(Malaysia's former PM) Mahathir Slams ‘Barbaric Lynching’ of Saddam

[IndianaGreen]

The unofficial cell phone video of Saddam's lynching by a Shia militia is having an impact in the global Sunni community. A consensus is being formed that the Saddam died a martyr at the hands of crusaders and infidels (Shias are viewed as heretics by the majority Sunni community).

Mahathir Slams ‘Barbaric Lynching’ of Saddam
Agencies

KUALA LUMPUR, 2 January 2007 — Malaysia’s former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, yesterday slammed the execution of Saddam Hussein as barbaric, sadistic and a public murder.

“If we support human rights and justice, we must condemn this barbaric lynching of Saddam Hussein,” Mahathir, a vocal critic of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, said in a statement issued through national news agency Bernama.

He said the “sadistic act” of broadcasting the former Iraqi president’s execution to the world was a travesty of justice designed to demonstrate the imperial power of the United States.

The broadcast served as a warning that people must either bow to the dictates of US President George W. Bush’s administration or face the consequences of a public lynching, he said.

“There can be no excuse whatsoever for this injustice under any circumstances,” said Mahathir, who stepped down as prime minister in 2003.

Mahathir, who is also a member of the International Committee for the Defense of Saddam, said his execution was also an insult to all Muslims as it occurred during Haj when Muslims devote themselves to prayer and forgiveness.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=90580&d=2&m=1&y=2007

[Cass]

1. This won't end well. nt

[ixion]

2. I did not approve of the execution. However, coming from a country that executes

people on the spot, this particular criticism means nothing, IMO.

[parkia00]

6. Executes people on the spot?

Dunno where you got that from. Do tell.

[ixion]

7. google 'malaysian drug laws"

they have extremely strict drug laws that call for the death penalty. When I was traveling around a great deal, it was common knowledge that you made sure you didn't have a joint or anything like that when crossing the border -- there especially -- because if it were found you'd be convicted and hung on the spot.

[parkia00]

8. Need to clarify the suituation here....

Okey. First of, you don't get the death sentence for having a joint. The limits are 15 grams of hard drugs like mophine or heroin, 30 grams of cannabis, esctasy pills, pot or opium. It's not like if you get caught with a joint by the police you are dragged to the street corner and hung from the nearest light post with the crowd cheering on. You don't get hung on the spot! Eventhough the law is very clear, not everyone who gets caught with the amount stated above are immediately given the death sentence. There is something called a judicial system in the country. You get lawyers and prosecuters and the prosecuters have to prove guilt. And even if they do it is the judge's call. Leniency are quite often given. For first time offenders etc... The death sentence is usually reserved for repeat offenders and hard core drug dealers. Even drug users who do get caught with such an amount seldom find themselves in the gallows. The target here are drug dealers.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Thank for your informative post

One would need to go to one of Stalin's show trials to find a tribunal that is as devoid of justice as the Saddam trial.

[theHandpuppet]

3. This part pretty well sums it up

"The broadcast served as a warning that people must either bow to the dictates of US President George W. Bush’s administration or face the consequences of a public lynching, he said."

[MrPrax]

4. Just the Sunnis?

This guy makes a righteous point and I doubt he's Sunni:
~~~~

The silence of the western antiwar movement on the lynching of Saddam Hussein is deafening and is increasingly beginning to prove what a lot of discerning people have suspected all along – that the mainstream anti-war movement (including large parts of its left wing) in the west is the well concealed left boot of western imperialism, the conscience of the conqueror.

The main reason given by western radicals – including many on this board for ignoring the assassination of the deposed Iraqi president is the crimes against humanity he has allegedly committed. How many of these ‘left’ activists then would welcome a Chinese invasion of the British Isles, the sacking of British cities, the incarceration and torture of tens of thousands of English youths in concentration camps scattered along the Yorkshire Dales, the murder of a million British citizens (the equivalent of the Iraq dead) if the reason Beijing gave for the invasion was to arrest, try and execute Tony Blair for the limitless war crimes he has directly and indirectly carried out in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine over the last three years – killing in Iraq alone (in 3 years) more than Saddam killed in 35.

Saddam Hussein has not been tried; he has been executed by the west’s leaders, while their ‘radical’ sons look the other way. If a serial killer was brought to trial in the UK and during the trial three of his defence lawyers were kidnapped, tortured and murdered, (clearly by state agents) the media lens message board for one will be heaving with anger and righteous fury, but now there is only silence.

Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, but as president of Iraq, he represented something which nobody ever talks about these days, the sovereignty of his nation, by his judicial murder by a foreign invader the sovereignty of every poor third world nation has just been executed. The reason why the left in the west cares so little about that is because the sovereignty of poor nations is as much a threat to them as it is to their ruling circles.

Media Lens
~~~~

Testify Brother!

He certainly has the anti-war movement down cold -- especially the one in the US where they would much rather take a 'tough' stand against capital punishment (or passing along corporate propaganda about good old sectarian violence) rather than tell it like it is...we have no western 'values' or moral purpose to what we do; we kill people for money, revenge and power. You can't get any lower and you really can't fool the victims of our violence.

[IndianaGreen]

5. That is one hell of a post!

It should have its own thread.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Here's more, for those who didn't

click the link:


"The multi billion pound human rights/NGO industry for one (the new missionaries) are as dominant in the third world as any multinational, and in many ways even more powerful, since they seduce the minds of the natives buying up activists by the barrel load, feeding them with inconsequential facetious drivel about ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ all the better to cement the west’s moral and ideological supremacy over the natives.

Trade unions from the west struggle to organise in the third world to ensure the starving do not go beyond the level of loyal opposition to the western banks and companies that impose the crucifix of hunger on their children. Even the far left get in on the act with an assortment of ‘Mac’Trotskyist groups fighting for the ‘world revolution’ creating so called internationals - a global franchise they dress up as fraternity. The headquarters of the ‘world revolution’ sharing its capital with that of world finance.

The primary contradiction for the last 500 years has not been between classes but between nations, the poor and the rich ones. It has been a struggle by the west to dominate and control the rest of humanity. While the ordinary people in the west do not participate in the oppression willingly, many of them share the same patronising and superior attitudes of their leaders. Thus even when they support the struggles of the oppressed in the poor world it is with conditions and qualifications that are never applied to them when they face similar circumstances.

It is this ingrained and unconscious superiority that made then overlook the humiliation of saddam – checking his hair on camera for lice, something they would have baulked at if it had probably been done on the German Herman Goring – who was treated with great personal dignity – in full uniform and well groomed throughout the trial at Nuremberg as was Slobodan Milosevic another ‘northern tyrant."

************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************


It bothered me that they dragged out the "lice inspection" photos of Saddam again and showed them over and over in the lead-up to the execution and afterwards, too. Those photos bothered me in the first place because they were so obviously taken to humiliate Saddam. Then there were those photos of the Al Qaeda leader with his hair messed up, needing a shave, the neck of his undershirt stretched out. As the poster points out, this has not been done to Western tyrants when they were brought to trial. And the US was responsible for those photos. We should be better than that.

[Nihil]

11. Kick (n/t)