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The Executioner’s Sura

The estimable John Burns gives a comprehensive account of what happened in the days and hours leading up to Saddam's lynching. The key question that emerges from this five-page chronologue is: Why did Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. Casey choose last week, of all times, to take their vacations? They were the only Americans capable of dissuading Maliki from going forward with the execution, and yet both men seemed eager to quit their posts — their resignations and replacements were announced this week. But couldn't they have held out a bit longer, especially with word that the "appeals" process fell somewhere between a rubber stamping and a steamroll?

Khalilzad's 11th-hour phone call to Maliki to forestall the hanging was meek and pro forma, whereas had he been in Baghdad to negotiate face to face… A Sunni neocon's intervention might have been effective.

More disturbing still is the following:

Mr. Khalilzad had suggested that the Iraqis get a written ruling approving the execution from Midhat al-Mahmoud, the chief judge of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council; Mr. Mahmoud refused. Then, the Iraqis played their trump card: a call to high-ranking Shiite clerics in the holy city of Najaf, asking for approval from the marjaiya, the supreme authority in Iraqi Shiism. When his officials reported that they had it, Mr. Maliki signed a letter authorizing the hanging. It was 11:45 p.m.

Now death warrants are being notarized by Shiite clerics. How can anyone maintain that this grim proceeding had even a veil of juridical legitimacy?

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