Booyah!

I was especially struck with the wisdom Blair projected in urging that the momentum of this good news be put to good use.
The handwriting should be growing clearer on the wall. This stunning event is creating a cohesive narrative in Iraq; Things are getting better. The whole dynamic is now of steller proportions.
The Tyrant's trial on the world stage will herald a new ardency for the Bush/Blair Doctrine.

Looks like he could use a Ba'ath.

Hah!

Actually, Wolf Blitzer is just noting that Saddam was obsessed with personal cleanliness. The thought of him spending months like this in holes that reportedly contained rats when he was found... just thinking about that gives me "a holiday in my heart," to use Christopher Hitchens' charming of phrase.

I hope the Iraqis find a suitably filthy prison cell to keep him in.

Pejman notes that they were checking Hussein for head lice, Joe. Helping you with the moment any? :)

The idea that he was hiding in a hole while trying to look like Wolverine from Marvel Comics is just perfect and so appropriate for a trapped rat. After we milk him for all of the intel he can give us, I say put him on trial in Halabja - the peshmerga there can teach him a thing or two.

Hoo-Ah!!

Sic Semper Tyrannis - that's good!

Our local news radio station was interviewing some liberal guy (didn't catch the beginning). It was hilarious. This radio station normally tilts somewhat to the left, but I guess they had their finger to the breeze because they were just absolutely roasting this guy. Mr. Liberal was whining that it was an unjust war & BushLied ™. They said, "How do you feel about today's news, the capture of Saddam Hussein?" Mr. Lib whined, "They should have done this in the first two weeks of the war, BushLied ™ etc." He was completely and totally unwilling to admit that this is a Good Thing.

The news guys tried several different ways of prying some happy thought out of him, and they finally gave up - not too subtly, either. "Well, obviously Mr. Lib is not going to be happy regardless of what happens. Let's join the live interview of a soldier who was involved in the capture."

Words (especially my words) are inadequate at the moment. Suffice it to say that when I heard the news early this morning from my kids, I thought it was important enough to go wake my husband from his sacred Sunday Morning Sleep In. And he agreed.

You know the funny thing is that with the beard and all he looks Jewish.

Teri,

I woke my first mate and she was of the same opinion as your SO.

Simon... the quasi look-alikes going through my mind were actually (a) Charles Manson; and (b) Down and Out in Beverley Hills. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Well, I think the best headline so far is Blackfive's "Wolverines" :) Goes so well with Red Dawn, don't you think? Besides, if some of what I was told as backstory on the movie is true, it is very appropriate on several levels.

As far as the look-alike thing goes, someone at metafilter put up an etching of Karl Marx which was strikingly similar. Jerry Garcia was also mentioned. Compliments may have been intended.

As I like to tell my black neighbors when they mistake me for some other white guy, "All those people look alike."

OK, I let the Jewish thing slide - but don't go comparing Saddam Hussein to my man Jerry Garcia, or there's gonna be trouble!

Someone had a real sense of humor, naming the operation "Red Dawn." God, that was one of the most awful films of the eighties.

Saddam looks like the Unabomber in those pictures, if you ask me.

I am betting at this point that Saddam will never make an appearance before the International Court at The Hague. The Court as several strikes against it.

First, there are the French, Russian, German and Belgian judges at The Hague cannot be trusted to fairly administer justice against Saddam.

Second, there is the fact that The Hague doesn't have the death penalty.

The third reason is that because of #2, it cannot be trusted to return Saddam to American or Iraqi custody if he is under sentence of death, because returning him to face it "would be an international crime."

The irony here is that because The Hague adopted E.U. cultural values. It is condemned to international irrelevance and impotence just like the E.U.

Lemmy said it best some 25-odd years ago. That song has been stuck in my head since I was awaken by phone this morning with the news.

Oh, my G-d, Meryl, it's worse than we thought.

I just saw a blow-up of the aerial photos for the target area. The code-names of the 2 sites they hit? "Wolverine 1" and "Wolverine 2".

It WAS named after the movie.

And a fine movie at that....lol
/sar-off
Mike
...Support Operation Give by buying my CD!

>It WAS named after the movie.

Ya got something against that, Katzman?

Four words for you, Trent, to remind you of one of the worst-acted scenes in the film, that literally brought my friends and me to the floor with laughter, and, uh, it wasn't supposed to:

"Avenge me, my sons!"

