Saddam to be Hanged

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Slippin' through the hangman's noose...

Technicality may save 'Chemical Ali' from gallows
Thursday 18th October, 2007 - Iraqi officials are awaiting further legal confirmation over the execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid, widely known as "Chemical Ali".

Al-Majid was convicted earlier this year of presiding over the killing of thousands of Kurds during a campaign in the 1980's. Even though officials have said the execution will happen over the next few days, legal arguments and religious holidays have delayed it.

Al-Majid's death sentence was confirmed on September 4th by the Iraqi supreme court and was due to be implemented within 30 days. However, two members of the Iraqi presidential council, Jalal Talabani, the president, and Tareq al-Hashemi, the vice-president, have so far refused to sign the execution order. And Badie Aref, Al-Majid's lawyer says that as Maliki's committee had not yet been convened, any execution would now be illegal.

After the passing of thirty days, Mr Arif said, the authorities would no longer have a right to execute Ali Hassan al-Majid according to their own interpretation of the court's law. It is believed the U.S embassy is in discussions with the government of Iraq over how to proceed with the case.

Technicality may save 'Chemical Ali' from gallows

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Saddam's defense minister is spared...

'US, Iraq agree to drop execution of Saddam's defence minister'
Sunday 21st October, 2007 - The US and Iraq have agreed to drop the death sentence against Saddam Hussein's last defence minister, Sultan Hashim, the Dubai-based al-Arabya television channel cited unnamed sources as saying.

Hashim along with Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, and the former deputy commander of operations of the Iraqi army, Hussein Rashid, were sentenced to death on June 24, 2007 over the 1987 ethnic cleansing campaign against Kurds in Anfal. An appeals court upheld the sentences in early September. Over 180,000 Kurds perished in a chemical weapons attack launched by the Saddam regime.

During the past few weeks, reports had said that the three would face the gallows immediately after Eid-ul-Fitr, the Muslim feast to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan last weekend. The pending hanging of Sultan, now in US custody, has sparked public disapproval by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi.

The Shia spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has also called on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to drop the death sentence against Sultan, the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat reported Sunday. Many Iraqis are concerned the hanging of Sultan, a respected Sunni soldier, could disrupt an already shaky reconciliation attempt in a deeply divided country. If the US military hands Sultan over for execution, the move would contradict guarantees of safety given to the general when he voluntarily surrendered to the US army in 2003.

'US, Iraq agree to drop execution of Saddam's defence minister'

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The wheels of justice grind slowly...

Chemical Ali 'will be executed'
November 11, 2007 - IRAQI Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said today he is "determined" that "Chemical Ali" and two other cohorts of Saddam Hussein be hanged for genocide against ethnic Kurds.

“We are determined that the law be fulfilled and that these (three) be handed over to the judicial system,” Mr Maliki said.

“We will not be swayed from our determination to ensure that the sentences are carried out.”

Ali Hassan al-Majid, widely known as “Chemical Ali” for his use of poisonous gas against Kurds; Sultan Hashim al-Tai, Saddam's defence minister; and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, his armed forces deputy chief of operations, were sentenced to death on June 24.

They were found responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Kurds in the so-called Anfal (Spoils) campaign of 1988.

Chemical Ali 'will be executed' | NEWS.com.au

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We got him, we gonna keep him...

US to hold 'Chemical Ali' until consensus
December 03, 2007 - THE US said today it will hold Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as Chemical Ali, and two other former officials sentenced to death, until Iraqi leaders reach a consensus on their fate.

Iraq's prime minister, president and a vice-president have been at odds over who has the authority to order the execution of Ali Hassan al-Majeed, former defence minister Sultan Hashem and former army commander Hussein Rashid Muhammad. US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said: "They are in United States custody and ... once the government of Iraq has reached a consensus on what they wish to do with these detainees we will then take action."

The Iraqi government said on Saturday Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had asked US President George W. Bush to order the handover of the three so they can be executed. Mr Negroponte said he would not comment on diplomatic communications. An Iraqi court in September upheld the death sentence against the three men who were convicted of genocide for their roles in a campaign against Iraq's Kurds in 1988. Under Iraq's constitution, the death sentence should have been carried out within 30 days.

