(Warwick, R.I.) Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI) today offered the following statement on the Saddam Hussein guilty verdict:

"It is gratifying to see that Iraq's criminal justice system works and that Saddam Hussein has been officially recognized for the tyrannical dictator that the world knows him to be. I commend the Iraqi people for bringing Saddam to justice in an Iraqi court.

"Sadly, the benefits of this verdict cannot outweigh the number of lives lost. The crimes for which Saddam was convicted and sentenced occurred in the 1980's and were not the reason for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"It was not worth going to war to get this verdict. The number of lives lost and dollars spent is too great, as is the damage to our reputation in the world community and even in the eyes of our own citizens. The 2003 invasion was not about Saddam's past crimes against the Iraqi people, but rather the weapons of mass destruction that he did not have. While the verdict in Saddam's case may provide an important measure of closure to the Iraqi people, it does not change the fact that the war in Iraq is not making the American people, or the world, safer."

BACKGROUND: Today's guilty verdict, from the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal, is for the premeditated murder (and other offenses) of 148 villagers detained after shots were fired at Saddam's motorcade in 1982. The al-Dujail verdict is accompanied by a sentence of death by hanging. An appeal of the verdict and the sentence is automatic.

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