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29. desember 2006
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Saddam Hussein's life will end by the end of the weekend, the press speculates.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, sentenced to death for his role in 148 killings in 1982, will have his sentence carried out by Sunday, NBC News reported Thursday. According to a U.S. military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, Saddam will be hanged before the start of the Eid religious holiday, which begins at sundown Saturday.
The hanging could take place as early as Friday, NBC’s Richard Engel reported.
The U.S. military received a formal request from the Iraqi government to transfer Saddam to Iraqi authorities, NBC reported on Thursday, which is one of the final steps required before his execution. His sentence, handed down last month, ordered that he be hanged within 30 days.
The NYT is touchingly worried about the murderous dictator, complaining about the "rush" to execute him. Well, it's actually been three years since Saddam was captured. Recall what the Romanians did to their dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. That is rushing. We all know how the "international community" deals with dictators: making a trial so long that judges retire halfway and the defendent eventually dies of old age (I actually predicted that outcome!). International law is just such a joke these days.
Update: It's official, kinda.
Saddam Hussein will be executed no later than Saturday, said an Iraqi judge authorized to attend his hanging. The former dictator's lawyers said he had been transferred from U.S. custody, but an Iraqi official said he was still in the hands of American guards.
Lots of conflicting statements all around.
Update 2: Everything seems to indicate the execution is now imminent.
Update 3: It is over.
5:57:08 PM 
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Spelling matters:
A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometres away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.
Dressed for the Australian summer in t-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany on Saturday for a four-week holiday.
Instead of arriving "down under", Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana.
"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."
Obviously, as the unlucky tourist was able to borrow some money and eventually get himself to the right continent.
1:39:06 PM
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Israel has given approval to arming Fatah in its fight against Hamas.
After coordination with Israel and the United States, Egypt has sent a shipment of weapons and ammunition into the Gaza Strip to forces loyal to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, Israeli officials said today.
Senior Palestinian officials denied the report, including the spokesman for Mr. Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, calling the story “Israeli propaganda aimed at aggravating the situation between Fatah and Hamas.”
But Israeli officials confirmed a report in the Haaretz newspaper that the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, approved the shipment in his meeting Saturday evening with Mr. Abbas. Four trucks with some 2,000 automatic rifles, 20,000 ammo clips and some 2 million bullets passed from Egypt through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, where Gaza, Israel and Egypt meet. The shipment was turned over to Mr. Abbas’s Presidential Guard at the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel.
Obviously this will be a propaganda victory of sorts for Hamas. I see a certain logic, both in seeing Hamas as by far the bigger threat, and Fatah at least being a negotiating partner of sorts, even if it is an unreliable one. It would not surprise me, however, if Israel would find itself facing some of these weapons again sometime in the future. I guess with small arms, they can take that risk.
PS: Israeli intelligence says that Hezbollah (and ultimately Iran) is paying hard cash to Palestine terror groups for rocket attacks against Israel:
Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) sources said the Islamist organization paid several thousand dollars for each attack, with the amount dependent on the number of Israelis killed or wounded.
"We know that Hizbullah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," a security official said.
"Palestinian terrorists get thousands of dollars per attack. Sometimes they are paid before the attack and sometimes they submit a bill to Lebanon afterward and the money gets transferred a short while later."
According to the officials, while Islamic Jihad was behind most recent rocket attacks - including the one on Tuesday night that critically wounded 14-year-old Adir Basad in Sderot - several splinter terrorists groups are also involved and have received direct funding from Hizbullah.
According to security officials, Islamic Jihad gets the money via its headquarters in Damascus while Fatah's Tanzim terror group and the Popular Resistance Committees receive payment from Hizbullah in Lebanon.
It all adds up to Iran being the root of all evil in the region these days.
6:46:38 AM
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© Copyright 2007 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.01.2007; 08:23:03.
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