Saddam Hussein Hanging LIVE Thread

[AVNevis]

Since it now seems very imminent, I decided that it was an appropriate time to start this up. Links to information and pictures (if we get them) can be posted here.

[Sacajaweau]

Kinda like...."give him enough rope"...and he'll hang himself.

[steveegg]

Is he dead yet?

Y'know the boys in the newsroom
Got a running bet.

[Earthdweller]

It must still be dark in Baghdad. Do they hang people in the dark there?

If not..we may have to wait a while.

[SE Mom]

OMG this is almost hilarious waiting for Saddam to hang.

[doug from upland]

[mewzilla]

Really, really sorry that our guys never threw the grenade into the spider hole.

I saw a former military man, on MSNBC IIRC, making that same point yesterday :)

[retrokitten]

Happy New Year! Good to 'see' you!

[sageb1]

"Midnight their time, I suspect"

9:50 p.m. now in Baghdad.

[najida]

I'll ask again in the next hour or so :)

[Rte66]

Wow! Julia Roberts is preggers again? Thanks for the news, lol!

[oldenuff2no]

They should have built an outhouse on top of that spider hole and invited the military to rest over night in that area. They would have had to burn it in a few days to get rid of the stink.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Well if you can't trust Reuters and the AP, who can you...

Never mind.

[null and void]

Prediction: Saddam hangs news >> massive stampede at Hajj.

KEWL!

[ssaftler]

Do you want another recount?

Yes, and keep doing it until it comes out in the favor of the Live Saddams. I KNOW that this is a vast Right-Wing Conspiracy to keep Saddam from his rightful place as President for Life of Iraq!

[ARealMothersSonForever]

The back-channel negotiations must be intense. I will be surprised if they actually hang him now. None of the newsies are mentioning the clemency built in to the Iraqi law regarding the death penalty. Wonder why?

[bray]

Will the DNC lower its Hammer & Sickle to half staffed??

Pray for W and Our Troops

[MeekOneGOP]

[Steve_Seattle]

"Too far on a lard ass and it's no longer a hanging, it's a decapitation."

Here in Washington a few years ago, there was an obese prisoner who got a judge to declare his upcoming hanging unconstitutional for that very reason - the guy was so fat that any hanging would have decapitated him. But I think the guy later died in prison of natural causes, a heart attack or kidney failure, I think.

[sodpoodle]

It strains credulity to believe that the WH & DOD were not already fully informed and participating in the security planning.

"Pentagon: U.S. forces ready for violence"

That statement is a little redundant^

[Theresawithanh]

This waiting is driving me crazy, with all the conflicting reports I'm reading here and seeing on TV. GET ON WITH IT, ALREADY, HANG THE B@SSTURD!

[r-q-tek86]

"he's not dead yet..."

[mewzilla]

From this link...

Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves:

Since the Saddam Hussein regime was overthrown in May, 270 mass graves have been reported. By mid-January, 2004, the number of confirmed sites climbed to fifty-three. Some graves hold a few dozen bodies—their arms lashed together and the bullet holes in the backs of skulls testimony to their execution. Other graves go on for hundreds of meters, densely packed with thousands of bodies.

"We've already discovered just so far the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair on November 20 in London. The United Nations, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) all estimate that Saddam Hussein's regime murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people. "Human Rights Watch estimates that as many as 290,000 Iraqis have been 'disappeared' by the Iraqi government over the past two decades," said the group in a statement in May. "Many of these 'disappeared' are those whose remains are now being unearthed in mass graves all over Iraq."

If these numbers prove accurate, they represent a crime against humanity surpassed only by the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Pol Pot's Cambodian killing fields in the 1970s, and the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.

[sam_paine]

IT WAS YOU ON THE GRASSY KNOLL WASN'T IT !

Yes, it wasn't!

[Rte66]

Ha, I accidentally left the sound on a TV infomercial the other night and they were touting their product as being praised by

"Rooters"

LMAO - you know it must be good!

[weegee]

Heard an hourly update on 740AM, Houston's only "news" radio station (slowly migrating to News-Talk, with the move of Rush from their declining "talk" station, 950AM).
Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

The local anchor said that "they" would provide full coverage on that station, including any violence that breaks out in Iraq as a result.

To me that was an odd stance for a reporter to take. Perhaps there will be mass celebrations in Iraq.

I never hear them say "we will provide full coverage of the post-victory riots" after the Superbowl, World Series, etc. even though violence DOES break out.

[awakened]

LOL

[Wolfstar]

Thanks for the article. I suspect there will be a round of increased violence, but hope that once Hussein is well and truly dead, that will be the beginning of the end of sectarian violence there.

[MeekOneGOP]

Yep!

Poetic justice would be SADdam pitched into
that GIANT shredder he used on his own people!

[Tijeras_Slim]

"I stood in line for 6 hours, and they're all out of corndogs! STAMPEDE! STAMPEDE!"

[A_perfect_lady]

Picturing Ramsey Clark singing "Let Him GO!" Bush and Cheney singing "We will not let him go"

Oh man, please, please let someone who is really good with graphics read that...

[FreeReign]

Somehow, our wrath toward OBL has been distracted and lessened by the daily watch of this pending execution.

