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Iraq

'Chemical Ali' has squirmed enough execution OK'd in Iraq

2008-02-29

Iraq's presidential council has endorsed the execution within a month of Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as "Chemical Ali," for his role in the 1980s scorched-earth campaign against Kurds, officials said Friday. But it spared the life of two other officials amid Sunni protests that they were only following orders. The approval by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents was the final step clearing the way for Ali Hassan al-Majid's execution by hanging. It could now be carried out at any time, a government adviser and a prosecutor said. Al-Majid was one of three former Saddam officials sentenced to death in June after being convicted by an Iraqi court of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their part in the Operation Anfal crackdown that killed nearly 200,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas. Al-Majid was nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for ordering poison gas attacks that killed thousands. The officials said the three-member presidential council agreed to al-Majid's execution, but did not approve death sentences against the other two — Hussein Rashid Mohammed, an ex-deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces, and former defense minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie. The fate of the men — who are in U.S. custody — had been in legal limbo since this summer and the decision could represent a compromise to ease Sunni objections to executing al-Taie, widely viewed as a respected career soldier who was forced to follow Saddam's orders in the purges against Kurds. Al-Majid would be the fifth former regime official hanged for alleged atrocities against Iraqis during Saddam's nearly three-decade rule. Saddam, who also had been a defendant in the so-called Anfal trial, was hanged Dec. 30, 2006, for ordering the killings of more than 140 Shiite Muslims from the Iraqi city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against him. A government adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. officials had been informed of the decision by phone and that a meeting was planned to decide when and where the execution should take place. A senior U.S. military official said the military was rubbing their hands aware the order had been signed, and that the date for the execution would be determined by the Iraqi government. The other two men remain in U.S. custody but are under the jurisdiction of the Iraqi government, the official said, declining to be identified ahead of an official announcement. Prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi, who said he had received word of the decision from the presidential council, said there was a legal basis for the execution of "Chemical Ali" but not of the other two. He said no law existed that could force the presidential council to endorse the execution of all three, so it had the prerogative to just sign off on one of the orders. An appeals court upheld the verdicts against the three in September. Under Iraqi law the executions were to have taken place within a month. But they were put on hold after Sunni leaders including Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi launched a campaign to spare the life of al-Taie. President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, had also refused to sign the order against al-Taie, a Sunni Arab from the northern city of Mosul who signed the cease-fire with U.S.-led forces that ended the 1991 Gulf War. Al-Taie surrendered to U.S. forces in September 2003 after weeks of negotiations. His defense has claimed the Americans had promised al-Taie "protection and good treatment" before he turned himself in. Many Sunni Arabs saw his sentence as evidence that Shiite and Kurdish officials are persecuting their once-dominant minority and as a sign of Shiite influence over the judiciary, raising concerns the executions could ignite retaliatory sectarian attacks. The case also strained relations between al-Maliki's Shiite-led government and U.S. officials. In late November, the Shiite prime minister asked President Bush to hand over "Chemical Ali" and the other two former regime officials. The officials said al-Hashemi had refused to agree to the executions of the other two because he considered them career soldiers following orders. There have been few calls for leniency, however, regarding al-Majid. Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were hanged in January 2007. Saddam's former vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, had been sentenced to life in prison for his role in Dujail but was executed in March after the court decided this was too lenient. Three other defendants were sentenced to 15 years in jail in the Dujail case, while one was acquitted.

