Correct, Bob. I've always thought to change my comment but never got around to it. I will now

But one of the pigs hung himself, methinks...?

"On August 31, 1946, in his closing trial statements, Göring accepted blanket responsibility for the charges against Hitler and the Third Reich. He was sentenced to death on October 1, but one poison capsule was still in his baggage, hidden in a pot of skin cream, according to one of Göring's letters. The capsule was in all probability smuggled into his cell by Lt. Wheelis and Dr. Pflucker. This reviewer, who always thought that the vial of poison was concealed in the bowl of Göring's meerschaum pipe, found Irving's revelations on Göring's final hours surprising."

Bob Kolker

The story of the Nuremberg trials (WW2) is very instructive with regard to this. I know they went through the same machinations regarding legal jurisdictions & the new charges regarding crimes against humanity. As I remember they did most of that *pre-trial* and despite some grandstanding by a few shameless Nazis most of them got what they deserved. Goering hanged himself on the *washbasin* in his cell rather than face the ignominy of a military hanging. See Bob's correction below.

As Indiana's dad labelled them: The Slime of Humanity

There's Goering at front left, and here:

Hitler's right-hand man, a slimmed-down heroin addict who stole art & treasures from all over Europe for display in his mansion outside Berlin. Look at the pig. Not so fucking tough now.

Hess, deputy to Hitler, is beside Goering. He only got 20 years. Deserted Germany in 1941. Took a plane and crashed it in Scotland.

Second row, third from the right, is Albert Speer, Hitler's chief architect & Minister of Armaments, & everyone's favourite Nazi (huh!). So many have painted a sympathetic picture of him as being a man caught between a rock & a hard place. Bunkum. He had a choice. He drew up plans & constructed models for the grand new cities of the Reich, to be built on land laid waste by the blitzkrieg & depopulated by the Final Solution. He also extended the war by unknown months through efficiently organising war production when it looked like collapsing. Simpering turd.

Behold them, sitting there in their suits when only a year before they had been jackbooting all over Europe, drunk with power, puffed-up & pompous. Slime, indeed, Dr Jones.

As it is now, he aledges that the court has no authority to try him, because it is not recognized by the "True Government of Iraq" (namely him). If he were to sanction the court and its actions, it would be recognizing the court's right to try him; and validating the new government of Iraq. Being the leader of the former government, whose party members are fighting the american led forces to free him. His giving up/giving in would cause a major morale slup in the oposition warriors fighting the new government.

How would you feel if John Galt had given in to Wesely Mouch and used his mind to bolster the Economic force of the "People's State of the United States"? Would you continue to fight to free him if Galt willingly gave in? I should hope not.

Precisely how would his sanction add to the validity of the court or the charges against him?

SmS

Saddam left accusing the court of having no validity (ie, removing his sanction). It will be interesting if he returns to the courtroom on the 22nd, thereby sanctioning the trial.

If he is forced to be there it won't mean as much as it does if he turns up on his own free will.

But he's still incarcerated, still on trial and will still likely be convicted and ultimately executed for (some of) his crimes, regardless of whether his tush is keeping the defendant's chair warm.

I only object because I think that it essential to establish law and order over there.  And since I believe that the Iraqi govt must do so, it MUST show that Saddam uis not allowed to do as he pleases--he is incarcerated for the luvva Galt.  His antics make the new government look postiviely Frech (i.e., ineffectual).

Continue to try him in absentia.  From what I've see thus far, it'd probably make things go a lot more quickly anyway. 

"...that it should have been done outside Iraq by the UN or some other body."

By the UN?  Do you really think increasing the number of useless lawyers and bureaucrats by an order of magnitude will have a positive effect on the efficiency of the process?  Saddam is now Iraq's problem.  Let them muddle through and perhaps learn from the experience.