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Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 09:48:38 AM EST
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Saddam arrived in court today and announced he and other defendants are on a hunger strike:

Observers say that the fitful proceedings appear to be edging closer to collapse after the judge struggled to maintain order during a raucous session when, for the second consecutive day, key prosecution witnesses refused to testify.

The proceedings lasted three hours and were adjourned. Here's a typical exchange:

"You kick out our lawyers, you bring in witnesses by force and those that testify against us are anonymous - is there a trial like this anywhere else in the world," shouted Mr Ramadan.

As the judge pounded his gavel to restore order, Saddam told him to "take that hammer and knock yourself on the head."

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    Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse | 22 comments (22 topical)
    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#1)
    by desertswine on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 01:19:23 PM EST
    Maybe Saddam need one of those famous Guantanamo restraint chairs. It's like a padded cell on wheels, but better.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#2)
    by squeaky on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 03:32:21 PM EST
    The farce of a trial is to be expected. He should be removed from American custody, and sent to the Hague for a fair international trial with attorneys of his choice. Enough already.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#4)
    by Al on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 06:57:50 PM EST
    How tiresome it is to play this game where the Bush apologists like jimcee pretend not to understand anything, and the same things have to be explained to them again and again. It's not a matter of "liking" the plaintiff. It's a matter of giving the plaintiff a fair trial. Because the occupying forces' rationale for being there is that they are setting an example of how a free, democratic society works. Of course jimcee and colleagues understand this perfectly well. But, as Squeaky points out, Saddam should face an international tribunal. The problem is then, that he's not the only one who should face an international tribunal. That's why the occupiers want to dispatch him as quickly as possible, and that's why the apologists of the occupiers insist that Saddam doesn't "deserve" justice.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#5)
    by Johnny on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 07:13:17 PM EST
    I said once that the outcome of this trial was foregone and received some heat for suggesting that the outcome could be otherwise. If he is as guilty as we all know he is, what do we have to lose by giving the man a fair shake? Decorum, gentleman, decorum ;)

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#6)
    by jimcee on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 08:15:32 PM EST
    Al and Johnny, Not to put too fine of a point on it is that the Tribunal (sounds like something out of a distopian '50's sci-fi rag doesn't it) will be even more of a farce than the current trial of Slobodon Mliosvic's in The Hague for the last three or so years. Meanwhile my Bosnian Moslem next door neighbors who were victims of the Serbian slaughterer's vengence think he should have been tried in his homeland where his conviction would have been by his peers and well quite frankly terminal. But no, an unelected, unaffected bunch of Eurocrats keep giving the former Serb executioner-in-chief a pass because he pretends to be weak from heart ailments. Funny how he had the heart to line the fruit of the Bosnian Muslim middle class up against the wall and murder them at Sebrenica but he doesn't have the heart to face his own trial in the Hague and you think that is AOK. Shame on you for pleading for justice for the likes of Milosevic and Saddam after the murderous regimes they both perpetrated on thier own people. Justice my a$$, you just hate the current US administration so much that you chose to side with genicidal dictatators. You should be ashamed but that seems to be an impossible task for those who are blinded by thier hatred for the Bushies. I'm not a cheerleader for Bush but I would never be one for murderous dictators but you appear to be. And in every political generation thier are always the Charles Lindburghs, fascist lovers for political convienience's sake. For shame.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#7)
    by squeaky on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 08:39:49 PM EST
    jc-You seem to have gotten your knickers in a twist.
    Al and Johnny, Justice my a$$, you just hate the current US administration so much that you chose to side with genicidal dictatators. You should be ashamed but that seems to be an impossible task for those who are blinded by thier hatred for the Bushies
    This seems to be one of the current echochamber memes. Soft on defence is the main one these days. Weak on the Feurer=traitors is always implicit.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#8)
    by Johnny on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 08:51:11 PM EST
    Meanwhile my Bosnian Moslem next door neighbors who were victims of the Serbian slaughterer's vengence think he should have been tried in his homeland where his conviction would have been by his peers and well quite frankly terminal.
    What makes you think Saddams destiny won't be? (Keep in mind I have stated several times the outcome is pre-determined.)
    Funny how he had the heart to line the fruit of the Bosnian Muslim middle class up against the wall and murder them at Sebrenica but he doesn't have the heart to face his own trial in the Hague and you think that is AOK.
    And where did I state that? Nowhere. You are assuming things based on absolutely nothing but your blind hatred of all things liberal. tsk tsk.
    Shame on you for pleading for justice for the likes of Milosevic and Saddam after the murderous regimes they both perpetrated on thier own people.
    Once again, all I suggested was he get a fair shake. Your blind hatred of liberals (except for the drug use of course), is once again clouding your judgement about what was said.
    Justice my a$$, you just hate the current US administration so much that you chose to side with genicidal dictatators. You should be ashamed but that seems to be an impossible task for those who are blinded by thier hatred for the Bushies.
    That would explain all those Rah! Rah! Saddam posters on my wall, huh? Sicko. Where did I "side" with him? I side with the system which states a fair trial.
    I'm not a cheerleader for Bush but I would never be one for murderous dictators but you appear to be.
    Coulda fooled me... And once again, show me the rah!rah! posters...
    And in every political generation thier are always the Charles Lindburghs, fascist lovers for political convienience's sake.
    That last line made me LOL. You are doing some serious projecting here, obviously due to your blind hatred of anything not hard-right wing (except drug use). Sit back and read what you wrote.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 09:13:18 PM EST
    Like Saddam or not, it is possible he was "arrested" by a possibly illegal operation justified with trumped up and misleading information.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#10)
    by jimakaPPJ on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 09:19:49 PM EST
    jimcee - You have a way with words.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#11)
    by Johnny on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 09:36:34 PM EST
    jimcee - You have a way with words.
    Which way is that?