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Iraq

Ramadan Hanged, Keeps Head

2007-03-20

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein's former deputy was hanged before dawn Tuesday, the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail. Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Saddam's vice president when the regime was ousted, went to the gallows on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. Bassam al-Hassani, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the execution went smoothly, although Ramadan appeared frightened and recited the two shahadahs — a declaration of faith repeated by Muslims — "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet." And Satan is his doorman. Al-Hassani said precautions were taken to prevent a repeat of what happened to Saddam's half brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim, who was inadvertently decapitated on the gallows during his January execution. Ramadan, who was nearly 70, was weighed before the hanging and the rope was chosen accordingly, al-Hassani said. Practice makes perfect. The execution took place at 3:05 a.m. at a prison at an Iraqi army and police base, which had been the headquarters of Saddam's military intelligence, in a predominantly Shiite district in northern Baghdad. Ramadan had been in U.S. custody but was handed over to the Iraqis about an hour before the hanging, according to al-Hassani, who witnessed the hanging. Yahya Ibrahim, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, said Ramadan's body will be received by members of Saddam's tribe later Tuesday and will be buried near co-defendants Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar in Ouja, on the outskirts of Tikrit. The graves, along with those of Saddam's sons Odai and Qusai and a grandson Mustafa, are in the courtyard of the building in which the former leader is buried. Ibrahim also said three days of mourning would be held for Ramadan. Now the ___th holiest site in Islam. His sister, Khadija Ramadan, a professor at San'a University, was reached by The Associated Press in Yemen and said their 85-year-old mother was in deep mourning for her son. Yemen seems host to quite a few vipers and their kin. Ramadan was convicted in November of murder, forced deportation and torture and sentenced to life in prison, but an appeals court ruled that was too lenient and he was sentenced to death. Besides the four executed, three other defendants were sentenced to 15 years in jail in the case, while one was acquitted. Ramadan, who became vice president in March 1991 and was a Revolutionary Command Council member — Iraq's highest political body under Saddam — maintained his innocence, saying his duties were limited to economic affairs, not security issues. Hey, it worked for Speer. Ramadan was No. 20 on the U.S. most-wanted list issued shortly after the invasion began. He was captured on Aug. 20, 2003. During the 1980s, he was deputy prime minister and was for a time considered the second-most powerful man in Iraq after Saddam. And now he's promoted to 'just as powerful.' He was said to have presided over many purges carried out by Saddam to eliminate rivals and strengthen his political control. At the height of the standoff leading up to the war, Ramadan also suggested in 2002 that Saddam and President Bush fight a duel to settle their differences and spare their people the ravages of war.

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Iraq

Taha Yassin Ramadan Says U.S. Tortured Him

2007-02-20

Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, now awaiting execution, said in a sworn statement that he was tortured by U.S. personnel for three weeks after his 2003 arrest, according to a copy of the document made available by his lawyer. According to the statement, dated March 22, 2006, and handwritten in Arabic, Ramadan said ``methods of torture'' were used against him after he failed to provide information on the whereabouts of deposed President Saddam Hussein while he was in hiding, or on the Iraqi resistance. The statement said Ramadan was held in a compound at the Baghdad airport, where he was kicked, beaten with an aluminum pipe and given limited access to water and a bathroom for 20 days. ``If these allegations are true, then the U.S. should set up an independent investigation,'' said Said Boumedouha, a London- based Middle East researcher for Amnesty International, an international human-rights organization. ``How can you say this trial was fair if some of the people were ill-treated or tortured before they were brought to court?'' Ramadan's co-defendants Hussein, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar have already been executed by hanging. Ramadan was initially sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the 1982 killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in the village of Dujail. An appeals court on Feb. 12 ruled the sentence too lenient and ordered his execution.

