Hussein is Executed:Around the World, Unease and Criticism of Penalty

[BellisimaJ.]

From the NY Times:

Around the World, Unease and Criticism of Penalty

   
Published: December 31, 2006

LONDON, Dec. 30 — With gradations of unease rather than outrage inspired by the hanging of Saddam Hussein, Western politicians sought a cautious balance on Saturday between revulsion at his record, support for his executioners and concern at the use of a capital penalty they largely shun in their own countries.
But religious leaders — Christian and Muslim — used stronger and more critical language in response to the news of Mr. Hussein’s execution, which greeted most Western Europeans on their breakfast time news shows and in some newspaper headlines two days before the New Year.

Perhaps the most delicately choreographed response came from Britain, whose prime minister, Tony Blair, took a lead as America’s closest ally in toppling Mr. Hussein while his Labor Party prides itself on opposing the death penalty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/world/....html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[regic]

The Spoof has a dozen articles on the execution

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?h...e=s3i13168

[thentavius]

I checked out the Reuters article on the execution. The translation of Saddam's final rant is VERY different from the picture painted by Yahoo! News...

p.s. I wonder if they executed the real dude or one of his many doubles?  :o

[chiquita]

Hussein’s Case Won’t Bolster International Human Rights Law, Experts Fear

Rights groups and some international lawyers have deplored the execution as hasty. Some said the execution, based on a comparatively small case involving the killing of 148 civilians, cut short Mr. Hussein’s second and far weightier trial for genocide, the gravest charge.

full article:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/world/middleeast/31history.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[regic]

[quote author=thentavius link=topic=6494.msg38727#msg38727 date=1167596231]
I checked out the Reuters article on the execution. The translation of Saddam's final rant is VERY different from the picture painted by Yahoo! News...

p.s. I wonder if they executed the real dude or one of his many doubles?  :o
[/quote]

Al Jazeera's translation of his rant:

Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: “God is Great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab.”

http://www.aljazeera.com/muslims.net/content_one.asp

And this headline just in:

American death toll in Iraq hits 3,000

From CNN:

Estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths vary from 50,000 to 600,000.