The big joke in Baghdad. Death is cheap.

On Tuesday, an Iraqi "appeals court" courageously decided Saddam must be hanged. The judge said Saddam must hang within 30 days. That was two days ago. Today, AP reports: "Saddam Hussein will be executed no later than Saturday, said an Iraqi judge authorized to attend his hanging. Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld Saddam's death sentence, said he was ready to attend the execution. "All the measures have been done," Haddad said. "There is no reason for delays."

Wow, this guy sounds like he might have a future on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals when he's eventually forced to flee Iraq after the Green Zone falls. He'll no doubt have a special place in W.'s heart -- who himself known as quite the execution signing type -- for giving him something to point to as success in Iraq.

Man they don't fool around in Iraq, no Siree. Why wait? Let's kill him!

Nuri al-Maliki, our bastard in Baghdad, said: "Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence." Yes, because killing is all about Human Rights.

Eye for an eye, it's all so Biblical. Maybe, Chrisitians and Muslims can find common ground, after all. Lucky, though, that that damn Catholic bastard L. Paul Bremer isn't running the show anymore. He actually supended the death sentence in Iraq. Can you imagine? The Pope is against the death penalty? What?

I found this paragraph in the AP story above interesting:

"In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis. 'Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam,' said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI, the dominant party in al-Maliki's coalition.

Didn't W. just invite Sciri's leader to the White House, a man Robert Dreyfus calls a "mass murder?" Sounds like our kind of people. We've dealt with mass murderers before. At least he's a man of religious convictions.

Gosh, it seems like it was just yesterday that Achmad Chalabi's nephew Salem, the head of the Iraq Special Tribunal, was saying that the minute Bremer turned over the keys "The Iraqi government has to affirmatively take that step to lift the suspension." Of course, he was also speculating that Saddam and other regime figured would be handed over the minute Iraq gained "sovereignty," to.

It looks like today, that no onw seems to know where exactly Saddam is.

Anyway, my question is: why are they even bothering to put on this charade of a tribunal and then a trial? Beyond a few Central Asian dictatorships and maybe the junta in Burma who’s really buying the fiction that Saddam got a fair trial? His few surviving defense lawyers either, spent most of their time getting thrown out of court, or had to flee the country fearing for their lives. I’m not saying Saddam is the wounded party here, but common,’ give me a break!

The Iraqis are in such a rush to off Saddam that they’re not even going to let him long enough to finish the trial he’s currently defending himself in. This one involves the gassing of the Kurds in Operation Anfal back in the eighties. Now, let me try and remember, who might know something about Saddam gassing Kurds but not bothering to do anything about it. . . Oh, right George Schultz and Rummy! Maybe, that’s why they want to get him out of the way before he starts talking about the pass he got from Ronnie and company.

I say, just take the guy out and shoot him or hang him or whatever. But please don’t insult my intelligence with this ridiculous show. The Iraqi "government" can’t even issue speeding tickets, how do they get away with pretending they've legally convicted a war criminal? It's all a big joke.