Saddam prefers death by firing squad

[sabra]

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20060103-094708-4127r

Saddam prefers death by firing squad

LONDON -- Saddam Hussein has told his lawyers that he wants to be shot by firing squad, not hanged, if sentenced to death during his murder trial, which resumes later this month in Baghdad.

Saddam maintains that he is still commander in chief of Iraq's armed forces -- and that a firing squad is "the right way" to execute a military leader.


"I'm not afraid of death," he told two of his lawyers in an astonishingly candid five-hour meeting, as he sat in a comfortable chair at the head of the table.

"Of course I'm not guilty, but I know they want me dead."

One of his lawyers, Issam Ghazzawi, took extensive notes. During a recent interview in Amman, Jordan, he gave The Washington Times details of the extraordinary discussion.

[MessiahRp]

1. Smart move...

Firing squad would make him a martyr to some, especially with the increasing anti-American sentiment.

Go for the most dramatic death possible if you have to die to make as much of an impact as possible. At least if I were trying to be in Saddam's head that's what I would think he'd want to do.

Rp

[DinahMoeHum]

7. Martyrdom, yes, especially to the folks in the "Sunni Triangle"

He is, after all, one of their tribe.

:evilfrown:

[sweetheart]

10. preferable indeed

The quick death of a bullet, killed by soldiers as in battle.
I can see his point, as it is indeed a battle, he as lost, and
some armies execute their enemies out of spite. Better that than
being an animal in a prison. I wonder if he's pushing for the
death penalty... anything else would be humilitaing and not give
him the resounding last chapter to his memoirs.

[Straight Shooter]

2. Hang the bastard.

It's an ignoble death. Very messy. A firing squad is too "honorable" a death for him, and of course too quick.

Saddam, at heart, is afraid of death.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. I'd suggest that you don't know the first thing about Saddam

In any case, he will be a martyr either way.

[Straight Shooter]

16. I'd suggest that I know as much as you do about Saddam.

That creep knows what happens in a hanging. It's a spectacle. He's a coward. You don't have to be brave to fight and kill people when you're doing it for your own glory.

[maxsolomon]

17. The word "Coward" gets tossed around as much as Hero

Saddam may be a Stalinist monster, but he's not a Coward. And dying instantly in a ball of flaming jet fuel, or leaping to your death 100 stories below when your building is hit by a plane piloted by suicidal Muslim fanatics does not make you a Hero.

These words are being debased.

[Straight Shooter]

18. I guess we all have our definitions of "coward"

No point in dissecting it here. I don't give a rat's a** what happens to Saddam or by what means he dies.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. I'd suggest that you like to puff your chest out and make ridiculous

declarations, and that you don't know jack shit about jack shit. Probably do it in bars, too.

Pound away. You still sound silly.

[Ian David]

3. Death by BuFu! n/t

[Selteri]

4. I say send him to the Hague and put him in a maximum security prison

Bush, Cheney and the other dictators who ignore the rights of people and commit atrocities against Humanity.

[tatertop]

5. Yes, put them all in the same cell

I am anti-death penalty.
Put him in the same cell with Bush and cheney, his peers.

[goclark]

6. Now that would be justice for all involved! Love it nt

[wordpix2]

15. great idea, BushCo with Saddam and his cronies-let them learn to live

together in same cell. LOve it!

[necso]

8. Live by the gun, die by the gun. /nt

[MrMonk]

9. "Saddam prefers firing squad, rejects death by snoo-snoo."

I prefer life imprisonment for Saddam.
He'll be told where to go, when to go, what to eat and when he can eat it, and so on. That must be worse than death to a guy like Saddam. Put him in solitary, in one of his own prisons.

[MurrayDelph]

13. Between the Bush family and Rumsfeld

he's been snoo-snoo'ed plenty already.

[maxrandb]

11. Okay

[0rganism]

14. How about a quick trip to the Gas Chamber, Mr. Saddam?

He can use mustard gas if he'd prefer a more "warlike" demise.

[jmowreader]

19. Bush would much prefer Saddam receive death by lethal injection

If they shoot or hang Saddam, it'll be this big public spectacle which will end with the Iraqis who support Saddam--there are many, especially now--going after American forces.

If they inject Saddam, they can execute him at midnight in the stockroom of a prison. They can do it without tipping off the Sunnis. And they can deny Saddam his last hurrah.

And remember who runs Iraq: if he decides he wants Saddam injected, Saddam gets injected.

[The Onyx Key]

20. Force him to listen to

...the entire collection of bush's speeches. He'd hang himself!

:)

[Joe Chi Minh]

21. What a fantasist! An arch torturer and mass killer and he

wants an honourable soldier's death by firing squad!

[Psephos]

22. I say Death by Haggis! The grimmest torture of them all...

Sorry, KCDMIII, couldn't resist.

[Joe Chi Minh]

25. That sure was more like a punch up the kilt than

below the sporran, ye yankeedoodle (or Confederate) sassenach!

[Psephos]

27. LOL n/t

[Lori Price CLG]

24. What does Bush prefer? n/t

[Taverner]

26. You know they should deny him death

And just keep him in a cell, for the rest of his life.

Death = martyrdom

Whereas if he just sits in a cell, he will be forgotten about.

Think about Guzman in Peru...