3 Aces down, 1 more to go

Anyone up for a pool on how long it takes to get the 4th ace???

It can't be too soon.

As for feeling bad for the sons, remember that they died in what has been described as a pretty fierce firefight with our forces. They could have surrendered and faced international justice, but chose their own fate in the end.

I find it difficult to feel sorry for them in any way.

As a side note, I don't think it's necessarily dumb to be concerned about possible retaliation from Saddam, so the remark about Y2K might be sillier than the post that sparked that reply. Saddam may have resources that we know nothing of.

Edited to add:

Just watched an ABC Special where they were speculating that Saddam might try something spectacular to go out in a blaze of glory.

Maybe, maybe not. But I don't think we should celebrate too early.

Tito? of the Jackson 5? I think Jacko's the one we need to fear from that group. No distinguishing facial features due to massive reconstruction and the parenting skills of Susan Smith or Andrea Yates. (another 2 people whom i wouldn't be too sorry to see go)

I wish i didn't have to work today, i'd like to watch the briefing on the raid. Hopefully i'll be able to catch it on rerun later in the afternoon. Docet, i'm with you 361%. a big portion of evil left the world when they died and i'm all the happier.

Kitso
KS 361 days or less(hopefully) that saddam has left

How are we any safer? Really? Like, for real for real. When has Saddam Hussein planned an attack on the United States? There was no connection between Al-Qaeda and Hussein.

And the Taliban didn't have any beef with us in the first place.

Come on people, let's get sensible, not partisan.

That's just disgusting. I don't want any such display to smear my wonderful city.

Y'know I'm really tired of this notion that we're the best thing since cheese and we deserve to rule the world.

Um, how about you parade them down Main Street or whatever in Omaha.

And don't be so touchy about the Bush daughters. What have they done for you lately? Besides eat up your tax dollars in rehab?

Sure, I'll admit I'm very pleased. This may be one time I would have favored them being locked away, deprived of everything they have become accustomed to-with some guy named BUBBA! HOWEVER, with those guys in prison, a perfect hostage situation...demand for exchange of prisoners would have existed. Now, that's one less worry with them dead. I think too it would be foolish to assume there won't be any retaliation. Maybe there won't, BUT...
Whatever will be, is most likely already in a near execution stage.
With our boarders being penetrated and our ports' past history of having less than 2% of the cargo inspected, I think we ALL should live each day to the fullest and lose the thought that "IT" couldn't happen again.
http://hollings.senate.gov/~hollings...002620425.html
Most Americans would be surprised to discover there is no unified federal plan for overseeing the security of the international borders at our seaports. And that's what seaports are: international borders that must be protected as well as our land borders with Canada and Mexico.
The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs Service are doing an outstanding job, but they are outgunned. In the year 2000, we imported 5.5 million trailer truckloads of cargo. Due to that volume, the U.S. Customs Service is only able to inspect between 1 to 2 percent of containers. In other words, potential terrorists and drug smugglers have a 98 percent chance of randomly importing illegal and dangerous materials.

What he said.

whatever happened to U.S. policy banning assassination?

I think that's more of a tradition than a policy, isn't it? I could be wrong (in fact, I often am!)

Nope, it is an executive order. I forgot who exactly started it. It might be a law now. It started out as an executive order. I'll snoop around and found out.

It is an executive order. (Executive Order 12333, section 2.11) Saddam and his ilk are no longer in power and are not under the protection of this executive order. Moreover, they resisted being taken into custody and in turn were killed.

DoD Directive 5240.1 - DoD Intelligence Activities, April 25, 1988

4.4. Under no circumstances shall any DoD employee engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.

Executive Order 12333 -- United States intelligence activities, Dec. 4, 1981

2.11 Prohibition on Assassination. No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.

2.12 Indirect Participation. No agency of the Intelligence Community shall participate in or request any person to undertake activities forbidden by this Order.

Executive Order 11905 -- United States foreign intelligence activities, February 18, 1976

(g) Prohibition of Assassination. No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.

The full text of E.O. 12333 can be read at the following URL: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/...se/eo12333.htm

Thanks AlphaSigOU!

But weren't Saddam and his ilk in power when the war started?

At this point it doesn't look like anyone has claim to national power in Iraq

In any case the recent actions are violations of the executive order. Is it possible for a president to violate an executive order? Does he have to repeal it first or issue a new one? Anybody know?

If i remember correctly, the executive order may have been modified recently in light of the recent terrorist attacks. Political assassinations just to bring in a 'regime change' more suitable to US interests in peacetime are still prohibited.

However, the justification for the US and coalition forces to invade Iraq by force stems from UN resolutions; Iraq violated several UN resolutions enacted after Gulf War I regarding inspection and disposal of weapons of mass destruction.

Examples of political assassinations and other actions that are now prohibited by EO 12333:

• the assassination attempt and coup d'etat that brought down Iranian president Mossadegh and installed the Shah of Iran in 1956.
  
• the coup d'etat in Guatemala in 1956.
  
• the coup d'etat and assassination of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963.
  
• the coup d'etat of Chilean president Salvador Allende in 1973.

Declassified CIA documents and other investigations revealed CIA complicity in the above events.

So I've herd that the man that gave the sons away might be their cousins. You got to wonder, do you think Saddam thought he sons were liability and had them taken out? If so, this might not be a great triumpth but a consolidation for Saddam. Food for thought.

Well as been seen, two sons down, now time to Bag - Dad!

Does anyone remember seeing all of the mass graves that are still being found?:mad:

They released the pictures. Check out http://www.cnn.com if you want to see them. It's kind of creepy.

Assassination, ashmashination - those pricks deserve to be dead, each and every one of them....And yes, their dead bodies should be dragged down to Time Square and hung naked.....just like those assholes did to tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi people.

I have no sympathy for men who take a woman on her wedding date, rape her for days, and then kill her new husband......torturing an Olympian for not getting first place....slicing off the ears of a person who was late to a meeting....etc.

The world is a better place with these people dead, point blank.

Just wondering, I remmember Al-Jazeera getting flack for showing the dead soldiers pic. won't this be the same thing?

Not quite. There is a big diff in the showing of a ordinary soldier and a political leader. Many people are insisting to see proof that these two are dead, and what better proof can you give to the people of Iraq?

No... Someone on another board posted this, so I'll copy and paste because it pretty much sums up the difference between POWs being shown and Saddam's sons being shown.

"It is against the rules of the Geneva convention to show dead POWs. It is illegal internationally to kill POWs or to treat them in a fashion which outrages personal dignity. (See: http://193.194.138.190/html/menu3/b/91.htm ) for clarification of the rules for treatment of prisoners of war.

However dead sadistic, power-mad rapist, murderer dictators are another story. The proof of their death MUST be provided to the Iraqi people who live in DREAD of these men. And of course, the US media being the feeding frenzy that it is refuses to be left out -- we can't provide this info to Iraqi news without providing it to US news (additionally well educated Iraqis depend on US news sources for realistic information, not being sure of their own)."