[TteFAboB]

That article is confusing and long-winded. It's Sunday and I'm tired of reading all these newspapers full of these kind of articles from journalists who believe their article is more important than the facts being reported themselves.

Straight to the point without bells and whistles:

Saddam Hussein - sentenced to death by hanging.
Barzan Ibrahim - former intelligence officer, sentenced to death by hanging.
Awad Hamed al-Bandar - former head of some government-party branch, sentenced to death by hanging.
Taha Yassin Ramadan - former vice-president of Iraq, life sentence.
Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid - Baath party cave man, 15 years.
Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid - Baath party cave man #2, 15 years.
Ali Dayih Ali - Baath party monkey-man, 15 years.
Mohammed Azawi Ali - Baath party "tell me who you walk with" man, not-guilty.

I'm against the death penalty by principle, though I can accept exceptions (not including the automatic cases of self-defense and war). In this case I find Saddam to have earned the easy way out ticket. 15 years of torture at least before the final hanging, only to be applied after Saddam develops immunity to pain. And of course, there is the whole martyr thing. The Iraqi "insurgents" are being depleted and more Iranians have to cross the border to take their job every day. Iranians won't cry for Saddam but his killing could give one last breath to the Iraqi insurgency. Another argument to keep him locked for a little longer, just untill his death is sure to inspire nobody. He does not deserve a heroic ending to their understanding but to go down in shame and despise by the future generations.