World

Saddam Hanging Deadline Sparks Threat

December 27, 2006 / 10:29 AM EST / CBS/AP

Saddam Hussein's Baath Party threatened Wednesday to retaliate if the ousted Iraqi leader is executed, warning in an Internet posting that it would target U.S. interests anywhere.

The statement appeared on a Web site known to represent the Baath, which was disbanded after U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam in 2003. The site is believed to be run from Yemen, where a number of exiled members of the party are based.

On Tuesday, Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal against a conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate in Dujail, northern Iraq, in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

Iraqi officials had said such a decision must be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Iraq's two vice presidents. But a presidential spokesman said that was not necessarily the case.

If Talabani's approval is not required, then Saddam would not have any other way to appeal his death by hanging.

"Our party warns again of the consequences of executing Mr. President and his comrades," the Baath party statement said. "The Baath and the resistance are determined to retaliate, with all means and everywhere, to harm America and its interests if it commits this crime," the statement added, referring to Baath fighters as "the resistance."

"The American Administration will be held responsible for any harm inflicted on the president because the United States is the decision-maker (in Iraq) and not the puppet Iraqi government."

The statement said that if the execution takes place, it would be impossible for the Baath to take part in any prospective negotiations with U.S. and Iraqi officials to reduce the violence in Iraq.

In other developments:

CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick reports there was a gloomy assessment from the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq Wednesday. "There are still significant shortcomings in the ISF. Iraqi forces suffer from deficiencies in logistics, leadership, and in some cases, loyalty," said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, according to a transcript provided by the military. "Significant challenges remain, and violence is likely to remain at unacceptably high levels in the near term."

A car bomb killed eight people near an Iraqi army checkpoint in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday, police said. They said all of the dead were civilians. Ten people were wounded.

Incoming Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, said he would oppose any effort by President Bush to increase U.S troops in Iraq as part of a new war strategy. Biden also announced Tuesday he has summoned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify before his committee next month to discuss the administration's new plan for Iraq as soon as it is made public.

Saddam's defense lawyers, who are based in Amman, called on Arab governments and the United Nations to intervene to stop the execution.

"Otherwise, all may be participating in what is going on, either actually or due to their silence in face of the crimes, which are being committed in Iraq in the name of democracy," the lawyers said in a statement in English that was e-mailed to The Associated Press bureau.

The statement, signed by "the Defense Committee for President Saddam Hussein," said the court's rejection of Saddam's appeal was part of the "continued shedding of pure Iraqi blood by the current regime in Iraq, which (is) directly connected with the American occupation."

Also against executing the former dictator is British Prime Minister Tony Blair — America's closest ally in the Iraq war — who said reluctantly that on this issue, he stands with his colleagues in the European Union, which opposes all death penalty sentences.