Iran: Saddam's Execution Shows True Nature of U.S. says Ahmadinejad

[sabra]

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.372726875&par=0

IRAN: SADDAM'S EXECUTION SHOWS TRUE NATURE OF U.S. SAYS AHMADINEJAD

Tehran, 2 Jan. (AKI) - The execution on Saturday of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein shows the true nature of the United States, said Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday. "The execution of Saddam has proven that trusting the United States is not convenient," said the president, referring to the Iran-Iraq war in 1980-88 during which, he alleged, Washington encouraged Saddam in going to war with Tehran but then ousted him from power in 2003 "when he wasn't useful anymore."

"Countries in the region should learn the lesson and, like Iran, should only trust the will of their people and not corrupt powers," Ahmadinejad added.

Iran and the US have no diplomatic ties since shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution.

[LynnTheDem]

1. No one but idiots & morans would disagree with him on this.

Trust the US and sooner or later you'll get fucked.

It's The American Way.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[saigon68]

12. OOPS

[Megahurtz]

15. Sad but True.

The U.S. is viewed by other Countries as a violent Country.
I have heard this myself.
Can't argue with that.

[malaise]

24. Sad but very true n/t

[superconnected]

27. I don't trust iran either. They may have democratically ousted

their last leader but they also hung the 15yo girl for talking back and the teenage boys for being gay two years ago.

As far as showing the US's true nature, it actually shows Bush's true nature. Painting us all black isn't reasonable when if we hold them by their own standards, public executions in america do not happen daily, which they do in iran.

[Say_What]

28. WE execute the RETARDED and MENTALLY ILL...

And the graphic and ghoulish way the MSM reports executions they might as well be public--24/7 coverage just like we witnessed with the latest US lynch mob hanging of Saddam. :puke:

AI Reports for 2006

USA
In 2005, 60 people were executed, bringing to 1,005 the total number of prisoners put to death since executions resumed in the USA in 1977 following a moratorium. Two people were released from death row on grounds of innocence, bringing to 122 the total number of such cases since 1973.

On 1 March the US Supreme Court banned the execution of child offenders – those aged under 18 at the time of the crime – bringing the USA into line with international standards prohibiting such executions. Twenty-two child offenders had been executed in the USA since 1977.

Executions continued of people with mental illness and disorders, of prisoners who had been denied adequate legal representation at trial, and in cases where the reliability of evidence had been questioned.

* Troy Kunkle was executed in Texas on 25 January, despite suffering from serious mental illness, including schizophrenia, evidence of which was not presented to the jury that sentenced him to death. He was just over 18 at the time of the crime and had suffered a childhood of deprivation and abuse.
* Frances Newton was executed in Texas on 14 September, despite doubts over the reliability of her conviction. She was found guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidence, and always maintained that she was innocent.

http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/usa-summary-eng#11

IRAN
Death penalty

At least 94 people were executed in 2005, including at least eight aged under 18 at the time of the crime. Scores more were reported to have been sentenced to death, including at least 11 who were under 18 at the time of the offence. The true figures were probably much higher. Death sentences continued to be imposed for vaguely worded offences such as “corruption on earth”.

* In October, a woman was reportedly sentenced to death by stoning, despite a moratorium on the use of this punishment introduced in 2002.

In January, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Iran to suspend immediately the execution of people aged under 18 at the time of the crime, and to abolish the death penalty for people who commit crimes before they are 18. Despite Iran’s statement that there was a moratorium on the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders, Iman Farrokhi was executed on the very day that Iran’s report was considered by the Committee. He was 17 when he allegedly killed a soldier in a fight.

Following domestic and international protests, the death sentences of some women and of men aged under 18 at the time of their alleged offence were suspended or lifted.

http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/irn-summary-eng#5

[superconnected]

30. If you don't know that we are far better off in the US than Iran

over among other things, executions, and if you really believe we are somehow close, then I don't believe it's worth my time to discuss it with you. Also, we do not have public(street) execution in America. The media has not reached that.

[Say_What]

38. I posted AI's 2006 report for the US and Iran re the DP on my post. You didn't read them. n/t

[LynnTheDem]

32. 2005 executions;#1 Iran 95... #2 Saudi Arabia 86...

#3 USA 60.

The USA and Iran have each executed more child offenders than the other six countries combined and Iran has now matched the USA's total since 1990 of 19 child executions.

