| Next best thing to having him back from Hell to tell us in person. |
I will strike them with chemical weapons and kill them all, a voice identified by prosecutors as Chemical Ali Hassan Al Majeed is heard saying. Who is going to say anything? The international community? Curse the international community, the voice continued.
| Rat bastard. Hang him. |
Sir, does it exterminate thousands? a voice asks back.
Yes, it exterminates thousands and forces them not to eat or drink and they will have to evacuate their homes without taking anything with them, until we can finally purge them, the voice identified as Saddam answers.
With Saddams chair empty, nine days after he was hanged, Majeed and five other Baath party officials were being tried for their roles in the 1988 Anfal (Spoils of War) military campaign in northern Kurdistan. Prosecutors said 180,000 people were killed, many of them gassed. Many Kurds regret the chief suspect can no longer face justice for his role in the campaign against them, but they hope others share his fate on the gallows.
| I hope they have some solace knowing that the evil bastard was hanged. |
Defendants have said Anfal was a legitimate military operation targeting Kurdish guerrillas who had sided with Shia Iran during the last stages of the Iraq-Iran war.
| Except that chemical weapons are outlawed even in legitimate military operations. |
Judge Mohammed Al Ureybi, in his first order of business, formally dropped charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against Saddam. He cut off the microphones when Majeed stood up and started to read the Koran in tribute to his former chief.
Looking tired and sporting an uncharacteristic white stubble, Majeed refused to take his chair and insisted on reciting a prayer as he stood behind Saddams empty chair. Make him sit down, make him sit down, Ureybi ordered the bailiffs.
| "Bailiff, hit him!" "Yes your honor!" [thump] [thump] "Oooooowwww ..." |
BAGHDAD - Prosecutors in Saddam Husseins trial for genocide against ethnic Kurds showed graphic footage on Tuesday of dead civilians, including infants, allegedly killed in chemical attacks on their villages.