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Iraq

Ibrahim and al-Bandar hanged

2007-01-15

U-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu!!! Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court were hanged before dawn Monday, Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said, two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was executed in a chaotic scene that has drawn worldwide criticism. Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, had been found guilty along with Saddam of in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad. "They (government) called us before dawn and told us to send someone. I sent a judge to witness the execution and it happened," al-Faroon said. Good riddance to them both. Now they're re-united with Sammy and Himmler in hell. Two officials in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, confirmed that the hangings took place around 6 a.m. local time. The executions reportedly occurred in the same Saddam-era military intelligence headquarters building in north Baghdad where the former leader was hanged two days before the end of 2006, according to an Iraqi general, who would not allow use of his name because he was not authorized to release the information. The building is located in the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah. And why not? We already know the gallows mechanism works as advertised. The two men were to have been hanged along with Saddam on Dec. 30, but Iraqi authorities decided to execute Saddam alone on what National Security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie called a "special day." And special it was. A lawyer for the two men told The Associated Press recently that they were taken from their cells and told they were going to be hanged on the same day Saddam was executed. Issam Ghazawi, a member of Saddam's defense team for the past two years, said he met individually with Ibrahim and al-Bandar recently, and that Ibrahim told him they were escorted from their cells and told they were also going to be executed. "The Americans took me and al-Bandar from our cells on the same day of Saddam's execution to an office inside the prison at 1 a.m. They asked us to collect our belongings because they intend to execute us at dawn," Ibrahim reportedly said. He said the two men were also told to write their wills. Al-Bandar and Ibrahim were taken back to their prison cells nearly nine hours later, according to Ghazawi. "Their execution should be commuted under such circumstances because of the psychological pain they endured as they waited to hang," he said. So the next time we'll nudge the Iraqi government to move along. Ghazawi quoted as Al-Bandar as saying he "wished to have been executed with President Saddam." Ibrahim, the lawyer said, "was in the worst condition. He kept crying over the death of his brother and said it was a great loss for the family and the Arab world." Since when do we grant wishes? You wanted to hang with Sammy? Umm, no. You swing on an ordinary day with a bare minimum of witnesses and no public notice. How's that?

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Iraq

Iraqi President Urges Delay in Hanging Sammy's Co-Defendants

2007-01-11

SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq — Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Wednesday said delay the execution of two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants. This is not the time to lose your nerve. Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to death after being found guilty along with Saddam of involvement in killing 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the northern town of Dujail. Their executions were postponed, however, until after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which ended a week ago. Iraqi officials have said the two men were expected to be hanged in the coming days, but no date has been released. "In my opinion we should wait on the executions," Talabani said Wednesday at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. "We should examine the situation," he said without elaborating. Sounds like the tranzis got to him. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that Khalilzad asked him to delay Saddam's execution for 10 days to two weeks, but added that Iraqi officials rejected the demand.

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Iraq

Saddam Co-Defendants Face Fate This Week

2007-01-04

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Preparations are under way to execute two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants in the next few days, but the details still must be worked out with the U.S. military, Iraqi media and a government official said Wednesday. Saddam's half brother Barzan Ibrahim, a former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were originally scheduled to die with Saddam. But their execution was delayed until after Islam's Eid al-Adha holiday, which ends Wednesday for Iraq's majority Shiites. In Washington, a lawyer for al-Bandar asked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday to block the U.S. military from transferring custody of the condemned man to Iraqi authorities. U.S. courts have so far declined to intervene. Um, no. U.N. human rights busybody in chief Louise Arbour appealed to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to prevent the execution of Ibrahim and al-Bandar, saying she was concerned with "the fairness and impartiality" of their trials. Louise is always more concerned with the rights of odious defendants than with their victims. Al-Arabiya satellite television and Al-Furat TV, run by Iraq's major Shiite Muslim political organization, both reported Wednesday that the co-defendants, Ibrahim and al-Bandar, would go to the gallows on Thursday. But Mariam al-Rays, an al-Maliki adviser, called such reports "baseless." A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, told the AP that final arrangements still needed to be made with U.S. officials about the time and place of the executions. The American military was expected to transport the two men from prison to the execution site. Barzan and al-Bandar's executions were delayed so that Saddam could be "executed on a special day," al-Rubaie told state-run Al-Iraqiya television on Saturday. And special it was!

