Saddam's execution imminent!

The Yanks in Iraq are on high alert for the expected outbreak of violence with Saddam Hussein's execution.

The lawyers for former Iraqi president said he will be executed soon. Khalil al- Dulaimi, Saddam's defence lawyer, told Reuters: "The Americans have notified us that they have handed over the president to the Iraqi authorities.

"They told us the president is no longer under the authority of the American forces and they requested us not to go to Baghdad."

Additionally, Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki has signed Saddam's death sentence, and announced that there will be no delay in carrying out the sentence. An Iraqi judge authorised to attend the hanging said the execution will happen within the next 24 hours.

This means Saddam’s execution is imminent, timed for the holiday break which starts today. Even as you read this, Saddam could be already dead.

However, US officials claimed Saddam is still in US custody and has not been handed over to Iraqi authorities. But this could just be a tactical red herring to conceal his exact whereabouts.

The US Government, in an attempt to do a ‘Pontius Pilate’, said the timing of the execution is solely a matter for the Iraqi Government.

But everyone knows that the US Administration wants Saddam gagged forever, to prevent embarrassing revelation of American double-headed Machiavellian manoeuvrings during Saddam’s US-favoured days (when he was provided with all sorts of 'naughty' weapons and political support, and even a warm handshake from Donald Rumsfeld) and the Iran-Iraq war (where the US provided both sides with intelligence).

The Baathist sympathisers have vowed to attack American installations anywhere in the world if (or now, ‘when’) Saddam is executed.

Many Americans have lamented on the mistake of not off-ing the former Iraqi president straightaway when he was discovered by US troops in a hide-hole. It would have spared everyone the current problems and expected outbreak of violence.

On top of it, the Americans by holding and parading him to the public like a wild animal has insulted Sunni Iraqi pride and honour, and martyr-ised him into a unifying rallying figure for the Sunni insurgents.

But I am not surprised the Americans held him as a prized exhibition because it’s the American way. The need to ‘show & tell’ is an American culture, not unlike the movie scenes of King Kong or the Jurassic Park dinosaurs.

In a way, the Bush Administration has ‘built up’ Saddam’s image into a kind of King Kong ('mother of them all') personality when he was already a dictatorial dinosaur.

The urge to use Saddam as a Bush’s ‘show & tell’ was far too compelling to resist, apart from the Bush Administration warmongers' need to reinforce the demon-isation of Saddam when its fabricated cause for war was disintegrating.

Expect some innocent Americans and ‘others’ to die because of this unnecessary execution. The Iraqis would be better off locking up Saddam and throwing the key away. But thanks to the Yanks, it’ll be a bad start to a new Iraq and a blot on their so-called democracy.