i really have little doubt that the saddam verdict was rescheduled so that it would be announced two days before the u.s. midterm elections for political reasons. it's not just a crass political move, it's a crass political move that endangers u.s. interest in iraq. in other words, yet again, the bush administration is putting politics over what it claims are american interests.
any time there is a war crimes trial, there is a danger of it being branded "victor's justice." "victor's justice" is another way of saying that the trial is not about justice at all. it's really just a sham, a show-trial. that the decision to convict was decided on the battlefield not by the facts before the court. i'm not saying that's necessarily what is going on with saddam's trial. but anytime you have a trial like this, victor's justice is the elephant in the room.
the gold standard for war crimes trials is really the nuremberg trials. a lot of factors add to the credibility of those trials. the defendants, though nazis, were given full rights of criminal defendants. the right to confront their accusers, the right to stay silent, the right to counsel, the presumption of innocence, etc. some of the very rights that the bush administration seeks to deny defendants in the upcoming military commission trials of guantanamo detainees. without those rights, the "trial" seems designed towards getting a conviction rather than finding out the truth. it resembles a soviet-style show trial rather than an independent judicial proceeding.
the other big thing that gave the nuremberg trials credibility was that there were acquittals. acquittals made the convictions more powerful because they made it clear that they were not a predetermined result. acquittals made it very difficult to dismiss the convictions as mere show trials or victor's justice.
the challenge in bringing saddam to trial was not just presenting enough evidence to convict him, but rather making it clear that any conviction would be based on the evidence and not political considerations. already there have been plenty of signs that the trial of saddam would be more political theater than a legitimate trial. last january the iraqi government pressured to chief judge in the trial to resign because he was "too soft" on saddam. if the trial of saddam were a real trial, "too soft" would not be a legitimate criticism. saddam is innocent until proven guilty. not that i have any doubt that he is guilty, but the judges on the case must treat him that way if their later conviction is to mean anything.
this latest move to delay the trial until right before the election, on its face, appears to be nothing more than a crass political move. it's made worse by the fact that the choice of november 5th was never really adequately explained by the court. they first claimed they needed to delay the announcement from the original date of october 16, 2006, the original expected date, because they wanted to recall some witnesses to testify. but they never recalled any witnesses. instead, when they set the new date of november 5th, the court claimed that it needed more time because the various judges could not agree on a penalty. but that explanation doesn't really make much sense either. if they really were so deadlocked, then why announce a new date? when the postponement was announced on october 16th how did they know they would be ready by november 5th?
even if they were right, even if the court really did need more time to reach a conclusion on the penalty question and wanted to set a new date when they canceled the october 16th date, they should have picked a date after november 7th. scheduling an explosive announcement like that just adds to the victor's justice concern. the credibility of their court is at stake. given the weight of evidence there is against saddam, there's no need to monkey around with this. all effort should be made to make the proceedings serious. i just wish the bush administration would realize that the trial has importance that is independent from its political fortunes in the u.s.
(MMA link via atrios)
