Friday - December 29, 2006

End Of The Line

_{Mike Thompson - The Detroit Free Press}

Saddam Bids Family Farewell, Hanging Date Unclear
_{BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thu Dec 28, 7:02 PM ET}

Saddam Hussein bade two half brothers farewell on Thursday in a rare prison meeting as he awaits execution, a lawyer said, but U.S. and Iraqi officials gave conflicting accounts of whether he would hang within days. A senior Bush administration official said the ousted president could go to the gallows as soon as Saturday.

But Iraqi officials backed away from suggestions they would definitely hang him within a month and a cabinet minister told Reuters a week-long religious holiday would stall any execution.

“He was in very high spirits and clearly readying himself,” Badie Aref, a defense lawyer, told Reuters after the 69-year-old former leader met half-brothers Watban and Sabawi, who are also both held at the U.S. army’s Camp Cropper near Baghdad airport.

“He told them he was happy he would meet his death at the hands of his enemies and be a martyr, not just languish in jail. He ... gave them letters to his family in anticipation.”

The novelty of the U.S.-sponsored process by which Saddam and his third half-brother Barzan, along with another senior member of the Baath party, were condemned on November 5 has left considerable room for wrangling over the timing of any execution among rival factions and between Washington and Baghdad.

Battling to stave off all-out sectarian civil war, Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had said he wanted Saddam hanged this year for the killings, torture and other crimes against the Shi’ite population of the town of Dujail.

But some of Saddam’s fellow Sunnis have warned this could reinforce their community’s alienation and many ethnic Kurds want Saddam first convicted of genocide against them.

Iraq’s Saddam-era penal code bars executions on religious holidays. Eid al-Adha, coinciding with the haj pilgrimage to Mecca, runs from Friday until work resumes on January 7.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/29/2006 at 01:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Iraq •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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