Baghdad on alert awaiting Saddam verdict
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces drastically tightened security across Baghdad on Saturday in advance of the expected guilty verdict against
Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi prime minister said he hoped the ousted dictator will "get what he deserves."
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Saddam has been on trial for murder and crimes against humanity and, if convicted, could be sentenced to death by hanging. Violence is already running
high, with police finding the bodies of 87 torture victims throughout the capital between 6 a.m. Thursday and 6 p.m. Friday. Across Iraq, at
least 16 people were killed or found dead on Saturday.
The highly anticipated verdict, planned for Sunday, is expected to set off further bloodshed, underscoring the trial's failure to bring reconciliation
to a country fractured ever deeper along sectarian lines.
"We hope that the verdict will give this man what he deserves for the crimes he committed against the Iraqi people," said Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki, who has declared he hoped Saddam would be hanged.
"The Iraqi people will express their happiness in a way they see fit and we will call on the Iraqi people through a broadcast statement to remain calm
and express their happiness in an appropriate way in this current situation, in a way that does not risk their lives," the Shiite prime minister said
after a meeting with tribal leaders from the restive southern city of Amarah.
An aide to al-Maliki said authorities are imposing a 12-hour curfew on Baghdad and three surrounding provinces starting at 6 a.m. Sunday. Not just
cars, but people will be barred from the streets. Baghdad's airport also will be closed.
The curfew will cover all of Baghdad province, Salahuddin province, which includes Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, and the Sunni insurgent hotbeds of
Diyala and Anbar provinces.
Leave for all military personnel has been canceled indefinitely and vacationing soldiers recalled to active duty.
New checkpoints sprang up around main roads, including within the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. and
British embassies. Larger than usual numbers of policemen and U.S. troops patrolled city streets, while U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles blocked
traffic on both sides of the al-Jumhuriyah Bridge, one of the capital's most heavily guarded because it carries traffic past the Green Zone.
"We received orders to tighten security measures and to use any available policemen to tighten the security," police Lt. Ali Abbas said.
Any violence would be met with a stern response, said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which commands the police.
"We warn anyone who intends to exploit this event that our response will be tough and severe," police Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf told The Associated
Press without elaborating.
Many of Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs are predicting a firestorm if the ex-president is sentenced to death. On the other hand, majority Shiites, who
were persecuted under Saddam but now dominate the government, are likely to be enraged if he escapes the gallows.
Setting the tone, al-Maliki, said last month that a conviction for Saddam would help break the will of the former dictator's followers in the largely
Sunni Arab-led insurgency.
Saddam and seven co-defendants ? including a half brother ? have been on trial since Oct. 19, 2005, for their alleged roles in the deaths of about 150
Shiites in the town of Dujail after an assassination attempt against the president in 1982.
A second trial against Saddam ? for alleged genocide against the Kurds ? began in August and more charges are expected to follow. It is unclear
whether those cases would move forward if Saddam is condemned to hang.
On Wednesday, one of Saddam's lawyers said a death sentence would "open the gates of hell" to the roughly 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Bushra al-Khalil, a Lebanese lawyer who was thrown out of Saddam's trial in May, also accused President Bush of exploiting the verdict ? which
comes two days before hotly contested midterm elections ? for "electoral purposes."
In a letter addressed to the presiding judge, Saddam's 10-member defense team, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, wrote that it
would be premature to deliver the verdict on Sunday "because the court did not receive the final defense statements yet." It was not possible to
confirm that the judges had received the letter.
Among those killed in violence Friday was Ahmed al-Rasheed, a correspondent for the privately-owned Sharqiya channel. The station said he was the
third employee to be killed since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
With al-Rasheed's death, at least 88 journalists have been killed in Iraq since hostilities began in March 2003 ? including 28 this year ? according
to an Associated Press count based on statistics kept by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
A blind Iraqi athlete and paralympics coach kidnapped this week were released unharmed after their abductors determined neither man was linked to the
Sunni insurgency, sports officials said Saturday.
Khalid Nejim and Issam Khalef left Iraq on Saturday to resume training in neighboring Jordan, said Qahtan al-Naimi, the chairman of Iraq's paralympics
committee. "The kidnapers must have known that the news about the kidnapping was getting bigger and bigger and that these were simply disabled
athletes who have won medals in international competition for their country," al-Naimi said.
Each aspect of the soul has it's own part to play, but the ideal is harmonious agreement with reason and control.
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