A sentence is to be handed down some time today. Iraq is in the midst of a ‘crackdown’, according to the NYT. What an interesting choice of words.

The Iraqi government issued an around-the-clock ban on all vehicles and pedestrians, beginning Saturday night and lasting until at least Monday morning. The restrictions were also extended to the provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala, and to the city of Mosul, bastions of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency.

The authorities beefed up police and military presence at checkpoints throughout the capital, and all Iraqi troops and police officers were recalled from leave and put on standby in the event of civil unrest.

Saddam faces the possibility of the death penalty, and the authorities fear that a guilty verdict could trigger widespread attacks by supporters of his government.

Oh, of course the slimes would say that, they’re the ones having Thanksgiving with the Taliban and who knows what else. How many baathists are actually left? For that, you should check with Iraq the Model.

With the leftist media caterwauling about his unfair treatment and the human rights abuses that the Americans have committed as opposed to those that Saddam inflicted on his own people during a 35-year reign of terror, I can’t wait to hear the results of this trial.

Michelle Malkin has a great roundup post here. She notes that instead of Bush bashing, the leftists should turn their attention on Saddam’s victims, but of course, that would never happen. These people are not only in a constant state of denial (and I’m not talking about a river in Egypt), they’re also in a constant state of hysteria with the elections coming up on November 7.

The crimes he’s accused of from the trial documents are here.

A day-by-day of the Dujail trial.

A day-by-day of the Anfal trial.

Testimony that was pretty much ignored.

Mohammed on the lockdown in Iraq, awaiting the verdict.

Reuters: Iraqis dread the verdict. But they also love terrorists, so their reporting should be on ‘entertainment tonight’.

Update: Saddam Sentenced to DEATH

The verdict fell neatly right before the elections on the 7th, and I think this is going to be great, if it turns out the way I think it should. Leftists think he should be reinstated as the President of Iraq, but Iraqis themselves, like Maliki, think he should be hung. There are times when I feel like that old french woman crying ‘guiottine!’ when Marie Antoinette was led to her grisly death in a public beheading display. This is one of those.

Maybe Saddam should just be let out onto the streets in Kurdistan and let the Kurds do what they would with him.

Saddam has been sentenced to death!

He has been found guilty and sentanced to die, the reports say:

Angry, shaking and defiant, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death this morning by hanging for ordering the massacre of Iraqi civilians.

Mohammed with his first reaction at Pajamas Media.

I was overwhelmed with joy and relief as I watched the criminals being read their verdicts. For the first time in our region tyrants are being punished for their crimes through a court of law.

Until this moment and while I’m typing these words I’m still receiving words of congratulations in emails, phone calls and text messages from friends inside and outside the country. These were our only means to share our happiness because of the curfew that limits our movement.

This is the day for Saddam’s lovers to weep and I expect their shock and grieve to be huge. They had always thought their master was immortal so let them live in their disappointment while we live for our future.

This is a day not only for Iraqis but a historic day for the whole region; today new basis for dealing between rulers and peoples are found.

No one is above the law anymore.

I was particularly pleased by the way Judge Raouf Rasheed handled the session; he was reading the court’s decision and at the same time chastising members of the current government for their misbehavior and threatened to throw them in custody regardless of their ranks!

We are living a new era where there’s much hope despite the difficulties…our sacrifices have a noble cause, that is to build a new model that obviously terrifies other tyrants.

Listen to these words!

I salute the honorable special tribunal that challenged threats and risks and insisted on keeping up the work until the end, and today it brought back the pride of the land that wrote the world’s first laws.

I salute the witnesses who risked their lives to reveal the truth and expose the crimes of the dictator.

I salute the brave men and women of the coalition who came to this land and made this day possible.

Congratulations to all my Iraqi brothers and sisters on this glorious day.

Thanks God for our armed forces, that this day was made possible! Congratulations to the entire region for this day, because the ripple effect has already begun with Ghadhafi’s cowardice and others.

And look at this over at Stop the Aclu - another good roundup.