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-facts-eng

[superconnected]

33. at least in the US they get killed for murder, not that I agree

try this site, while you're pulling up notable sites. And gotta love that site you pointed out that mentioned iran also does stoning still.



http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=137

Neka (northern Iran), Aug 31 – The orphaned 16-year-old girl hanged in front of residents in this town close to the Caspian Sea on August 15 suffered years of brutal violence, exploitation and torture in the hands of relatives, local officials and plain strangers, and in a country where girls are the most vulnerable members of society, she had no one to go to for help.

The tragic picture emerges from dozens of interviews conducted by an Iran Focus correspondent with Atefeh Rajabi’s classmates, friends, relatives and neighbors in this humid, overcrowded industrial town that sits on a busy highway linking Tehran with the north of the country.

The hanging of Atefeh Rajabi has shocked the residents of Neka, who still differ widely in their assessment of the girl, but none voices support for the punishment that she has received. An air of tension and eerie silence hangs over the town’s smoke-filled tea-houses, or chaikhanehs, where men spend hours chatting quietly in clusters of three or four over tea. In a summer month like August, business should be booming in this town as thousands of Tehran residents flock to the sandy beaches of the Caspian. But right now, the visitors are for the most part not holidaymakers.

more at the site...
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=137
----------------------
But don't worry, she was considered an Adult, on your deathtoll tally site. Iran simply refused to acknowlege her age, even with her father there and her birth certificate. The judge who accused her and tried her also got to put the noose around her neck.

Was she killed for murdering someone? Nope. She talked back to a judge and pissed him off so he hung her for unladly like conduct.

:puke:

America still has problems, but we actually haven't sunk to iran yet.

[LynnTheDem]

34. Iraq and Afghanistan both stone, too.

Good thing we "liberated" them; now they only use "small" stones.

[JNelson6563]

45. I agree that USA is not quite as bad as Iran,

at least not to its own people. Yet.

But what I am seeing in your many posts in support of that point is no more than dismissive acknowledgements of the US's own horrible practices and heavy stressing of Iran's transgressions.

Relax.

Iran's got some barbaric shit goin' on, I don't think anyone will disagree with that point. Ok? The point is well made and well taken.

Let us move on.

Perhaps a point more worthy of our attentions would be that we rank as badly as Iran on anything to do with human rights and a lot of info on this is linked to here in this post upthread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2672233&mesg_id=2672969

Not only do we equal Iran in some human rights abuses at home, don't forget we get added points for contributing greatly to achieving a miserable and abusive environment for many in other places around the world. Take Iraq for instance....

This news is cause for alarm and action. We need to put a stop to this world wide crime spree our "representative" government's on in our name, not get busy making sure that everybody knows, while there are things about us that suck, there are things about Iran that suck a bit worse. Everybody knows this, it's the closing of the gap between the two countries we are concerned about, not establishing who sucks worse.

Julie

[closeupready]

49. Thank you. I was going to

post the same thing. You did it better.

[arewenotdemo]

43. true dat

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Damn, I hate it

when I find myself agreeing with religious nut cases about anything.

[rodeodance]

4. I know what you mean.

[katsy]

35. Me too. nt

[cdnwannabe]

3. He might be a theocratic mad man, but this makes a lot of sense

the whole thing was pathetic. Even one of the Canadian papers I saw (perhaps owned by right-wing tool Conrad Black?) had an obituary headline that read "Sadaam Hussein, Despot 1937-2006" They might as well have said "martyr" in place of "despot"

[w4rma]

14. More like: "Saddam Hussein, Despot 1937-2006, Martyr 2006+" (nt)

[msongs]

5. nice quote from a guy who wants to wipe another country off the face of the earth & if he is so

interested in trusting the "will of the people" why are iranian elections so messed up?

msongs
www.msongs.com
batik & digital art

[IndianaGreen]

11. Iraq is as much an artificial construct as Israel, perhaps less so

so when I hear people sound like the Israelbots in America, I just cringe.

[hogwyld]

19. be careful my friend

The Israelibots don't take to kindly to ANY ridicule of their spot of dirt. Whether deserved or not. Don't worry, I got ur back.

[ckramer]

7. He is right

USA should not trusted due to the working nature of its political system - lack of consistency.

