Hussein verdict and its timing

Re “Hussein Found Guilty Of Crimes Against Humanity,” Nov. 5

What an amazing coincidence! The guilty verdict in the Saddam Hussein trial came just two days before the U.S. elections -- elections in which the GOP needs whatever help it can get. The odds of such a coincidence are probably a million to one. I have no doubt President Bush is as surprised as I am.

MICHAEL LINFIELD

Los Angeles

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The court and the costs of prosecution that convicted Hussein were paid for by the U.S. to the tune of millions of dollars. President Bush and his minions in Iraq rejected the idea of transferring the trial to the International Court of Justice in The Hague because they feared that the court might not deliver the guilty verdict and death sentence Bush so badly wanted. The original chief judge quit after charging that he was being pressured to convict Hussein for political reasons. At least one other judge was murdered. Creation of the court was possible only because Iraq followed the dictates of a team of U.S. lawyers hired by the Bush administration.

One of Hussein’s lawyers, former U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark, was thrown out of the courtroom after imposition of the death sentence for charging that the proceedings were unfair.

What Hussein did to his countrymen was indefensible. However, trying, convicting and sentencing him to death in a kangaroo court created, bought and paid for by a corrupt American administration is equally indefensible.

RICHARD L. HUFF

San Diego

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So a ruthless dictator has been sentenced to death for, in this one case, ordering the murder of 148 Kurds. How do we reconcile this with the more than 2,800 American soldiers killed because of the stubbornness and misguided vanity of a freely elected U.S. president? Justice needs to work in the U.S. as well as Iraq.

WERNER HAAS

West Hollywood

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There’s something dreadfully sad about Bush’s jubilant delivery of the news of Hussein’s death sentence. OK, Hussein probably deserves to die. But it doesn’t advance civility and culture when the leader of the free world dances with glee at the news of an impending death, no matter whose it is.

ZENA THORPE

Chatsworth

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After 2 1/2 years in detention, raise your hand if you believe that the announcement of Hussein’s conviction two days before U.S. elections was not a strategically choreographed act of political theater. Raise your other hand if you knew that Hussein would be found guilty. If you have raised both hands, then you have surrendered to the Republican Party’s perpetual war on terror.

ARCH MILLER

Arcadia