Sadaam's Teeth, Etc., page 3

Not according to this transcript of a meeting he had with Donald Rumsfeld. And of course demanding to be executed by firing squad rather than hanging is the act of someone just cowering in his cell.

Rumsfeld: I'm making you one offer and that is that you will be released and can chose for yourself a place of exile freely, in any country you like, on condition that you go on television and issue a condemnation of terrorism and order your men to stop these acts.

Saddam Hussein: Have you obtained the agreement of your president to this offer?

Rumsfeld: Yes, this offer has been agreed on in a meeting in which the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, and Chief of Intelligence took part. AndI have been authorized to inform you of this offer.

Saddam Hussein:[b/] It's a trifling offer.

Rumsfeld (with a sigh): We're also ready to bring elements close to you into the government.

Saddam Hussein: And what else?

Rumsfeld: You will be given generous financial assistance and security protection for you and your family in the country of your choice.

Saddam Hussein: Do you want to hear my conditions?

Rumsfeld: I would love to.

Saddam Hussein (with an air of superciliousness and superiority) I want first from you that you set a time table for your withdrawal from Iraq and that your government commit itself to it before the world and that you begin the withdrawal immediately.

Secondly, I ask you to release immediately all the Iraqi and Arab prisoners in the prisons you have set up or in which you have taken the freedom of tens of thousands of honorable people of Iraq. Thirdly, I ask from you to pledge to grant full compensation for the material losses that afflicted the Iraqi people as a result of your aggression against our country since the Mother of Battles in 1991 and until today. And I accept the assistance of an Arab and International Committee in estimating the extent of those losses.

Fourth, I ask that you return the money that you and your men plundered from the treasuries of Iraq, and its oil, in particular that criminal[L. Paul] Bremerand his gang of traitors and renegades.

Fifth, the return of the artifacts that you stole and gave to the archaeological artifact mafia. These are treasures that are beyond all the monetary value in the world, because they carry the history of Iraq and its civilization. It's true that you don't have any civilization or history and that the lifespan of your country is no more than a few hundred years, but all that must not serve to justify your theft and your hatred for the civilization of Iraq and the wealth of Iraq.

And sixth, you must hand over the weapons of mass destruction if you have found any and return to us the lives of all the martyrs whose lives you took and to return the honor of the noble women of Iraq whom you dishonored.

Yeah.., that's someone who's terrified, all right... NOT.