"At the moment the government of Iraq itself has not reached a consensus as to what to do about the situation so we await that," Mr Negroponte said in Baghdad. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who opposes the death penalty, and Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi, a member of Saddam's Sunni Arab minority, said Iraq's constitution requires that the three-man presidency council - made up of the president and two vice-presidents - agree to an execution.

Mr Maliki's government said the council has no such power. The US military has said it would keep the three men until it receives an "authoritative government of Iraq request". Many Sunni Arabs believe former defence minister Hashem should be spared execution, arguing he was only a figurehead in a campaign run by Majeed.

US to hold 'Chemical Ali' until consensus | NEWS.com.au

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Non-binding UN vote against execution...

US Votes With Iran, Syria, China Against Death Penalty Moratorium
December 19, 2007 - It's a rare day when the United States sides with Iran, China and Syria, but it happened Tuesday at the United Nations: The U.S. was one of 54 countries to vote against a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.

The UN General Assembly yesterday called for a moratorium on the death penalty with a view to abolishing executions, approving a resolution opposed by the United States, China, and Iran.
more stories like this The vote in the 192-member world body was 104-54 with 29 abstentions. The resolution is not legally binding but carries moral weight and reflects the majority view of world opinion.

Two previous attempts to have the General Assembly adopt a moratorium on the death penalty - in 1994 and 1999 - failed. Amnesty International, which campaigned for a resolution, said that since then, the number of countries that have abolished the death penalty in law or practice has risen. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the resolution "a bold step by the international community."

"I am particularly encouraged by the support expressed for this initiative from many diverse regions of the world. This is further evidence of a trend toward ultimately abolishing the death penalty," he said. The Vatican, a leading opponent of capital punishment, also welcomed the vote. "It shows that despite persistence of violence in the world, an awareness of the value of life . . . is growing in the human family," the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said on Vatican Radio. The vote capped a heated debate in the General Assembly's human rights committee.

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Consensus is in...

'Chemical Ali' Execution OK'd in Iraq
Feb 29, `08 - Iraq's presidency endorsed the execution of Saddam Hussein's cousin known as "Chemical Ali," who was sentenced to death for his role in the 1980s scorched-earth campaign against Kurds, a government adviser said Friday.

The backing by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents is the final step for the approval of Ali Hassan al-Majid's death sentence, which must be carried out within 30 days of the decision.

Al-Majid was one of three former Saddam officials sentenced to hang in June after being convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their part in the Operation Anfal crackdown that killed nearly 200,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas. An appeals court upheld the verdict in September.

But the adviser said the presidency has not yet approved the death sentences against the other two - Hussein Rashid Mohammed, an ex-deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces, and former defense minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

My Way News - 'Chemical Ali' Execution OK'd in Iraq

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We still got him...

'Chemical Ali' still in US custody
5 Mar 2008, Saddam Hussein's hatchet man Chemical Ali (Ali Hassan al-Majid), on death row for genocide over the gassing of tens of thousands of Kurds in the 1980s, is still in US custody, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.

Iraq's three-member presidency gave its approval on February 27 for Ali Hassan al-Majid to be hanged but he has so far not been handed over to the Iraqi authorities for execution, Major General Kevin Bergner said. "We are yet to receive a request from the government of Iraq to hand over Majid," Bergner said in Baghdad. "Once they do that, we will fulfil our responsibility," the general added.

Majid was sentenced to death for genocide in June 2007 along with two other Saddam cohorts -- Sultan Hashim al-Tai, Saddam's defence minister, and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, his armed forces deputy chief of operations. The three were convicted of the slaughter of tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians in the so-called Anfal (Spoils) campaign of 1988. Under Iraqi law, they were supposed to have been executed by October 4 last year, 30 days after their sentences were upheld by the Iraq Supreme Court.

But the executions were held up by legal wranglings after Iraq postponed the hangings until after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended on October 15, because of the outcry that followed Saddam's hanging during another Muslim holiday in December 2006. The executions were further delayed because two members of the presidential council, President Jalal Talabani and his Sunni deputy Tareq al-Hashemi, refused to sign the execution orders.

