From Bloomberg: Manner of Hussein’s Execution Draws U.S., UN Concern

Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. would have carried out the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein “differently” and didn’t play a role in the proceedings, a military spokesman said as two United Nations officials criticized his hanging.

Major General William Caldwell said at a news conference televised from Baghdad that the way Hussein was put to death was “a government of Iraq decision.”

A U.S. military team only transported Hussein to the site of his execution, and the Iraqi government maintained custody of the former leader throughout, Caldwell said. After delivering Hussein to the Iraqi Ministry of Justice’s As-Buratha prison, U.S. personnel “withdrew from the building, back from the whole location,” he added.

The grainy video of Hussein being taunted by chants from those present while about to be executed and the former leader falling to his death on the gallows in mid-prayer has sparked days of demonstrations by fellow Sunni Muslims in Iraq and further inflamed sectarian tensions.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington today the U.S. raised “questions” with the Iraqi government “related to procedure and timing” of the execution…

I’m getting the feeling that we think we would have handled it so much more professionally, such that the execution wouldn’t have ended up bitter in President Bush’s mouth (as I said it would). I wonder how the general would have done it – firing squad, lethal injection, electric chair… Anything, as long as it wasn’t filmed and we could spin it the way we wanted.

All I could think of was that this general must be truly stupid – hey look everyone, we can kill much more cleanly, especially when we’re dealing with a prisoner.

No, you handed him over to an end that had already been determined. The general is simply playing Pilate – washing his hands of this man and his guilt and doing so on behalf of his Commander in Chief.

Fr. Jim Tucker points to the story of a soldier who actually used his brain and soul in What If They Threw a War and No One Showed Up?. First Lt. Ehren Watada took the time to discern what going along meant, before he went along. He’ll be severely punished for sure, but that’s the price he’s willing to pay for Christian witness.

On the other hand our ‘Christian-in-Chief,’ President Bush (at least according to him) can’t even muster the courage to criticize the brutality of it all:

The Bush administration sent conflicting signals Wednesday about the taunting and baiting that accompanied the execution, with the White House declining to join criticism of the procedure…

I’m sure they are very proud, especially of the outcome – which regardless of the methodology employed is equally deadly. And, yes Mr. Bush, we all agree that Saddam was an evil man and should have been punished for crimes against humanity, including the ones your and your predecessors helped him commit. But that story will die with the additional executions that will take place in the next 24 hours.

I’ve had this rather unwell, sick feeling all day – not because of any illness per-se, but because we, as a country and occupier are going to kill a horrible dictator – and I don’t like it.

Maybe ten years ago I would have said C’est la vie – and good for him. I can’t do that anymore. I cannot witness Christ and stand by and say OK, C’est la vie – and good for him. I can pray and I can say we are wrong. The merchants of death are wrong, and this is not what it means to be a Christian.

Mr. Hussein was not good by any stretch of the imagination. He was murderous, power hungry, and brutal. He was also our tool and vassal for a time. In the end it turns out that he was sick and deluded. But hey, the U.S. specializes in killing the mentally ill and incompetent.

Of course we could teach the civilized manner of dealing with a criminal. We could turn him over to the Hague. Let them kill him in bureaucratic meandering. Let those who seek justice have their chance to speak – and let him speak. But perhaps too much would be laid out in the open.

Must we pile up more bodies, invite more hate, vengeance, and glory in death? Must we pile one more body on the overwhelming stack we have created? Certainly Mr. Bush will rejoice – but you know, the law of unintended consequences hasn’t been all that good to him thus far, maybe he should back-off.

Our country will bury a president. The majority of Iraqis will rejoice in the death of theirs – welcome to demonocracy.

An excerpt from the NY Times: Iraq Prepares to Execute Hussein

BAGHDAD, Dec. 29 —” The close of the final chapter on the brutal reign of Saddam Hussein drew ever closer today, as Iraqi officials prepared the last legal notice necessary before his execution, a red card that will be presented to the former dictator to inform him that his end is near, Iraqi officials said.

—We will do it very soon,— Muneer Haddad, a judge on the Iraqi High Tribunal who will represent that body at the execution, said today. He said the execution would likely be —tonight or tomorrow.—

The pace of events left some of the American legal advisors working on the case stunned, according to one Western official. For all the guidance the Americans provided, in the end the dictator’s demise did not go the way they expected, the officials said.

—It just goes to show that the Iraqis call the shots on something like this,— the official said.

Ah, plausible denial – we didn’t want to kill him this way – those crazy Iraqis did it.

It is still possible that the execution could be delayed, Western and Iraqi officials cautioned. One senior Iraqi official said there may yet be other legal hurdles.

However, Mr. Haddad said that all that remained was the technical legal matter of court officials filling out a —red card,— a formal notice of impending death created during the Saddam era and widely used by his much feared secret police.

—We have almost finished his red card,— Mr. Haddad said.

It was unclear whether the red card has been presented to Mr. Hussein or whether he knows that his death may be imminent.

Iraqi and American officials have kept outsiders, including his legal team, from contacting him, according to Najib al-Nauimi, one of Mr. Hussein’s lawyers who is in Qatar…

Ah, and then a glimpse of the future American legal system – we don’t need to stinkin’ lawyers…