinkOkay, I’ll stay completely on topic: I’d rather see him get the electric chair so he’d become the “Cheetoh [sp?] Bandito frito”.
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 05 at 02:08 PM • permalinkWhen I worked at the Renaissance Fair in Wisconsin this past summer, there was a fantastic place called The Dungeon- this big concrete castle, only place with air-conditioning in the whole fair- that housed tableaus of medieval torture and execution methods. Animatronic tableaus. Really gruesome stuff, but oddly fascinating.
There was one that was used on extremely unfaithful wives, where nails were driven into the pelvis to secure a chastity belt. Naturally, the victim couldn’t excrete, and died in piss and agony shortly afterwards. They had a department-store mannequin displaying it. Sounds good to me! Mr. Hussein, this way, please . . .
. . . seriously, if we’re going to execute him, I say we make it appropriate. Hanging is good, hanging will always be a classic, but by God I want that man to suffer.
Karma’s a tough burden to bear, and I know it would follow me. But if they gave me the option of being the person to put the noose around his neck and kick him off the platform, then just call me the hangwoman. He should be executed by women, just as a bit of universal irony and revenge.
(soup Nazi voice) No virgins for you!
Posted by Tungsten Monk on 2006 11 05 at 02:13 PM • permalinkTake that slury to a pig farm and feed it to the pigs.
Pigs wouldn’t eat it.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 05 at 08:09 PM • permalinkBack on topic - how long has Ben Kingsley been an Iraqi judge.
Seriously, Kingsley would have to get the part in the telemovie.
65 crash -
If musing on previous punishments for the worst type of traitors and murderers makes me a disgrace, then hand me that badge.
However, I am more of the opinion that it is Saddam and his despicable criminal ilk who are the disgrace, rather than those who bandy words about them.I must have missed the memorandum which said that a reasonable standard of behaviour precludes references to history and to making a memorable example of tyrants. I must have missed the declamation from on high that said that we cannot reflect on ways to punish the enemy in order that it has a lasting effect.
The implications of death by the rope are one thing, and they have already demonstrated their workings on Saddam. Death can send a message.
I do not hold to the notion of administering justice in the manner of a vet. I do not agree with the parallel to a rabid animal, nor the appropriate sanction being such.
There is a big difference between a man and an animal, and it does us discredit to soften someone’s deeds by describing them as such. Hanging is the traditional method of dealing with war criminals. The extras…consult the following paragraph…However, let us get to the crux of the argument - and this one is a killer - and that is that it is simply a case of applying Saddam’s own words to himself. ‘Death to traitors’ and all that was what inspired it; call it an ironic musing. Just giving the man what he is asking for, old boy. :D
Furthermore, it does not logically follow that suggesting an addendum to his sentence -partly in jest, partly in wistful nostalgia and partly in deadly seriousness - in any way precludes the utterer from the category of decency, or from the capability of considering different matters as fit.
I wish for a safe and better world for the right and good people. I’m afraid my mercy for Saddam and his like is not there.
Finally, the closing rejoinder to remain calm is rather bemusing. By what circumstances do you consider the initial post to be not calm? I can’t say I was caught up in a malevolent maelstrom of ichor and bile, furiously typing whilst gnashing my teeth and wailing for all the world to hear.
It could even be said that the only thing that was not calm was a rather kneejerk reaction in your reply. Alas. People read into posts what they wish, sometimes. I had not thought to find it here.
Posted by Simon Darkshade on 2006 11 06 at 08:40 AM • permalinkIt may be small comfort, Darkshade, but I viewed your quoted block of text as ironic musing.
But then, I know its source…
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 11 06 at 05:05 PM • permalinkDarkshade, I couldn’t cite the source of your quoted material, but I did know it was a quote, couldn’t for the life of me come up with where it’s from - I’m not as educated as MentalFloss. To tell you the truth, I think it’s a fair idea of how to deal with such scum as Saddam.
Ironic musing is acceptable - maybe even encouraged - to quite a few commenters on this blog, far as I can tell!
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Let’s here it for a verdict of “death”! Woot! :-D