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#12)
    by squeaky on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 09:49:44 PM EST
    ppj
    jimcee - You have a way with words.
    How romantic. I think we have a budding romance going on here.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 09:54:45 PM EST
    Yeah, misspelled ones.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#14)
    by phat on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 10:20:05 PM EST
    I'm still not sure why we can't use the model used with the Nuremburg trials. As far as I understand, the Hague is as close to that model as we have right now. Correct me if I'm wrong. phat

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#15)
    by phat on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 10:22:16 PM EST
    And yes, I agree, the outcome of this trial is a foregone conclusion. It's quite obvious that Saddam committed crimes against humanity. It would be hard for any fair court to decide otherwise. phat

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#17)
    by jimcee on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 11:18:30 PM EST
    Johnny, By the bye I am a liberal in the classical sense and when I was a kid I was as irrasicible as you. Go figure. But even old hippies get smarter as they age if they haven't gone on to nasty drugs... I'm nothing near a Republican but I'm farther from being a Democrat. I am not an easily catagorised human being and I know that makes it hard for you guys to stereotype me. So unlike Mr Whittington esq I am a much more difficult target for either side to hit. But please shoot away....

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#19)
    by jimcee on Wed Feb 15, 2006 at 12:12:53 AM EST
    Johnny, I hate few people but I do hate the faux humanist side that people hide behind as they mask thier political ideologies. There is no way that you can argue on behalf of Saddam or Mliosivic and you know it. A humane way to take care of the situation would be to let the local populations try and, well convict these mass murderers. That there is any hesitancy among some folks about the guilt of these characters gives hope to the future nasty folks. Robert Mugabe for instance. Kills his own, steals thier land because of race, and then drives people from their home in the cities to the countryside because of thier politics. Zimbabwe sits on the UN Human Rights Commision. So again explain to me why Saddam should be tried internationaly?

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#20)
    by Johnny on Wed Feb 15, 2006 at 05:42:15 AM EST
    There is no way that you can argue on behalf of Saddam or Mliosivic and you know it.
    So requiring a fair shake for everybody is the same as arguing on behalf of that person? Must be a strange world in libertarian land.
    So again explain to me why Saddam should be tried internationaly?
    Tell me again, oh uncomprehending one, where I even said that? When you do, then we will talk. Seriously. But until you stop making huge, erroneous leaps of deduction, I won't go any farther.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#21)
    by Johnny on Wed Feb 15, 2006 at 05:43:48 AM EST
    That there is any hesitancy among some folks about the guilt of these characters gives hope to the future nasty folks.
    Also, I've never said he wasn't guilty, in point of fact I have said the outcome is pre-determined. IF you were not so blinded by your knee-jerk hatred of anything left-wing, you mighta caught that.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#22)
    by Johnny on Wed Feb 15, 2006 at 05:56:53 AM EST
    Also, getting yourself worked up over Milosevic when I never said word one about that man is incredible! Time to sit back and relax a bit...

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Feb 15, 2006 at 06:20:13 AM EST
    Johnny, Ya gotta love these nitwits. If you criticize shrub, then it naturally follows that you support saddam or bin laden or yada, yada, yada. Total knuckleheads. Hey, I'm half Jewish. Actually, a little less. More than enough to get me killed under the old Nuremberg Laws and a one-way ticket to Auschwitz, but even Eichmann got a trial and none of these clowns - not even Saddam - is in Eichmann's league.

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#24)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Feb 15, 2006 at 07:45:48 AM EST
    This so called trial is a joke. can i ask where is Bin Laden? why isn't Bin Laden is some court room? But what the hell, no money in getting Bin Laden after all he has family if you know what i mean? and remember Bush is part of that family if you know what i mean? if you don't understand your enemy and your enemy lives inside your nation with the help of guys like bush and business what more can i say? "if you know what i mean".

    Re: Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse (none / 0) (#25)
    by Che's Lounge on Wed Feb 15, 2006 at 09:27:05 AM EST
    I'm not a cheerleader for Bush but I would never be one for murderous dictators but you appear to be. Contradiction of the decade.

    Saddam on Hunger Strike, Trial Nears Collapse | 22 comments (22 topical)