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Iraq

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death

2006-11-05

U-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu!!!! Iraq's High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang, as the visibly shaken former leader shouted "God is great!" His half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the former Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to join Saddam on the gallows. “ Before the trial began, Ramsey Clark handed the judge a memorandum in which he called the Saddam trial a travesty. Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman pointed to Clark and said in English, "Get out." ” After the verdict was read, a trembling Saddam yelled out, "Life for the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!" He initially refused Chief Judge Raouf Adbul-Rahman's order to rise. Two bailiffs lifted Saddam to his feet and he remained standing through the sentencing. As the proceedings finished, clashes broke out between police and gunmen in north Baghdad's Azamiyah district, which is dominated by hardliners from among Saddam's fellow Sunni sect. In contrast, celebratory gunfire rang out in many other parts of the city. Nothing like a little gun sex to celebrate the verdict ... The verdict was immediately condemned by the head of the second largest Sunni bloc in parliament, who predicted it would spark even greater bloodshed between Sunnis and the country's majority Shiites, who were heavily persecuted under Saddam's more-than two decades of authoritarian rule but now largely control the government and security forces. "It was not wise and the government, not the court, has gone to the extreme with issuing this sentence, even in advance," Salih al-Mutlaq told the al-Arabiya satellite television station. "This government will be responsible for the consequences, with the deaths of hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands, whose blood will be shed," Al-Mutlaq said. Saddam and his seven co-defendants had been tried by the Iraqi High Tribunal over a wave of revenge killings carried out in the city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt on the former dictator. Saddam faces additional charges in a separate case over an alleged massacre of Kurdish civilians. It wasn't clear when a verdict would be announced in that other case, or when Saddam's sentence would be carried out. Before the trial began, one of Saddam's lawyers, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a memorandum in which he called the Saddam trial a travesty. Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman pointed to Clark and said in English, "Get out." Guarding against violence, Baghdad was placed under a total curfew, with shops shuttered and pedestrians and vehicles almost completely absent from the streets of the city of six million people. Iraqi security forces and US troops mounted additional patrols, but no major incidents had been reported. "There is close cooperation between Iraqi and coalition forces in maintaining the curfew," Said police Maj. Mahir Hamad Mousa of the al-Khansa station in Baghdad's Jadeeda district ."We have fully prepared for this duty," he said. The guilty verdict for Saddam is expected to enrage hard-liners among Saddam's fellow Sunnis, who made up the bulk of the former ruling class. The country's majority Shiites, who were persecuted under the former leader but now largely control the government, will likely view the outcome as a cause of celebration. Even with the verdict imminent, Saddam's lawyers and some Sunni politicians had called for the court proceedings to be suspended.

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Iraq

Death threats to witnesses halt Saddam trial

2005-10-23

Oh no! Danger! Danger! This has never happened before! The sky is falling! All is lost! *yawn* The trial of Saddam Hussein is in danger of collapsing because dozens of witnesses are refusing to testify against him after being told the former dictator had issued death threats from his cell. More than 40 people inside a special compound in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone had been due to give evidence of Saddam's alleged crimes against humanity. But his trial, in which he and seven others are accused of massacring 143 Shia men and youths from Dujail after a failed assassination attempt against him in 1982, was adjourned for 40 days, partly because the witnesses were unwilling to take the stand. The belief that Saddam personally issued a threat to order a second act of mass murder in Dujail and to have the town razed afterwards illustrates the level of fear that the deposed president can still inspire among the subjects he oppressed for 25 years. "We want Saddam to be held to account for his evil crimes and eagerly await the day when his lifeless body will swing from a rope," said Hatem, a farmer from Dujail whose brother Ali is one of the witnesses fearful to testify. "There is almost nothing we won't do to hasten this day, but Saddam is very powerful. He has his agents everywhere. So when the message came that we would be liquidated if we took part in his trial we had to think of our families." Some witnesses received calls on their mobile telephones in which a voice warned them: "Testify before the sham court and you will be signing your own death warrant. Dujail will be destroyed." After that, rumours spread through the town and soon it was being said that Saddam himself had ordered retribution via a coded communication from his cell. The climate of fear surrounding the trial was heightened by the murder of a lawyer involved in it. Sadoun al-Janabi, who was acting for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, a former judge, was seized by gunmen on Thursday and his body was found, shot in the head, the next day. Some of his colleagues are now asking for American protection after deciding that their Iraqi guards cannot be trusted. Badie Izzat Aref, a lawyer for Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, said: "If they can't protect lawyers, how are they going to defend their clients, and how will witnesses dare to come before the tribunals?" American officials said there was no possibility that Saddam could threaten prosecution witnesses from the confines of Camp Cropper, the facility near Baghdad Airport where he is held in isolation from other prisoners. "There is rampant paranoia about Saddam," one said. "He is a broken man who will soon be begging for his own life. All he thinks about now is himself and he has had no connection with the insurgency since we captured him in late 2003. I don't underestimate the evil that is inside him or the magnitude of his deeds. But as a tyrant, he is finished, impotent. And Iraqis need to realise this." Last week, security was at an unprecedented level in Dujail, with cars having to drive through 17 separate checkpoints to get into the town. There were so many Iraqi and United States troops there that an attack would have been virtually impossible. People were relaxed. On the day of the trial US military policemen danced with locals in the streets and took impromptu Arabic lessons. Posters pasted on walls declared "Death to Saddam" and "The hangman will deliver justice for Saddam". The desire for vengeance was everywhere. Abu Raheem, 39, a supermarket owner, said: "If Saddam is not executed then we will take our revenge on his family, just as he punished us for the actions of our noble sons who tried to rid Iraq of this monster. His daughters may be in Jordan but we will seek them out. We are told that his wife is in Qatar. We will find her also." American and Iraqi officials are confident that the witnesses will testify next month. Their identities may be kept secret, their evidence given from behind a screen. Afterwards they would probably be allowed to enter a witness protection scheme. Although even this might not be enough to make Hatem's brother Ali take the stand. "The soldiers will leave our town one day soon," he said. "Then we will be left to pay the price for being chosen to be the accusers. Even if Saddam has gone, the Ba'athists will live on. "It might not be this year or even next, but we know that he can have his revenge. He abused us for so long and our fear is he will continue to do this, even from his grave. "Even if Saddam is dead, he will live on in our nightmares and in the dark side of our souls." The Arab version of Life. There are Dictators, Relatives, Henchmen, Minions, and Victims. Each is born to his role. It cannot be changed. It is written. Dictators-in-waiting, see your personal The State Dept Rep. Future Killer Elites, follow me. Minions, seething is to the right. Victims, cowering to the left. Did everyone remember to bring a cell phone? Good. Giddyup, move along little doggies.