Gawd. That scene in the P.O.W. camp was sooooo bad. The only good thing about the movie was learning about the different kinds of weapons from my history major/war buff friend as we watched it (on video, thankfully).

Patrick Swayze was in that film. I remember that much.

Trent, there is no court consituted with jurisdiction over Iraq other than the war crimes tribunal under the aegis of the CPA.

In the Hague we have the World Court, which handles nation-to-nation disputes; the ICTY, which covers Yugoslavia; the ICTR, which covers Rwanda; and the ICC, which covers a) only crimes committed since its inception on July 1, 2002, b) only crimes in the territory or involving citizens of signatory nations (and neither the US nor Iraq was a signatory). The ICC has no jurisdiction, unless a future Iraqi government joins the treaty and requests it (and even then I doubt it could extend jurisdiction retroactively), AND all other procedural obstacles are overcome, including that a local prosecution would be logistically impossible.

At this point the CPA tribunal has no death penalty; that would have to be authorized by a future legitimate constitutional government.

So, yes, I'd take your bet, because you're making a silly (and somewhat misinformed) bet.

I side with Trent on this.

Obviously, the Bush policy is to ignore international (no capital I warrented) law.

I believe Saddam will be held until such a time as the courts can be transfered to Iraqi power.

Didn't they recently set up a tribunal to try Saddam in absentia?

What does THAT tribunal say of death sentences?

And, to add levity on this bright day?

I've been practicing my ululations today, and my husband and son are quite impressed ;)

ULULULULULULULULULUULULULUULLLULULULUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lunacy

"I hope the Iraqis find a suitably filthy prison cell to keep him in."

No, no! We should cherish Saddm like a little child, he should be clean and coddled and fed tasty nutritious meals, and at Christmas time he should get a stocking with sweets and a teddy bear, just like that girl's teddy bear in the mass grave.

Nothing is too good for our Saddam, because he's being such a good boy. When I believed that the reports of his capture were true, I was overjoyed. When I was sure that he had indeed given up like an utter wimp, when he had had ample opportunity to kill himself, I was much happier. But best of all was when he dismissed the victims in the mass graves as "thieves," that was the best of all. Because a man with that attitude will want to argue his case in court. Please, oh please, dear Saddam, argue your case in in an Iraqi court. Let the case be heard for a whole year at least!

In detail that would make stone angels weep.

Oh joy, oh joy, oh joy!!

Time's up, Saddam!

Is there really such a thing as truth serum?

JFarr... sort of. It's called Sodium Pentothal, and while it doesn't force the truth out of people, it relaxes them and causes them to become disoriented and lose their inhibitions when administered in small doses. It may be effective in conjunction with other techniques like sleep deprivation etc., but it isn't a magic bullet or a guarantee of cooperation OR truth.

Does that help?

Dan,

Here are three key word for you to consider: "On-going criminal conspiracy."

Being a non-lawyer my understanding is not professionally reliable, but as I understand it, actions in an "on-going criminal enterprise" that happen after a date certain for legal jurisdiction will extend the reach of prosecution back to the founding of the criminal conspiracy and apply every action and to every member of the conspiracy.

This is how American prosecutors get around statute of limitation issues in Mob trials and this expansive American approach to criminal conspiracy was established in international law at the Nuremburg (sp) tribunal after WW2.

That is why I said what I did about the ICC at the Hague.

If we could read without being subjected to foul language, it would be nicer, and make this site a little more respectable.

I don't use that language very often (though the automated "Snoop Dog Shizzolator" does, to amusing results). But I don't regret for a moment what I called Saddam Hussein. On rare occasions, such language is fully justified. This was one of them.

>Gawd. That scene in the P.O.W. camp was sooooo
>bad. The only good thing about the movie was
>learning about the different kinds of weapons
>from my history major/war buff friend as we \
>watched it (on video, thankfully).

Meryl,

Exactly how many war movies have you seen?

People here could come up with a whole list of war movies with worse, cornier or down right horrid scenes.

What Hollywood did with "Enemies at the Gates," made RED DAWN look like Oscar material. They took the story of the greatest sniper duel in WW2 and turned it into a love story.

And don't even get me started on "Pearl Harbor"... but Red Dawn was also a bad movie, simple as that.

"Enemy at the Gates" was just so craptastic. Even Ed Harris couldn't save that one.

The opening of "Red Dawn" was very cool, but it did lose momentum.