Saddam Opts For Firing Squad

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein told two of his lawyers that if he is sentenced to death for war crimes, he would rather die by firing squad than by hanging. "I don't value this life that much. Every human being has his time to go," lawyer Issam Ghazzawi said Saddam told him when they met in a basement of a Baghdad courthouse on December 7 during a break in his trial.BANG, BANG... Just like that!Mr Ghazzawi said he and former US attorney general Ramsey Clark raised the possibility that the former dictator might be sentenced to death if convicted of war crimes. "I am the commander in chief ... I prefer it to be by firing squad," Saddam answered, according to the lawyer, adding that it was "the right way" to execute a military leader. The ousted Iraqi ruler, who is blamed for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people during his 25-year regime but is currently facing charges of ordering the 1982 massacre of 140 people, said he was innocent of the charges but pessimistic about his future. "Of course I'm not guilty, but I know they want me dead," Saddam said."Threatening me with death doesn't mean anything," he told the two lawyers. "I don't care less. The life of any one Iraqi is no less valuable than mine." During his five-hour meeting with Mr Ghazzawi and Mr Clark, Saddam also praised the insurgency, saying it had prevented US attempts to "formulate a new world". "They tried in Iraq and failed badly, so by standing against (US President George W.) Bush we are protecting other countries and regions of the world. Now the US will think a thousand times before daring to attack another country," he said, according to Mr Ghazzawi. Saddam also predicted that US occupation of Iraq would not last much longer. "The Iraqi people are patriotic; they cannot accept foreign rule. Any aggression will be resisted to the end. "The Americans with their allies will fly out of Iraq very soon, and their puppets will leave even before the Americans," Saddam said. Saddam's trial is set to resume January 24 after two consecutive hearings December 21 and 22.