[xchrom]

8. even crazy people are right once in a while.

[High Plains]

9. Manuel Noriega would probably agree.

[LynnTheDem]

10. So would Osama bin Laden, Ho Chi Ming, the Taleban...

The list goes on and on and on.

[Say_What]

26. Noriega: Poppy's pal one day, convict in Jebbie's prisons the next...

I bet his head is still spinning. Just another one of the USSA's Friendly Dictators.

GENERAL MANUEL NORIEGA
Chief of Defense Forces, Panama
The U.S. command post for covert Latin American operations is located in the Canal Zone where a series of figurehead presidents, some backed by General Manual Noriega, have involved Panama in U.S. intelligence operations. Noriega first met with then CIA Director George Bush in 1976 while Noriega was collecting $100 thousand a year as a CIA asset.Their friendly relationship persisted even after Noriegas' drug dealing was revealed by a 1975 DEA investigation. During the Reagan era, Noriega collaborated with Oliver North on covert actions against Nicaragua, training contras and providing a trans-shipment point for CIA supported operations that flew weapons to the contras and cocaine into the U.S.

Eventually Noriega refused to participate in further anti-Sandinista actions. In 1987, a Miami grand jury indicted him for drug-tradicking and the CIA tried to destabilize his regime. Noriega wamed Bush that he had information which could change the course of the 1988 U.S. elections and the CIA backed off, but when Noriega "annulled" Panama's 1989 elections, citing CIA interference, Bush renewed attempts to unseat his one-time ally. Critics called Bush's failure to support an abortive 1989 coup "indecisive," but his response to that criticism, the December 1989 invasion of Panama, led to world condemnation. Noriega eventually surrendered to face U.S. drug charges, but under the guise of apprehending one drug dealer, the invasion led to over 1,000 Panamanian deaths and installed a regime with similar close links to drugs, plus a willingness to alter Panama Canal treaties to suit U.S. interests.

[Straight Shooter]

13. You can step down from your soapbox now, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou.

Go clean up your own back yard. :eyes:

[IndianaGreen]

16. He is telling the truth that you don't want to hear, and he is not the only one

Robert Fisk says the same thing:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=253939

Who are we to lecture anyone about being Holier-Than-Thou?

[cdnwannabe]

17. As the Fonz used to say...

Exactamundo!!!

[Straight Shooter]

21. Please don't presume what I do or don't want to hear.

He's seizing a political opportunity to make a puffed-up statement, and I'm sure he couldn't care less what happened to his enemy Saddam.

FWIW, I agree with him, in principle, on this issue. I am completely aware of the entire sordid history of Saddam and the CIA and the rest of our government. But this Iranian nutcase need look no further than the behavior of his own country's leaders if he's looking for things to squawk about.

[Say_What]

25. Axis of Executioners: Iran, China, USA --we're right up there with them...

The number of executions in the *free and democratic* USSA, is right up there with Iran and China. It's way past time that muriKans got a clue about their own history. You can Google it or better yet, see this years AI Report about the DP--hardly something to be proud of.

In 2003 AI reported:

...The report presents data on key human rights indicators, including the death penalty, a category in which the US is a leading violator. China, Iran and the United States - a so-called "axis of executioners" - accounted for 81 percent of all known executions in 2002, with recorded executions in each country numbering 1,060, 113 and 71, respectively. Amnesty International research shows that over the last decade, an average of three countries annually have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. In 2002, Cyprus and the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro) abolished the death penalty for all offenses, and Turkey abolished the death penalty except in times of war. By the end of the year, 112 countries - more than half the world - had abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2003/0528-02.htm

[Straight Shooter]

29. Many of us do "have a clue."

Absolutely, the U.S. has nothing to be proud of when it comes to executions. Iran has nothing to be proud of when it comes to the history of its treatment of many people, and let's say for the sake of argument that they use people just as horridly as our government does when it comes to furthering their cause.

I really don't need to listen to someone who denies the Holocaust talking about the rotten execution of Saddam and his betrayal by the U.S. Playing with the CIA is for the big boys. They know the risks. It's dirty and it stinks and it's loathsome, but that's the sad facts.

To the U.S. government, all players are expendable. Even if Americans don't know it, the rest of the world damn sure does. Ahmadinejab (spelling?) is using this to boost his own standing. I seriously doubt there's any nobility behind his "revelation."