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Granny says, "It don't matter, he didn't need al-Qaida, he was committin' genocide on his own...

Saddam Had No Link to Al Qaeda
March 11, 2008 - U.S. Military Concludes No Saddam Link to Al Qaeda

ABC News has obtained a comprehensive military study of Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism. The study, which is due to be released Wednesday, is based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion. It is also based on thousands of hours of interrogations of former top officials in Saddam's government who are now in U.S. custody. The headline: "This study found no 'smoking gun' (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda."

Others have reached the same conclusion, but no previous study has had access to so much information. Further, this is the first official acknowledgement from the U.S. military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda. The study does, however, show that Saddam Hussein did much to support terrorism in the Middle East and used terrorism "as a routine tool of state power." Saddam's government, for example, had a program for the "development, construction, certification and training for car bombs and suicide vests in 1999 and 2000." The U.S. military is still dealing with the fall-out from this particular program.

The report says Saddam's bureaucrats carefully recorded the regime's connections to Palestinian terrorists groups and its financial support for the families of suicide bombers. The primary target, however, of Saddam's terror activities was not the United States, and not Israel. "The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq." Saddam's primary aim was self preservation and the elimination of potential internal threats to his power.

Rapid Report: U.S. Military Concludes No Saddam Link to Al Qaeda

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Notice who captured him...

Former Saddam official captured in Iraq
Wednesday 23rd April, 2008 - A former top Hussein official, once the country’s vice president, has been captured in Iraq.

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was captured by Iraqi security forces and handed over to the US Army. Al-Douri has been a fugitive since the downfall of the Hussein regime.

Also in Iraq, the fourth trial of another top figure from Saddam Hussein's regime will begin next week, when former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and six others face charges in the execution of dozens of shopkeepers and merchants in 1992.

Court spokesman Munir Hadad said the trial will deal with the execution of 42 Iraqi merchants accused by Saddam's government of being behind a sharp increase in food prices when the country was under strict UN sanctions.

Former Saddam official captured in Iraq

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Gotta catch him so they can hang him...

Former Iraq minister sentenced to death
August 23, 2008 -- Assad Kamal al-Hashemi sentenced in killing of two sons of fellow Sunni politician; Al-Hashemi, a former minister of culture, was tried in absentia; Militants kill assistant to current culture minister

A former Iraqi cabinet minister has been sentenced to death for ordering the murder of a Sunni politician's two sons. Assad Kamal al-Hashemi, also a Sunni, resigned as culture minister and went into hiding last year when he was first charged in the February 2005 attack on parliamentary candidate Mithal al-Alusi. Al-Alusi's two sons were killed in the attack. The Central Criminal Court of Iraq handed down a guilty verdict and death sentence in absentia for al-Hashemi on Wednesday, according to a court official.

Sunni members of the cabinet suspended their participation in Iraq's government last summer after al-Hashemi was accused in the plot. They cited the prosecution of al-Hashemi as one reason, calling it an attempt by the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to marginalize the Sunni bloc. Al-Hashemi was part of the General Conference of the Iraqi People, which is part of the Iraqi Accord Front, the country's largest Sunni bloc. It rejoined the cabinet last month. He was an imam at a Baghdad mosque at the time of the killings.

Two people who planned and carried out the attack confessed that they took orders from al-Hashemi, an Iraqi government official has said. The arrest warrant naming al-Hashemi was issued specifically for the killings of al-Alusi's sons, not the failed attempt against al-Alusi. Al-Alusi was a leading figure in the secular Iraqi National Congress Party but was expelled after visiting Israel. He was elected to Parliament as the head of his own group, the Iraqi Democratic National Party, which holds one seat. On Saturday, an assistant to the minister of culture was killed. The assistant, Kamel Shiyah, died when militants opened fire on his vehicle, according to an Interior Ministry official. Shiyah's guard was injured in the shooting and taken to a hospital.

Former Iraq minister sentenced to death - CNN.com