I got back from a visit with relatives for the holidays and heard the news that Saddam Hussein was hanged.

 

Out of curiosity, I searched on the web for the trial transcripts.

From what I can tell there ARE NONE!  See this blog for what I found.

 

I quote Carlos Hamann's entry on 10/16/2005:

"But as a reporter in Baghdad, I'm quite frustrated. As it stands now, there will be no transcripts of the trial made in any language (i.e. no stenographer). As it stands now, there will be be no television or radio coverage of the entire proceedings. As it stands now, there will not be profesional simultaneous translation (the press will have to provide their own translators). And, as it stands now, tape-recorders are banned from the courtroom, so there will not be a complete, incontrivertible record of all that is said and done. "

 

So not only was Iraq invaded on the aftermath of 911 (which he had nothing to do with) for the crime of having WMDs (which it could never be shown he had) but Saddam was tried in a court created by the occupying forces, with US prosecuting lawers having millions of $s backing them up, by a judge appointed by the invading force, in a court case that is by all legal measures SECRET.

 

Why?  Why indeed would the US want a secret trial?  Wasn't this man Mr. Evil?  Don't we want the world to know the crimes he did and how flat guilty he is (and what a great hero the US is for taking him down)?

 

Some reporters wanted to call this the "trial of the century".

 

If that's what it was then the 21st century marks the death of justice, liberty, due process, and individual rights.

 

And don't say I am a Saddamite - I don't like him any more than anyone else, but he, like every creature created of God, has certain unalienable rights - that means rights NOBODY can take away.  If we don't believe that for Saddam, we don't believe it for you or me.