Guilty!

Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. The former Iraqi president was convicted by a Baghdad court for his role in the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail in 1982.




"Long live Iraq! Long live the Iraqi people! Down with the traitors!"


More like "Long live my bathist Sunni Bretheren" who have persecuted the Iraqi people for a generation. Saddam Hussein could care less about the Iraqi people and this is just the first trial.

From MyWay/AP

Some feared the verdicts could exacerbate the sectarian violence that has pushed the country to the brink of civil war, after a trial that stretched over nine months in 39 sessions and ended nearly 3 1/2 months ago. Clashes immediately began Sunday in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district. Elsewhere in the capital, celebratory gunfire rang out.

"This government will be responsible for the consequences, with the deaths of hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands, whose blood will be shed," Salih al-Mutlaq, a Sunni political leader, told the Al-Arabiya satellite television station.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants were on trial for a wave of revenge killings carried out in the city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt on the former dictator. Al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa party, then an underground opposition, has claimed responsibility for organizing the attempt on Saddam's life.

In the streets of Dujail, a Tigris River city of 84,000, people celebrated and burned pictures of their former tormentor as the verdict was read.

The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel, which has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days.

Nov 5, 5:59 AM (ET)By JAMAL HALABY

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis on Sunday to reject the sectarian violence ripping his country apart and to "not take revenge" on U.S. forces, his chief lawyer said after the ousted leader was sentenced to death.

"The message from President Saddam to his people came during a meeting in Baghdad this morning, just before the so-called Iraqi court issued its verdict in his trial," Khalil al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Baghdad.

Was Hussein for this violence before he was against it?

More links to follow........

Update: Links: Check out Michelle Malkin, Captain's Quarters, and Art Downs at Common Sense Political Thought

Here's a teaser from Art's post:

A public hanging of Saddam Hussein would be an appropriate ending for a monster and is a form of ‘back to basics’ that might be adopted elsewhere. A certain squeamishness about public executions has denied the public the proper degree of closure. Television could provide a universality of coverage that would allow the less connected a view of how some folks pay for their misdeeds.

We have foolishly abandoned hanging. Done with a drop, it is a rather quick form of execution. As a mode of punishment, it long has carried with it a high degree of ignominy. It was once the fate of thieves. Many of aristocratic birth were executed in a more dignified manner, with axe or sword. There was a spiritual benefit to decapitation, in that the deceased was typically buried in consecrated ground and permitted a religious ceremony. For centuries, hanged felons were left to rot on the gallows until their remains fell, to be swept into a common pit with the residue of other thugs. Read the rest here

Update 2: War Ending Soon in Iraq, women, children, liberals---hardest hit.