dignity before death

I don’t understand people very well, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. I tried today, and actually learned something. It turned out to be a very exciting experience that I’d like to share with you:

According to White House officials, President Bush was upset after watching the video of Saddam Hussein’s execution. White House officials said that, “Bush found the taunting of Hussein as he stood on the gallows with a noose around his neck disturbing.” (here’s an article, there are many more like it)

(In my opinion, the taunting was over the top, but I was a bit more disturbed by the fact that there was a man standing on the gallows.)

Then last night, I listened to the President’s speech. While describing some of the US successes in Iraq, the President boasted, “Our military forces in Anbar are killing and capturing Al Qaeda leaders”

I was confused. For some reason, the President didn’t seem very disturbed by those killings. He was actually bragging about them.

My mission was to understand why. To get the answer I was going to have to make some phone calls.

A good friend from high school, has a younger brother who is currently a White House intern, so I called him first (the brother.) After a couple minutes of small-talk, I asked him if he had any idea why Bush was so disturbed by the taunting of Hussein, but not by the killings of Al Qaeda leaders in Anbar. He told me that he rarely gets to speak to the President, and even if he did, a conversation like that would likely be considered out of bounds. He apologized for his inability to offer any insight.

So next I called a former undergrad professor who now teaches at the Grover Cleveland School of Public Policy at George Washington. I asked him the same question. His initial response was sarcasm. He said something to the effect of, “Maybe he suffers from short term memory loss.” But then he confessed that if he could answer that question, he would have written about it long ago.

I had one last contact, and he was my best shot at finding a good lead (which is why I saved him for last.) His daughter is an old friend from high school, and he now works for the State Department in Washington DC. He owed me a favor.

I called him up at ~11:00 last night and asked him the question. At first he thought I was joking, and laughed. But it didn’t take him long to realize that I was serious. He was reluctant to help, but I pressed him, hard. (I knew that he was my last chance.) He finally agreed to look through some paperwork the next day and see what he could find, he told me that the White House keeps memoranda on almost everything that goes on there.

I wasn’t very optimistic, it was midnight in DC, so I figured he was just trying to get off the phone. (Just because I took his daughter’s best friend to homecoming after she had been dumped by her boyfriend, didn’t mean he was going to dig through classified documents to return the favor.) I gave up, and went to sleep.

This morning I was awakened by the vibrating of my phone. (I’m dog-sitting for Juice again so I don’t have my “t-shirt under the phone” set-up here.) It was a 202 area code, (DC), so I answered immediately. It was my friend’s father at the State Department. I could tell right away that he had something because he was whispering. The only thing he said was, “Can you get to a fax machine in the next two minutes?”

I could sense that he was nervous. Juice’s home office was right next to my room, so I told him I could be in front of a fax machine in 10 seconds. I was shaking with excitement. I quickly climbed out of bed, hurried into the office, and read him the fax number. As soon as I read him the number, he said to me, “Please, don’t ever tell anyone that I did this for you.” He hung up the phone.

A couple of minutes later, the fax machine rang. Two pages came out. The first page was simply a handwritten note, “Cyrus, please destroy this after you read it.”

The second page was a memo from an Army Lieutenant stationed in the Anbar province of Iraq, addressed to the White House! My adrenaline was rushing. The subject heading of the memo was, “Anbar: Capturing and Killing of Al Qaeda Leaders.”

Wow, I wondered what was I about to read...

The memo was fairly short, only three paragraphs. The first paragraph had a subheading, "Capturing." It explained the fighting and capturing of Al Qaeda leaders in Anbar. The next two paragraphs had the subheading, "Killing." I’ll type those two paragraphs here, word for word:

“After Al Qaeda leaders are captured, they are formally charged with the crime of ‘international terrorism’ which is punishable by death. They are then informed of their rights and given the opportunity to hire an attorney, or use the local Iraqi court appointed attorney. The attorney will guide them through their process, which includes a trial by jury, and appeal. If a guilty verdict is found by the jury, and upheld by the court of appeals, an execution date will be set. Mr. President, I can assure you that all of the killings of Al Qaeda leaders in Anbar are carried out with the utmost respect for the prisoner.

The executions take place at night, so on the morning of the execution, the prisoner is taken to a Mosque and allowed to say his final prayers. We then allow him to spend his last day with family. This often includes playing with children, a conjugal visit with his wife, and a conjugal visit with his mistress. At 9pm, the visitation time is over, and the prisoner is taken away. In the execution room, the prisoner is given a bed on which to sleep. He is also given a freshly fluffed pillow for his head, a warm blanket to cover his body, and a Koran to hold in his hands. He is allowed to fall asleep on his own. Once asleep, a licensed American doctor gives him an injection of morphine to ease any pain. The doctor then administers a small, yet lethal dose of poison that kills him instantly, and painlessly. Finally, according to Muslim custom, the body is bathed, anointed with scents, draped in a seamless white shroud, and immediately handed over to his family so that they may bury the body within 24 hours (in accordance with traditional Islamic custom.)”

It all came together! My question was answered. The Al Qaeda leaders that the President boasted about killing, were killed honorably. We may have taken their lives, but we left them their dignity. This was totally different from how Hussein was killed.

Perhaps a good starting point for learning about a person is to figure out where he/she gets his information, and then find out what that information is. Because after reading this memo, I agree with the President. You should have some respect for a man when you go into his country and take his life. Our execution methods, as outlined in that memo, clearly demonstrate our respect for the enemy.

On the other hand, when Saddam Hussein was killed, it was troubling. It’s not right to taunt a man before you hang him. It's just not fucking right.