Should we headline this "Today's Noose"? (rimshot)The man known as Chemical Ali for ordering poison gas attacks against the Kurds in the 1980s has been flown by helicopter from a United States base to a site near a prison gallows in Baghdad, an Iraqi police official said Wednesday, suggesting that his execution was imminent.
The prisoner, Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein, was sentenced on June 24 to death for his role in the Anfal — or "spoils of war" — campaign that killed as many as 180,000 Kurds.
An appeals court upheld Majid's sentence on Sept. 4, clearing the way for his execution within 30 days, as required under Iraqi law.
He's at the end of his rope, as it were. (rimshot)
The execution was delayed, however, in a legal dispute over whether Majid and two other top officials convicted for their roles in the Kurdish campaign should be killed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended last week.
So instead of hanging, he was left hanging. (rimshot)
The feast celebrating the end of Ramadan, Id al-Fitr, wound up on Sunday for Sunnis and on Monday for Shiites.