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[Ripclawe]

http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?c=news_photos&p=Europeans+skilled+at+excavating+mass+graves

Archaeologist Michael 'Sonny' Trimble and Greg Kehoe, right, a U.S. lawyer appointed by the White House to work with the Iraqi Special Tribunal, view a map of a mass grave site being excavated in Hatra, northern Iraq (news - web sites), Oct 12, 2004. Europeans skilled at excavating mass graves are reluctant to join the search for victims of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime because the former dictator could face the death penalty for crimes committed during his rule, according to Kehoe.(AP Photo Thannasis Cambanis, Pool)

Pics at the link, but this is absurd logic, you can still help find the graves and still object about the death penalty all you want, this is basically shutting your eyes and hoping it will go away.

 

[border]

Or maybe they don't want to end up getting beheaded in some awful video. If it were my job I'd definitely have a "No Searching Until the War is Over" policy.....and that place is still pretty much a warzone.

 

[gofreak]

Or maybe they don't want to end up getting beheaded in some awful video. If it were my job I'd definitely have a "No Searching Until the War is Over" policy.....and that place is still pretty much a warzone.

Yeah, call it cowardice if you like, I call it being smart. You'd have to be out of your mind, IMO, to go work in Iraq right now.

Still, if that is their only logic for not doing it, then I can see Ripclawe's point. But I've a feeling there's more to it than that, and maybe we're not hearing the full story.

 

[MrAngryFace]

Another reason for robots.

 

[SFA_AOK]

Pics at the link, but this is absurd logic, you can still help find the graves and still object about the death penalty all you want, this is basically shutting your eyes and hoping it will go away.

So actually helping to find the graves furthers their "No death penalty" cause? Can you explain this to me?

 

[RiZ III]

Is saddam going to be tried in the Hague? I don't think the Hagues International court gives death sentences. Where is he going to be tried? Don't tell me a military tribunal.

 

[gofreak]

Is saddam going to be tried in the Hague? I don't think the Hagues International court gives death sentences. Where is he going to be tried? Don't tell me a military tribunal.

Iraqi court. I believe they have the death sentence there.

 

[Ripclawe]

So actually helping to find the graves furthers their "No death penalty" cause? Can you explain this to me?

No, finding the graves would mean all that talk of helping the Iraqis and making sure justice is served actually meant something, what they are doing here is saying screw the mass graves, the death penalty is more important than getting evidence against Saddam.

 

[videogamer]

No, finding the graves would mean all that talk of helping the Iraqis and making sure justice is served actually meant something, what they are doing here is saying screw the mass graves, the death penalty is more important than getting evidence against Saddam.

When did these experts "talk of helping the Iraqis and making sure justice is served"? There is no article at link... the paragraph doesn't give enough information.

 

[gofreak]

No, finding the graves would mean all that talk of helping the Iraqis and making sure justice is served actually meant something, what they are doing here is saying screw the mass graves, the death penalty is more important than getting evidence against Saddam.

Haha, you may not have intended it, but your post actually did explain (to me, at least) why they may not want to be involved in gathering evidence at these mass graves.

Helping get evidence => helping get Saddam convicted => helping get Saddam killed. I guess, as they see it, there's nothing that can be done about those people who were killed under Saddam's regime, but while they can, they can protest against the killing of Saddam, despite all he was responsible for, and thus they do not want to involve themselves in a process that will eventually see him killed. If you took the death penalty out of the equation, I'm sure they'd be delighted to help in getting the f*cker locked away for life. You may not agree with it, but there is a logic there.

 

[SFA_AOK]

No, finding the graves would mean all that talk of helping the Iraqis and making sure justice is served actually meant something, what they are doing here is saying screw the mass graves, the death penalty is more important than getting evidence against Saddam.

That's just fucking incredible amounts of spin, man. They can't qualify their wanting to help? Someone wants to do x but opposes y. No matter what y is it shouldn't stop them doing x? That's bullshit, that's basically saying "pander to my opinion and what I want because otherwise, saying that you want to do something is crap."

 

[Ill Saint]

Iraqi court. I believe they have the death sentence there.

Yeah. The last thing the US wants is Saddam to be tried in an International court like The hague... imagine all the shit that would come out about US and other nations. Damaging indeed.

 

[Brannon]

Another reason for Jedi sexbots.

I agree.

 

[Ripclawe]

That's just fucking incredible amounts of spin, man. They can't qualify their wanting to help? Someone wants to do x but opposes y. No matter what y is it shouldn't stop them doing x? That's bullshit, that's basically saying "pander to my opinion and what I want because otherwise, saying that you want to do something is crap."

That's not spin, its the truth. They rather save Saddam's life by not helping out in finding Mass graves because the Iraqis would give him the death sentence. They can easily help out and still have their government object like they are doing now. But they are saying flat out, not only do we not want Saddam to die, we are not going to help you find mass graves, which BTW would help the families find lost loved ones to then bury them properly.

So its a nice double F U to the Iraqis.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...14.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/14/ixnewstop.html

He accused European agencies of depriving the investigation of experienced staff who would speed up the process.

"I don't have enough budget or staff to do more than one mass grave at a time," said Mr Kehoe. "That's why we need help from other countries. Europeans don't want to help out because of the ramifications of the death penalty."

Capital punishment is not permitted within the European Union which discourages its use elsewhere. EU countries also routinely refuse to extradite people to the United States and other countries unless they receive guarantees that detainees will not be executed.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal has identified a further nine mass graves to be examined for evidence of the former Saddam regime's crimes against humanity. Human rights groups estimate that 300,000 people were killed.

Yeah. The last thing the US wants is Saddam to be tried in an International court like The hague... imagine all the shit that would come out about US and other nations. Damaging indeed.

Considering how the Hague has screwed up the Milosevic trial so far, Saddam would be found innocent of everything.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Or maybe they don't want to end up getting beheaded in some awful video. If it were my job I'd definitely have a "No Searching Until the War is Over" policy.....and that place is still pretty much a warzone.

Rip why don't you look and address the more likely scenario.