This is a joke and an embarrassment. If killing merchants is a crime in Iraq, then Bush & Co. with their 500# bombs would be guilty of more deaths than Aziz. Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Gates, et al. would be in the dock with him.

Saddam's trial was bad enough, with judges who weren't overtly hostile to the prejudged defendant being replaced. And his execution resembled a lynch mob more than a state execution.

"The merchants were accused of hiking food prices at a time when Iraq was under international sanctions. They were executed after a speedy trial.

"Mr Aziz's son, Ziad, has said that his father is innocent.

"My father told me personally that he had nothing to do with this case. At the time, my father was on an official assignment outside of Iraq," Ziad Aziz told the AFP news agency.

"None of the families of these merchants filed suits against my father," he said."

This is an American show being staged before Bush leaves office. One wonders how low America can go. I'm sure the neocons will try to hide behind al-Maliki's skirts, playing "the outraged Iraqi" card.

Arf