Posted on 05/14/2006 10:09:37 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
THE former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has resigned himself to being sent to the gallows. “I am ready to die,” he told his lawyer and confidante in an interview in his Baghdad prison. “I am not scared of execution.” Saddam is expected to return to court tomorrow for the resumption of a chaotic trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity that has lasted almost seven months.
“I do not attend this trial to spare my life,” he said. “I attend it to defend Iraq.”
Saddam, who refuses all visits from his family, was talking to Bushra Khalil, a Lebanese lawyer in her forties who is now the only woman he meets. In their meetings Saddam often prefers to talk to her about poetry or international relations rather than the minutiae of the defence case.
Khalil told The Sunday Times of an intimate five-hour interview conducted with Saddam in his prison within the past few weeks.
He confided that he had no fear of death and seemed to have accepted his fate. “I took the decision to die the day I tried to assassinate Abdel Karim Qasim,” he said, referring to a botched coup against a former leader that forced him to flee the country in 1959. In Iraq, hanging is the customary form of capital punishment.
Khalil, who dresses immaculately in western clothes and does not wear a veil, is the only woman on the defence team. She is also brave. Since the trial began last October two lawyers acting for Saddam’s co-defendants have been killed. A third fled the country after an attempt on his life.
Khalil was taken from Baghdad airport to Saddam’s secret prison in a van with blacked-out windows. Saddam sat in a windowless hall measuring 36ft by 16ft with a guard in front of both entrances. A table and five chairs stood in the centre. The guards left and Khalil could tell the building was close to the airport as she could hear planes taking off and landing.
She found Saddam in a resolute mood. “If the invasion happened again I would stay in Iraq. I was right to stay in my country with my people,” he told her, explaining why he had not fled when he had the chance.
He seemed fit and well. “I get on very well with my American bodyguards,” he said. “They are changed frequently but we get to know each other, I like them and we become friends.”
An Arabic-speaking American guard confirmed Saddam’s comment, telling Khalil: “His personality is very different from what we expected.”
Khalil is highly critical of the way the trial has been managed. “This court does not respect the rule of law and it is not independent,” she said. “The Americans are guiding the direction of the case and the decisions will inevitably be political.”
As a Shi’ite Muslim defending a widely hated Sunni dictator, Khalil has come under heavy criticism for representing him. But she is unrepentant, claiming that Saddam in power resembled other Middle Eastern presidents with ambitions to build a strong country.
Saddam was far more interested in discussing foreign affairs with her than his own trial. “Saddam said US involvement in Iraq had bolstered Iranian military ambitions,” Khalil said. “He believes the Iranians know the United States will not attack Iran while they are entangled in the Iraqi conflict.”
According to Khalil, Saddam has been so isolated that he first saw the notorious pictures showing the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by US guards at Abu Ghraib prison when she produced them in court in April.
“I was scared as his eyes were focused so intensely on the pictures and I could see the shock on his face,” she said. Khalil first met Saddam soon after the bombing of the golden-domed mosque in Samarra in February. She had wanted to talk to him about the conduct of the trial but he did not want to discuss it. Instead he was worried about the latest events.
“In the second meeting we had more time and we spoke about different topics — the trial, international affairs and poetry. I gave him a book by Al-Mutanabbi (regarded as one of the greatest Arab poets) and he was very happy to receive it as he had wanted to read it.”
During their last meeting, Saddam told her he had written a new epic work. “I didn’t have time to write poetry before,” the dictator said, “but now I have had the time to become a poet.”
FROM ODE TO IRAQ
My spirit is still standing firm and will not fall, And in my body runs the blood of the great. Oh Iraq you are crowned in the heart And on the tongue you are the poem of the poets. Oh Iraq misfortune has shaken your sword, so stand tall And gather your strength without bearing a grudge.
Saddam Hussein
Ping
Good. Because I'm ready to watch.
And I'm sure the hangman's more than ready for him.
i still think they should hold a lottery among the victims families to see who gets him for an hour...
WHy not give him a bomb and let him strap it to himself and blow himself up.
Riiiiiiiight... you're not at the end of your rope yet, but you're closer!
The SHREDDER! Give him the SHREDDER!
JOSE MANUEL MIGUEL XAVIER GONZALEZ, in a few short weeks it will be spring. The snows of winter will flow away, the ice will vanish, the air will become soft and balmy. In short, JOSE MANUEL MIGUEL XAVIER GONZALEZ, the annual miracle of the years will awaken, and come to pass.
But you won't be there.
The rivers will run their soaring course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of the imperial domain will blossom as the rose.
Still, you won't be there to see.
From every treetop some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happy as it pursues its accustomed vocation, the gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses and all nature, JOSE MANUEL MIGUEL XAVIER GONZALEZ, will be glad but you.
You won't be there to enjoy it because I command the sheriff of the county to lead you away to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of some sturdy oak, and let you hang until you are dead.
And then, JOSE MANUEL MIGUEL XAVIER GONZALEZ, I further command that such officer retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing remains but bare bleached bones of a cold-blooded, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheep-herding, murdering son of a bitch.
Fantastic,Sadaam.I say an icepick to the back of your head would do nicely.
And,Sadaam...there's gonna be a surprise for ya in the next life....all 72 of your virgins are gonna look like Yassir Arafat.
Bump to the top.
Well, that's nice, but what makes him think he's going to get away with an easy death like hanging?
Come on, at least he isnt a whining weasley wuss about it. It's nice to see one of these guys actually act like a man and look death in the face. Of course, it doesn't mean that death isn't too good for him. I would prefer a long, tortuous demise - but if this is the best we get, sobeit.
i think the US is going to intervene and give saddam Life.
Birds in the air
Fish in the sea
I hope when they hang me
They don't put it on DVD
Saddam Hussein
Well then! LET'S ROLL!
Two questions:
1. Why in Allah's name would you think that?
2. What is your problem with improper use of capital letters?
Good.
Actually, he's not unless he's accepted Christ. We can pray for him. It won't save his life, but it will save his eternity.
Step right on up, Saddam, and please, show a little dignity. Don't mess your pants on the way up, OK...
Still would like to know which method of hanging they use there, Hoist up from a standing position, resulting in a choking death or the long drop in which a trap door opens and death comes from snapped vertebrae.
Good question. The Nuremburg defendants got the old "short drop and a quick stop", so I would imagine that's what our military would use. But I don't think our guys will get the pleasure. This is in the hands of the Iraquis.
I read recently that somewhere in the middle east they were attaching the rope to a crane and hoisting the perps aloft, but I don't know if there's a "controlling legal precedent" for the way the Iraquis will do it.
Let's keep asking around. Many people don't know of the different types.
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