[Say_What]

39. Nobody claimed there was: "nobility behind his "revelation." n/t

[Straight Shooter]

40. I was making a comment, not responding to an assertion.

But feel free to disparage irrelevant minutiae.

[cigsandcoffee]

18. When Iran stops executing homosexuals...

...I'll be more interested in taking lessons from their President.

[superconnected]

31. applause

:applause:

[daleo]

20. This is one of the main problems with the execution

Leaders in the U.S. bad books (e.g. NK, Iran) are only likely to dig in deeper, now that they know that their own necks are on the line (literally). Could anyone have a greater incentive to equip themselves with nuclear weapons than this?

[RaleighNCDUer]

47. There ya go - someone who gets it.

The RWingers keep making WWII comparisons - how about this one: The Germans at the end of the war surrendered to us in droves, going sometimes hundreds of miles to find Americans to surrender to because they knew they could get a fair shake from us, and not from the Soviets. Despite the horrors they wrought on the world, only a handful of the worst were executed - and this was in an era when most countries in the world favored the death penalty.

Who would surrender to us today?

In those public statements Saddam made during his trial, how many declared the trial to be illegal? How often did he demand he be tried before an international tribunal? What made him different from Milosevec? The difference is this was a US invasion, he was tried and convicted before a US hand-picked puppet tribunal. And Kim Jong Il and Ahmadinijad both know they could only expect the same.

[lynne]

22. Execution? WHAT Execution?

There was no execution of Saddam - No Trial - No Verdict - No Sentence - No Hanging. I don't care what Ahmadinejad might THINK he saw, it wasn't true, there is no evidence - No Proof - and it is all just an elaborate myth.

Oh . . . wait a minute . . . it's the HOLOCAUST that really didn't happen according to Ahmadinejad. But that certainly shouldn't stop us from repeating everything else he says and hanging onto his every word . . .

:sarcasm:

[sgsmith]

23. As if the "True Nature" of Iran isn't also shown

By the 1980 Pulitzer Prize photo "Firing Squad in Iran" (photo 20 of 27)

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-iranpics0611-28.html

This has been the only Pulitzer awarded to "anonymous", and the photographer was publicaly revealed last year by the WSJ.

[The Gunslinger]

36. You know its bad

When a nutjob like this has a valid point.

[Superman Returns]

37. thats funny

considering it was Ahmadinejad's boys that killed Saddam, unruly screaming Sadr's name before he died. Ahmadinejad talks a good game but Iran was an enemy of Saddam and its his Shiite allies that couldn't wait for the guy to hang.

[HuffleClaw]

41. there was a guy, don't recall who, that said he'd rather be 'america's enemy than its friend'

as america invariably betrays its friends.

[fujiyama]

42. Oh the irony

As was mentioned by only ONE other person, it was people allied with Ahmedenijad that executed Saddam. It was Al Sadr's boys that wanted him dead. Shiites now have power. Ahmedinajad and his guys are happy regardless. The strengthening of Shiites in Iraq is great news for them and a new avenue for much greater influence in Iraq (though of course, I don't blame them for wanting to influence their neighbor - especially when you have the US in it).

This administration has been doing Iran's bidding since they took office. They antogonize the country, get the nationalistic forces riled up, getting Mr. holocaust denying crackpot elected, later defeating the Taliban (enemies of Iran), and later Saddam (even bigger enemies of Iran). And possibly by the end of Bush's term, Iran will likely be well on their way to having nukes.

I wouldn't pay attention to anything Iran has to say about executing people anyways considering they execute 15 year old girls that are raped and gays for well....living.

[JNelson6563]

46. Jam packed with truthiness

Excellent summary, I give it a 10. :toast:

Julie

[cali]

44. A whole bunch of cliches apply here:

Pot. Kettle. Complexion and

Stopped clock right twice a day.

Just to identify two.

[bamacrat]

48. Man it is bad when the crazy little man in Iran is right.

We need to stop creating our future enemies today because they can help us against our present enemies created in the past. The Swiss don't have this problem.

[libodem]

50. It shows the true nature of the killer cowboy in the White House

Swinging from the end of a rope around your broken neck seems like a bad Texas western. Iraq had no capitol punishment prior to the invasion. Now they have a country of Civil war and gallows. What a gift of sweet liberty. Thanks alot, George.