R.I.P. Saddam

I refuse to call Saddam a tyrant, due to his protection of Orthodox Christian minorities in Iraq. As well calling a leader of a country a tyrant is the favourite tactic of the Empire to demonise a leader as the devil incarnate and use this as a pretext to bomb and occupy entire countries. The media is always mobilised to blacken someone beyond redemption; to even accept it in the slightest is to give some kind of oxygen to the grotesque lies. So for instance, some will say the war was immoral or illegal, but then they backtrack in an effort to compromise and somehow better fit the media image that has been spun by saying, but Saddam was evil and the country is better off without him. Imagine if I were to go and rob a property, killing family members and executing the head of the household in an attempt to plunder the property. What kind of an excuse would it be to say: 'Oh he was evil and a tyrant'. That may well be, but thats hardly an excuse for the crimes I commited, and no one would have accepted that excuse as a reason for robbing the house and killing people, so why accept it after the event? Anyone that agreed with with the statement about the original occupant being evil would be to some extent playing down the original crime itself, and justifying the completely unjustifiable criminal act that occured. If you give the Empire an inch they take a mile, I refuse to retreat in the slightest, and will not parrot even 1% of their excuses or apologetics for their heinous acts.

Saddam has been hanged. Off course those who sufferred under his 20+ years of rule welcomed and likely rejoiced at his execution. Who else rejoiced, those who masterminded the Imperial invasion of Iraq in 2003, the very same people who gave Hussein weapons and support back in the 1980s, who also are the people without whose assisgtance the atrocities he was hanged for could not of occured. Debating the fairness of his trial or the legitimacy of the court is pointless now. Onething can be certain, the timing of the execution again shows the stupidity of the American Imperialists.

The execution occured on the first day of Eid al-adha, the Feast of Sacrifice that marks the end of the hajj (the annual muslim pilgrimmage to Mecca). It is a holiday marked by ritual slaughter of lambs - sacrifices - to celebrate the fulfillment of Muslims' religious duty to make pilgrimage to Mecca

Because he was executed on that day (one of the most holy days to Muslims) and the fact that his last words (reportedly) called for jihad (http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=fcf9e950-c3c8-46a2-ad44-6c7d02b55c66&k=91791), Saddam Hussein may well become a martyr for millions of Muslims. That's a long way from being a secular dictator who waged war on the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 1980s. And it was American intervention that created "Saddam the martyr," of that there is no question.

Napoleon's foreign minister, Talleyrand, once commented on a politically motivated murder: "Worse than a crime, it was a blunder." (quoated at http://www.sslmit.unibo.it/%7Eguy/tan.htm). While I consider the 2003 invasion and the subsequent occupation of Iraq clearly evil, the execution of Saddam Hussein, and on a major Islamic holiday no less, is seriously and utterly stupid.

This execution should not be unexpected, Saddam was clearly marked for execution when he was captured in late 2003 especially since the Americans, Englandand their ally Israel have wanted to destroy the secular and nationalist regime Saddam had in Iraq. It is clear that Saddam was an enemy of Israel and Turkey (all American allies) (http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/01/setting_the_rec.html). It is clear that he was their enemy as he has always supported the cause of the Palestinians (being one opf their few true allies in the world) and he himself hwelped many anti-Turkey projects including supporting the PKK (http://www.hri.org/news/turkey/trkpr/2000/00-12-19.trkpr.html#16), the Kurdish resistance movement in Turkey even though Kurds have designs to detach northern Iraq from Iraq.

The worst part of the U.S. invasion is that Orthodox Christians in Iraq will suffer. Sadaam's right hand man until the bitter end was Arab Orthodox Christian Tariq Aziz, and the Orthodox Christians in Iraq, prior to the American-British invasion that commenced three years ago, were by some estimates close to 20percent of the population, arguably the highest Orthodox Christian population in the Muslim-dominated region, and many ,many times higher than the respective Orthodox Christian populations of Israel or Turkey , which are closer to a grim one percent of the overall population. It's a shame that the liberal/leftist media and governments in Orthodox countries were always quick to condemn BOTH the American invasion and Saddam due to his "human rights" record! I guess the fact that fellow Orthodox Christians , by the hundreds of thousands, lived in relative peace throughout his reign , is irrelevant to the parochial mindset of a democratic denizen in the world. His benevolent and protective policy toward our fellow Orthodox Christians, who can now face the grim and ever depleting fate of Orthodox Christians in democracies such as Israel and Turkey, this is evidently clear as most estimates place that of those who have fled Iraq's civil war a minimum of 40% are Orthodox Christians with some saying that 80% are.

'Dubya' issued a statement saying that Saddam's execution was "the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime". If Saddam did any evil he will be judged by God for it. But an American show trial, after an immoral invasion, after a monstrous lie is not justice for anyone.

Bush thought that sleeping through the execution on his ranch would help to create the image that this was Iraqi justice, nothing could be further from the truth. America acted illegally according to their beloved international law (remember that the reason for half their invasions is to uphold it). Firstly occupying powers under international law are expressly prohibited from changing the judicial structures of occupied states. Secondly prisoners of war (and the Americans concede Saddam was one) are not allowed to be handed over for trial by their former enemies. Thirdly as a former head of state Saddam is afforded sovereign immunity to prosecution, and you cannot pass retrospective laws to counter this.

Created by Paul Bremer, the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court was never anything but a US-orchestrated puppet court. Violations of commonly accepted principles of law include (this is an incomplete list):
(i)American imposed censorship of court proceedings
(ii)Withholding of evidence from the defence
(iii)Forcible ejection from court of defence lawyers and the placing of defence lawyers under house arrest
(iv)Denial of defence counsel access to defendants
(v)Blatant lack of impartiality of court judges
(vi)Overt political interference in the selection of court officials and the prejudicing of the trial and trial outcome by statements made by invested political figures — including George W Bush — affirming progress towards, or demanding, execution
(vii)The replacement of four of the five originally selected court judges
(viii)Lack of equality of arms between the prosecution and the defence
(ix)Failure to ensure the security of the defence leading to the murder of three defence lawyers

Some trial when one judge resigns due to American interference, and the next is fired by the Americans. Saddam was executed after a 'trial' about the events surrounding the attempted assassination of him in a shiite town. America purposefully made sure that he was executed before much bigger issues such as the gassing of Kurds, the invasion of Iran and Kuwait could be investigated. Their complicity in supplying Saddam with weapons and encouragement would have been uncovered. Yet they use these alleged human rights abuses as reasons to depose him (in retrospect, since that wasnt the reason given at the time of the invasion). Yet Margaret Beckett, the British Foreign Secretary, claimed that Saddam had been "held to account".The cherry on the mountainous cake of lies came after Saddams execution. Even in death they tried to smear him. Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said that Saddam went to the gallows quietly:
"He was very, very, broken." He said that Saddam turned to look at him. "He was frightened. It was clear in his face."

This moron clearly has the same respect for the general publics intelligence that Bliar does. Did he not consider that the video footage his government ordered shot would reveal the emptiness of his lies?

Saddam went to his death shouting: "God is great. The nation will be victorious. Palestine is Arab." Judge Moneer Haddad, one of the appeal court judges who had been invited to watch Saddam die said:
"he was not afraid of anyone, it was a terrifying scene. Saddam was in self-control. I was not expecting him to be like that".