Justice Pastiche

The webpage for the Iraqi Special Tribunal is online, which will be trying Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi former leaders. Most of the site is currently blank slate, but some interesting rhetorical choices have already been made by the site's designers:

1) Appeals to visual rhetoric in a "gallery" that features photographs of mass graves
2) A dated news roll that includes a sharply worded rebuttal of reports in the Arabic media regarding "aggression" used in the questioning of Hussein
3) A main graphic identity that features an image associated with the Code of Hammurabi from the Louvre museum, at the center of other emblems of modern, unified nationhood, such as a map of the country's borders and elements of the nation's flag. (The basalt stele is an odd choice, given the body language of subjection and hierarchy that the image represents, particularly since contemporary scales of justice are also superimposed on this ancient icon.)