The sentence

So he got death in the last few minutes. We heard a rocket or bomb go off around the time the sentence came down so we're hunkering down today. There shouldn't be a great deal going on while the curfew is in effect but the coming days could be interesting. Maybe this is all worrying about nothing and the Sunnis won't go nuts. The Shiites certainly like it - they're out in their cars today beeping and whistling and hanging out windows.

This is by no means the end of it anyway - there is an automatic appeal process because the sentence was death. Saddam doesn't need to request an appeal, it just happens. So within I think 10 days 9 judges of an appeal court will review it and they have a minimum of 20 days to grant or deny the appeal. They can demand a retrial or if they uphold the death sentence it has to be carried out within 30 days. No new evidence is heard, they just review how the trial was conducted. There have long been concerns about how fair this trial was so it's not 100% that the sentence will be upheld. It could be a lot longer than 30 days before we hear anything in any case.

The thing that disturbs me is the timing of this. It was pretty clear that he was going to get a guilty verdict and most people thought he would get the death penalty. I thought they would defer sentencing to avoid Iraqis killing each other on a bigger scale than we've seen. Funny how it's come on the weekend before the US mid term elections. The Republicans are in the shit because of Iraq and a whole host of sex scandals, plus the way they botched the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina. Sadly this stunt will give them a boost. Once again it's a case of saving Bush's arse instead of saving Iraqi blood. These fuckers make me puke.

I'm out of here for a holiday soon. Good timing.