This year's October surprise is coming in November--just in time for the weekend wrapup of news and talking heads before election day.
QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA reports today from Baghdad:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A verdict against Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants charged with crimes against humanity in connection with an anti-Shiite crackdown in the 1980s will be announced Nov. 5, a senior court official said on Monday.
Sentences for those found guilty will be issued the same day, chief investigating judge Raid Juhi told The Associated Press.
[make the jump]
While the headline, SADDAM GUILTY! will not come as a surprise, this event will prompt the cable news networks and the MSM to run wall-to-wall coverage of the life and horror-filled times of Saddam Hussein--how he brutally put down the Shiite rebellion after Dessert Storm, gassed the Kurds, etc. (Subtext: He's a terrorist... Sub-subtext: just like the 9/11 terrorists)
The verdict to be announced is related to just one of Saddam's trials underway in Baghdad. In the other, Saddam is accused of gassing the Kurds, or as some would prefer to put it "developing and using weapons of mass destruction against his own people." The occasion of the first verdict on November 5 will undoubtedly prompt copious coverage of the second trial as well.
In a related story today Abdul-Zahra reports from Baghdad (where, according to official sources, there is no civil war):
The brother of the top prosecutor in the second trial of Saddam Hussein was shot dead in front of his wife at his home in the capital Monday, according to a key official charged insuring no former members of the Saddam regime hold positions of authority.
[snip]
Saddam is the chief defendant in another trial, facing genocide charges in connection with a government crackdown in the 1980s against Iraqi Kurds. The prosecution alleges about 180,000 people died in that campaign.
Saddam, his cousin "Chemical" Ali al-Majid and five other co- defendants could face death by hanging if convicted.
Expect to be carpet bombed with these stories and every second of file footage the networks have on Saddam and what a bastard he is. (Subtext: Thank goodness for George Bush and the Republicans who rid the world of Saddam. Sub-sub text: Vote Republican on Tuesday.)
It's hard to believe that there may still be undecided voters in the Novemeber 7 election (except for a few unconscious souls on life support), but if there is anyone on the cusp on November 5, the saturation coverage of Saddam starting two days before the election could tip them over.