« Media and - Bird Flu
|
Main
| Tookie Williams Fraud
»
December 06, 2005
Saddam Hussein's Trial
Is the trial of Saddam Hussein hurting us?
There was a time when an unruly defendant in an Iraqi court would have been beaten into submission and the reporters would praise the judge for silencing him! But, this is the new kinder, gentler Iraq and the court seems wholly unprepared to handled the frequent outbursts by Hussein. I wonder if Hussein isn't taking his cue from his American defense counselor, Ramsey Clark?
He frequently yells, he's not afraid to die, "If you want my neck you can have it!" His grandstanding is defiant and unrepentant. The court is often brought to a halt as Saddam shouts out, "Long Live Iraq!" Hussein challenges the judge, saying, "How can you allow this?" He screams out, "I will not be in a court without justice, go to Hell!" As a result, Saddam comes off looking like more like a victim than a murderous defendant, which might be the defense plan.
The trial news naturally follows Saddam's every word and portrays him as a sympathetic victim. This overshadows the statements of witnesses telling horrible tales of torture and murder by his regime. The sort of openness we witness now is virtually unknown in the Arab world and it is inciting the emotions of those who already have a disapproving view of the US.
Meanwhile back in America, the ACLU is suing to get open trials with full constitutional rights for the non-citizen terrorist detainees at Gitmo. How this will all play out is yet to be seen, but I fear if those public trials go forward, we're just giving the terrorists a big global podium for their Islamofacist message or worse, we will be disclosing informants and methods that we collect information that thwarts terrorism. That would be a big mistake, but the ACLU doesn't seem to care about our safety...they're pushing for the trials.
Posted by Post Scripts at December 6, 2005 09:07 AM