Saddam Hussein to be sentenced just BEFORE the Nov.7 elections..

[bigdarryl]

C-SPAN read a article that Hussein's lawyer sent Bush a letter that if Saddam is sentenced and found guilty violence will increase. and the lawyer questioned the timing of the sentence just before the elections.

[cyberpj]

1. Saddam's Sentencing: The November Surprise (article):

Saddam's Sentencing: The November Surprise
Topics: right wing | U.S. government | Iraq
Source: The Nation, October 17, 2006
Scott Horton has been sounding the alarm regarding an orchestrated "November surprise" to assist Republican candidates just before election day: the November 5th sentencing of Saddam Hussein. The Columbia University law professor told the Nation magazine "when you look at polling figures there have been three significant spike points. One was the date on which Saddam was captured. The second was the purple fingers election. The third was Zarqawi being killed. Based on those three, it's easy to project that they will get a mild bump out of this. ... This is not coincidence. Nothing in Iraq that's set up this far in advance is coincidental. ... In fact, in my experience, everything that comes out of Baghdad is very carefully prepared for American domestic consumption."

http://www.prwatch.org/node/5346

[bigdarryl]

4. And if there are more troops reported killed all bets are off

you can bet that the Sunnis will take notice on this.

[cyberpj]

5. "...you can bet that the Sunnis will take notice on this."

Now if only some g-damn US press would! Orchestrating this event just adds to the evidence that everything about this fiasco was orchestrated for the highest possible Republican advantage and profit.

sigh........

[cyberpj]

2. Offices Ransacked: Saddam's defense team offices were ransacked and 1400 document pgs damaged:

Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer warns of more violence in Iraq if ex-president sentenced to death

Al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press in Jordan that he warned of a civil war in a letter sent recently to U.S. President George W. Bush.

"I warned him against the death penalty and against any other decision that would inflame a civil war in Iraq and send fire throughout the region," al-Dulaimi he said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. He did not say when exactly and how he sent the letter to Bush.

"Any foolish American decision will further complicate things and will pose a serious threat to U.S. interests in the region," he said.

Al-Dulaimi also claimed that the offices of Saddam's defense team in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone of Baghdad were ransacked over a week ago, and that more than 1,400 pages of the trial documents were damaged.

He said trial documents were provided by the Iraqi court trying Saddam and his co-defendants in the Anfal trial regarding the genocide charges on Kurds, and that the defense team had been reviewing them.

Associated Press writer Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad, Iraq contributed to this report.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/29/africa/ME_GEN_Iraq_Saddam_Trial.php

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Hmm... Doesn't a court , even a kangaroo court, have to...

.... reach a verdict before they pass sentence?

[Cass]

6. Why isn't Hussein being tried at the Hague? nt

[madrchsod]

9. very good question

i think it is because bush did`t want it there. the hague was good enough for the scum in the balkans but bush wanted saddam dead. bringing saddam to the hague would have meant a longer trial,real evidence,and the ability for saddam to tell his involvement with the united states

[cyberpj]

7. NEW ARTICLE SUGGESTS A DELAY which would screw the pre-election timing:

Saddam verdict could be delayed for some days
29 Oct 2006 13:32:10 GMT
Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Oct 29 (Reuters) - A court trying Saddam Hussein for the killing of Shi'ites in the 1980s could delay delivering a verdict, due next Sunday, for a few days to give judges more time to review testimonies, the chief prosecutor said on Sunday.

Jaafar al-Moussawi said the U.S.-backed Iraqi High Tribunal was still working on the judgement, which could send the ousted leader to the gallows if he is found guilty of crimes against humanity over his role in the killing of 148 villagers.

"We will know a day or two before the trial if they are ready to announce the verdict," he told Reuters.

Delaying the sentence, which was originally due for Nov. 5, could be a disappointment for U.S. President George W. Bush and his Republican Party.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO946224.htm

[cyberpj]

12. evening kick. nt

[reality based]

8. Democrats will be pressed by the media to comment when this is announced

The response should be: Any head of government should be held personally and criminally accountable for serious violations of law-- domestic and international-- for which he is responsible.

[Auntie Bush]

10. I hope bush* is listening !

But, it probably wouldn't scare him because he's too demented and lives in another world where he thinks everyone loves him and thinks he's done a good job of giving Iraqi's freedom. (Yeah, free to kill Americans and each other.) He's still thinks they just forgot to send him those flowers and he's still waiting. Well, what do you expect from a man who's delusional?

[sallyseven]

11. He is going to be found guilty so what is the problem? He

is not going to impact the elections. He is so over no one cares. We see what Iraq is after his capture. It is worse and our presence there is killing our guys and maiming the ones who survive. We have killed more Iraqi's than he did over a shorter period of time. I for one do not like Saddam but he kept the violence down between the religious people.

[thatsrightimirish]

13. I just read an article

I think on Huffington Post that said it was going to be delayed until after the election

[snowbear]

14. I just saw an article too indicating it MAY be delayed until after the elections...

Of course.. it's not the Boooosh administration that hopes to delay it, they still very much want it out on November 5th as planned.
------------------------------------------------------------

"Saddam verdict may be delayed - prosecutor"

By Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A court trying Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity could delay its verdict by a few days, the chief prosecutor said on Sunday, in a move that would shift the announcement until after U.S. midterm elections.

The U.S.-backed court had been due to deliver a verdict on November 5, two days before U.S. elections in which President George W. Bush's Republicans fear they could lose control of Congress.


A court trying Saddam Hussein for the killing of Shi'ites in the 1980s could delay delivering a verdict, due next Sunday, for a few days to give judges more time to review testimonies, the chief prosecutor said on Sunday. Saddam is seen in this October 18, 2006 file photo during his trial in Baghdad. (REUTERS/David Furst/Pool)
The chief prosecutor, Jaafar al-Moussawi, said the Iraqi High Tribunal was still working on the judgment. "We will know a day or two before the trial if they are ready to announce the verdict," Moussawi told Reuters.

Saddam could go to the gallows if he is found guilty over his role in the killing of 148 Shi'ite Muslims in the village of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt.

A guilty verdict could reflect positively on Bush as a vindication of his policy to overthrow Saddam in 2003. The former Iraqi president is also on trial separately on charges of genocide against the country's ethnic Kurds in the late 1980s.

U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad denied Washington had any say over the timing of the verdict or the court's decisions, saying the American role was limited to logistics and security.

"The United States had nothing to do with the selection of the date and we don't know whether the judges have come to a judgment or not," Khalilzad told CNN in an interview.

News of the possible delay follows a week of public spats between U.S. officials and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Maliki's aides say he is furious at U.S. pressure on him ahead of the elections as the American public turns increasingly away from Bush's Iraq policy.


http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/10/30/worldupdates/2006-10-30T003929Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-274121-2&sec=Worldupdates

[beaconess]

15. I can't imagine this having any impact on our elections

Maybe two or three years ago, but Iraq has become such a mess that I don't think many people are looking at the capture and conviction of Saddam as any big deal - it's certainly not going to improve the situation in Iraq one iota.

[wholetruth00]

16. IF HE IS FOUND GUILTY IT WILL BE WORSE FOR US.

Iraq was never this ugly under Saddam's rule and a lot of people there would welcome him back.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

17. Um, what do you mean by "us"?

Are you suggesting that Democrats would be better off if Saddam is found 'innocent'? :wtf: