The Sun Waiting for the noose By TREVOR KAVANAGH Political Editor THE noose beckons for the world’s most notorious prisoner as he whiles away his last days in an Iraqi jail. Saddam Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad, is today a broken man. But hanging will be seen by victims and their relatives as too good for him after his sadistic 30-year reign of terror. As The Sun newspaper's graphic pictures show, his years of corrupt and absolute power are over. Moves are under way to spare his life in an act of mercy HE refused his victims. But we learned last night that Saddam is almost certainly doomed to die. He is being held behind bars and barbed wire somewhere near Baghdad awaiting trial some time next year. He will be charged with crimes against humanity. Tony Blair opposes the death penalty which is banned in Europe. America, where murderers are still executed, is unlikely to interfere. The tyrant’s life may yet be saved in an act of clemency for the sake of Arab unity. That move is almost certain to be voted down by a new regime which wants justice to be seen to be done. * Click here to find out more! The final verdict will be reached by Saddam’s own people, not by the West. The new Iraqi government is split over the punishment to be meted out. President Jalal Talkabani has publicly refused to sign Saddam’s death warrant. But he risks being outvoted — and even toppled — if he resists a clamour from the Iraqi people to take the ultimate sanction. He has let it be known he will not stand in the way of a coalition majority. “My two partners in the presidency, the government, the House — all of them are for sentencing Saddam to death,” he told the BBC. “So I think I will be alone in this.” The trial of the century has been delayed by acts of violence by insurgents, including former supporters of the Saddam regime. Proof of his atrocities is abundant. Documentary evidence, scrupulously hoarded by Iraqi officials show the scale of his corruption and villainy. But witnesses who can give detailed testimony on his slaughter have been threatened with death. Everyone connected with his looming trial is at risk. A senior judge and a lawyer have already been assassinated. The location of Saddam’s jail is top secret, with American forces determined to thwart “loyalist” attempts to free him. Few have deserved the scaffold more than the Butcher of Baghdad. Thousands would have prayed for a quick death instead of the unspeakable torture meted out in his bleak jails. Some were electrocuted, whipped with barbed wire and garotted. Others were condemned to roast alive in steel coffins left in the Iraqi desert sun. Saddam encouraged his evil sons, Uday and Qusay to use human beings as toys. Even opponents of the death penalty or the anti-war brigade would find it difficult to raise support for sparing Saddam's life. Almost everyone will remember how the deposed dictator ruthlessly murdered his closest allies and family members during his bloody reign. But it will be his fiercest opponents during those dark days who will show astonishing humility by refusing to stoop to his own barbaric level.
It's a political editorial. It is allowed to be biased. It is also in a tabloid that is perhaps most famous for its breast pictures. That being said, there isn't a lot in the piece to argue. He gave one man's quote about not wanting the death penalty for Saddam and otherwise just mentioned some stuff that is public record (the majority of Iraqis hate Saddam, Europe is anti-death penalty, etc.) Was there something in the piece that you saw as incorrect?
I've seen his underwear. That's more of Saddam than I ever wanted to know. I could have died happily many years from now without this bit of knowledge.
