No one should be surprised by Saddam's execution. His fate was sealed on 11 September 2001. His so called "trial" was just for show.
From the moment Saddam was caught the Americans the quisling Iraqi government had been saying that he would be tried by the Iraqis for the crimes he committed against Iraqis. But everyone else knew that this was merely a show trial with the Americans orchestrating the whole thing.
The Americans chose which crimes he would be tried for. Saddam was responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iranians, Arabs, Kurds, Sunni and Shias. Yet he was only tried for the murder of 148 Shia in Dujail. Why? Because this was the only crime in which he wasn't aided and abetted by the Americans. Had he been tried for ALL his crimes then the whole world would have realised that it was American weapons and American intelligence that helped Saddam commit those crimes against humanity.
The Americans chose the judges and the lawyers (both prosecution and defence).
During the trial Saddam was detained by the Americans not the Iraqis. This ensured that they could control contact he had and more importantly they could learn what evidence he might use during the "trial"
The CIA controlled the TV pictures of the "trial" so that the nothing that would damage the Americans would get out.
And finally it was the Americans who chose which day he would be executed. No self respecting Muslim would sanction the execution to take place on the holiest day in Islam.
No one should doubt that Saddam was a psychopath who murdered hundreds of thousands and terrorised millions. But he should have faced proper justice for ALL his crimes. His show trial and now his premature execution have ensured that this will now never happen.
The neo-cons may hope that his execution will end the insurgency in Iraq. It will do no such thing. All it has done is denied justice to all but 148 of his victims and put one more nail in the coffin of the notion that the quisling Iraqi government is sovereign and independent of the occupying Americans
Pinochet, the former murderous dictator of Chile, is dead.In 1973 Pinochet, with the assistance of the CIA, staged a coup and overthrew the democratically elected government and murdered President Allende.In the following fifteen years anyone who opposed him was dealt with brutally. Thousands were murdered. Tens of thousands were tortured. Hundreds of thousands were imprisoned for years without trial or simply “disappeared”. All of this happened with the explicit support of the “democratic world”.
Pinochet’s apologists argue that he saved Chile from going the way of Cuba and that he brought economic stability. If the people of Chile wanted to go the way of Cuba, let them. It was their right. It was not for Pinochet or the Chilean army’s to deny them their democratic will.It was only the middle class who benefited from the “economic liberalisation” initiated by Pinochet. Most Chileans lived in abject poverty. Millions lost their jobs.His apologists also argue that, by South American standards, Dictator Pinochet was a pussy cat. He only murdered three thousand people. Dare I say that this death toll is more than the death toll from the worst catastrophe in history, ever: 9/11.As well as terrorising the Chilean people, Pinochet plundered the country’s wealth. The income from Chile’s vast mineral resources went into private Swiss bank accounts belonging to Pinochet, his family and his cronies. And there they still are.There have been a number of attempts to bring Pinochet to justice since he gave up power in 1988 but he has evaded each of them. On a number of occasions he used his cronies, at home and abroad, to pull strings to get him off the hook. Sometimes he used the veil threat of another army coup to keep justice at bay. But most of the times he would just pretend to be ill and yet somehow when he was back home in Chile surrounded by his apologists he would make a miraculous recovery. And now by dying he has evaded justice one final time.
Fifty years ago today began the liberation of Cuba from the vile, corrupt, murderous US sponsored dictatorship of Batista. It would be another two years before Batista was finally overthrown and his cronies, who had profiteered under his regime, would flee to Miami to form one of the biggest and most ruthless organised crime syndicates in the world.Ever since then Cuba, often alone, has stood steadfast against American tyranny in Latin America. And ever since then the Miami Cuban mafia, aided and abetted by the CIA, have been trying everything possible to regain their stranglehold on Cuba.First of all came the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs. When President Kennedy refused to offer further help to the Miami Cuban mafia they murdered him. The Miami Cuban mafia have tried countless times to Castro but each time they were foiled.Castro will not be around forever but a free Cuba will. And may those who oppose a free Cuba rot in the swamps of Florida.