Not me. Both have my multi-wrathing attention. :)

[Steve_Seattle]

"The local anchor said that "they" would provide full coverage on that station, including any violence that breaks out in Iraq as a result."

It might be hard to distinguish any hanging-related violence from the violence that's already happening on a daily basis. It's not as if the Saddamites have been holding back anything.

[awakened]

Good to know! The day that OBL dies, hopefully we won't be on Free Republic but rather dancing in the streets! :)

[retrokitten]

LOL!!

[NonValueAdded]

Is he dead yet? is he dead yet? is he dead yet?

[TexKat]

U.S. official in Baghdad says Saddam in U.S. custody

18 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein was still in U.S. custody on Friday evening, a U.S. official in Baghdad said, denying reports that the U.S. military had handed the former president over to Iraqi authorities to be hanged.

"He is still in U.S. custody," a U.S. official in Baghdad told Reuters.

An appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam's November 5 death sentence for crimes against humanity for the killings, torture and other crimes against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail. U.S. and Iraqi officials have given conflicting reports of when he will be hanged.

Although legally in Iraqi custody, U.S. troops have hitherto physically kept guard over Saddam and are expected to hold on to him until the last minute to avoid security breaches.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061229/ts_nm/iraq_saddam_handover_denial_dc_1

[null and void]

It's the swing
It's the swing like a pendulum
It marks the moments as the years go by on an innocent face
The swing, into never never land

There was a darkness like an old friend
That scratched and crawled up the wall
Into my life
Into my destiny
Into my desire

It's the swing
It's the swing like a pendulum
So look behind you when the race has run
And the winner is made

The swing into never never land
There was a darkness like an old friend
That scratched and crawled up the wall
Into my life

Well it's the swing
The swing like a pendulum
Between the kisses and between the lines
There is nothing to hide

The swing into never never land
There was a darkness like an old friend
That scratched and crawled up the wall
Into my life
Into my destiny
Into my desire

Yeah, the swing
It's the swing like a pendulum

It's the swing
It's the swing like a pendulum

It's the swing

[Luke Skyfreeper]

State Department says it's their understanding Saddam has NOT been handed over yet. State Department is suggesting it may be a few more days.

This per Fox News on the radio.

[Chuck54]

Picturing Ramsey Clark singing "Let Him GO!"

Reminds one of Whorealdo Rivera in NO standing like Moses in front of some building, weeping, almost crying out loud; "Let these people go".

I was shouting at the TV; GO where you idiot?

[HAL9000]

AFP via translation -

Saddam carried out Saturday or in five days, at the end of Aid Al-Adha

BAGHDAD - “All the documents necessary to the execution” of Saddam Hussein were supplemented and the Iraqi former president will be hung Saturday before the paddle or Thursday at the end of the Moslem Al-Adha festival, announced to Friday a deputy and collaborator of the Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

“All the documents necessary to its execution were supplemented. Saddam does not have any any more for very a long time before the application of the sentence”, declared in AFP Sami Al-Askari.

“The execution will take place either Saturday before the paddle, or immediately after the congès of Aid Al-Adha”, four days later, affirmed Mr. Askari.

Saddam Hussein, her half-brother Barzan Al-Tikriti, former chief of the services of information, and the former president of the revolutionary tribunal Awad Al-Bandar were condemned to died by hanging on November 5 for the execution of 148 villagers Shiites of Doujail (northern of Baghdad), in the years 1980, in reprisals with an attack against the presidential convoy.

The call of the former president was rejected Tuesday by the Iraqi justice, which specified that Saddam Hussein and its two lieutenants were to be hung under 30 days.

[A_perfect_lady]

I don't get the "host on the sun", but did you see An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge? If you did, you are probably the only one besides myself. It was great!

I beg your pardon, I saw it in 9th grade English class. I was riveted. And totally creeped out, but in a fascinated sort of way.

[steveegg]

I see Baghdad Bob has found a new job as a spokesman for the State Department...

"We are absolutely certain
Saddam Hussein is still in
American custody."

[NonValueAdded]

...until the last minute to avoid security breaches.

Aye, there's the concern. Will there be a desperate rescue attempt or will Saddam's supporters see more value in him as a martyr than a living symbol? Prayers for our military.

[TexKat]

Fox News thinks that this is a presidential election. They have been reporting back and forth since early this morning.

[najida]

Drat!

[awakened]

Yes but they're also saying that reports of SH still being held by the US are strictly for security reasons and probably not true. My money is on the Iraqi's having him.

[steveegg]

U.S. official in Baghdad says Saddam in U.S. custody

Baghdad Bob? (see above)

[FreeReign]

The local anchor said that "they" would provide full coverage on that station, including any violence that breaks out in Iraq as a result. To me that was an odd stance for a reporter to take. Perhaps there will be mass celebrations in Iraq.

Yep.

There will be celebrations all across Iraq and the media won't cover it.

A handful of former Baathists and their al-Qaeda handler will do something violent and the cameras will role.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

The Maliki government would just be chickensh!t enough to keep Hussein alive. Distracting the Iraqi people away from the corruption and incompetence of the Maliki government, and blaming the US for Hussein not being executed.