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Murphy Martin Commentary
October 20, 2005
"Saddistic Saddam Trial"
Hermann Goerring, Hitler's number two man committed suicide
after being sentenced to death. Japanese Yamashita and Tojo were
convicted for war crimes, sentenced to death and were hanged.
Now comes Saddam Hussein---still arrogant--still defiant--believed
to be responsible for ordering the gassing of tens of thousands of
Iraqi Kurds and burying them in mass graves. Hussein is not on trial
for those crimes, he is on trial for the 1982 massacre of nearly 150
Shiites near the town of Dujail.
At Wednesday's opening session, Hussein and seven co-defendants pled
not-guilty. Saddam, clinching a copy of the Quran, turned the
confrontation physical and a break was called after two guards
grabbed Hussein's arms and a shoving match ensued. It settled down
when Saddam was allowed to walk independently out of the court room
WITHOUT GUARDS PHYSICALLY HOLDING HIM.
Earlier, the former Iraqi dictator that was found hiding in a hole
beneath the ground at the time of his capture, asked the presiding
judge: "Who are you? I want to know who you are?" Then he added: "I
do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect to its
people, and I retain constitutional right as the president of Iraq."
The presiding judge who, along with four other judges, will hear the
charges against Saddam Hussein and render the verdict in the case.
After three hours of setting the stage for the long awaited trial,
the presiding judge ordered an adjournment until November 28th.
The identity of the judges on the panel has been a tightly held
secret. The opening day proceedings were televised with a 20-minute
delay on state run Iraqi television. The chief presiding judge was
identified as an Iraqi Kurd by the name of Amin. If found guilty to
these charges, Hussein could be sentenced to death.
Throughout Wednesday's proceedings, Hussein referred to himself as
the President of Iraq while Judge Amin and the prosecuting attorney
Jaafar al-Mousawi called him the FORMER president of Iraq.
Near the end of the session, Saddam's
lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, asked for the names of witnesses who will
testify for the prosecution. Judge Amin said Saddam's attorney could
ask the prosecutor for those names. The Judge did not say if HE
would order them handed over.
So the stage is set. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have suffered under
the sadistic dictatorship of this evil tyrant. Even after this
trial is completed, Hussein faces still other judges for the Anfal
Operation, the military crackdown on the Kurds in the late 1980s
that saw nearly 200,000 murdered and left in mass graves on orders
of Hussein. The suppression of Kurdish and Shiite revolts in
1991 and the deaths of 5,000 Kurds in a 1988 poison gas attack on
the village of Halabja.
With what the world has come to know from afar, and the Shiites and
Kurds paid for with their lives within their home country of Iraq,
just imagine what this evil dictator could have done to the rest of
the world with WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!!
Murphy Martin
Your thoughts and comments forwarded to my website will be
appreciated.
e-mail
murphy@murphymartin.com
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"Bourbon Street Bashing"
"Hurricane Aftermath"
"Standing Tall"
"Never a Dull Moment"
"Another Hero Laid to Rest"
"Blame Game"
"Senior Thoughts For the Young"
"Role Model Challenge"
August 18 - "Network News Anchors"
August 11 - "Now All Three Are Gone"
August 4 - "Trust in the Media"
July 28 - "Television Then and Now"
July 21 - "The Mick"
July 14 - "Forty Years and Counting"
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