Under Iraqi law, the appeals court decision must be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Iraq's two vice presidents. Talabani opposes the death penalty but has in the past deputized a vice president to sign an execution order on his behalf -- a substitute that was legally accepted.

Raed Juhi, a spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said the judicial system would ensure that Saddam is executed even if Talabani and the two vice presidents do not ratify the decision.

"We'll implement the verdict by the power of the law," Juhi said. He did not elaborate.

What a sham:

WHY SADDAM HAD TO GO

"Control is what it's all about," one oilman told me. "It's not about getting the oil, it's about controlling oil's price."

"Control is what it's all about," one oilman told me. "It's not about getting the oil, it's about controlling oil's price."

This is accurate insofar as 'controlling to price" also includes "controlling which currency with which the oil is purchased."

The changeover is being made anyway now, so Saddam will certainly have the last laugh as the dollar slides into worthlessness in comparison with other currencies.

This hanging will make Saddam a "martyr" who stood up to the Great Satan engaging in the new Crusades to conquer the Middle East.  I hope the military is prepared for the bloodbath coming from executing this martyr.

It is ill-advised, IMO, to create martyrs in a land of fanaticism.

India says do not hang Saddam

The reason for not hanging Saddam is simple; he is a leader of a group in Iraq. Whatever he did was bad but at the same time capital punishment against him is equally reprehensible. It will only escalate the civil war in Iraq. It will bring more Sunnis to streets as suicide bombers who see him as an icon of Iraq. He is popular in Sunni communities because he decidedly won again the Shiites in a war that started long ago.

The people who are in charge of Iraq today has no moral rights to hang Saddam. The reason is these are the people who were his enemies. The execution of Saddam will be recorded in history as brutal part of the continuation of a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites.

There are larger reason for not hanging him. After all he did not lie on `Weapons of Mass Destruction'. While Saddam's actions were reprehensible, what is his opposition Shiites and Kurds are doing is equally reprehensible if not more. If he is executed now, some of the same people who are executing him today will be executed later as the Sunnis gain control after some time - the civil war will continue for ever.
...
"We have seen reports which said that appeals court has confirmed death sentence" awarded to Hussain, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said here.

"It is our hope that the sentence will not be carried out and the former President's life would be spared," he said.

the precedence for this would be the nuremburg trials. while they took place in germany, and crimes were committed against german citizens, none of the prosecutors or judges were german.

on the flip side, elizabeth I, when explaining why, even though she really didn't want to, she signed a death warrant for the execution of a young rival, stated "the people can't have two queens." as long as saddam remains alive, there will be those who wish him back in power, and willing to fight to get him there.

Saddam, in a letter written to the Iraqi people from his cell before his appeal against a death sentence failed, said: "I sacrifice myself. If God wills it, he will place me among the true men and martyrs."
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In what might therefore be his final message, Saddam blamed his old enemies the United States and Iran for the bloodshed engulfing Iraq, which is in the grip of a sectarian war between Sunni and Shiite factions.

"The enemies of your country, the invaders and the Persians have found your unity a barrier between you and those who are now ruling you. Therefore, they drove their hated wedge among you," he declared.

"O faithful people, I bid you farewell as my soul goes to God the compassionate," he wrote. "Long live Iraq. Long Live Iraq. Long live Palestine. Long live jihad and the mujahideen. God is great."

An advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told ABC News that hundreds of Iraqis have inquired about the job as Hussein's hangman, even though officially, no such position exists and the government has not advertised for it.

Especially considering the fact that it will probably make it easier for Bush to try justifying a "surge" of more dead American soldiers in his WOT.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer implored world leaders on today to prevent the United States from handing over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities for execution, saying the former dictator should enjoy protect from his enemies as a "prisoner of war."
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Al-Dulaimi warned that turning over Saddam to the Iraqis would increase the sectarian violence that already is tearing the country apart.

"If the American administration insists in handing the president to the Iraqis, it would commit a great strategic mistake which would lead to the escalation of the violence in Iraq and the eruption of a destructive civil war," he said.