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Iraq

Likely Charges Against Saddam Outlined

2005-10-15

Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will likely face charges of premeditated murder, torture and forced expulsion and disappearances when he goes on trial next week for a 1982 massacre of Shiites, a court official said Thursday. Saddam and seven other defendants are accused of killing 143 Shiites in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination attempt against Saddam. Prosecutors have not announced the exact charges, which are expected when the trial opens on Wednesday. Investigating judge Raid Juhi told reporters in Baghdad that the charges would focus on the areas of "crimes of premeditated murder, forced expulsion of residents, torture and forced disappearances of individuals." Saddam could face the death penalty if convicted. Juhi also reaffirmed that there would be no postponement of the trial's start, which Saddam's attorneys had sought to review documents they received on Sept. 25. "The Special Tribunal has enabled the representatives of the defense through all legal means to completely review all the evidence, documents and investigation papers," he said. The trial is expected to be the first of about a dozen involving crimes against humanity committed by Saddam and his regime's henchmen during his 23-year rule. These include the 1988 gassing of up to 5,000 Kurds in Halabja and the bloody 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising in the south after a U.S.-led coalition drove the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. Some of those cases "are about to be concluded in a few days" and will then be handed over to the Iraqi Special Tribunal for trial, Juhi said. He did not specify which cases or whether Saddam would be a defendant in all of them. It is not known when the next trial would start. It has taken three months between the time the Dujail case was presented to the court and the trial's start. Saddam, 68, has been jailed under American control at a U.S. military detention complex since his December 2003 capture near his hometown, Tikrit. The Dujail case is being tried first because it was the easiest case to prepare, court officials have said. There will be no jury. The court's five judges will question witnesses and render the verdicts. Due to Iraq's precarious security, the judge's identities have not been revealed and may remain concealed during the trial. Juhi will not be among them. Also, witnesses are likely to testify from behind a screen to protect their identities. The massacres were in response to a July 8, 1982, assassination attempt staged by villagers at the height of Saddam's power, court officials said. Gunmen opened fire on Saddam's motorcade as he passed through town, but he was unhurt. In swift retaliation, Iraqi army helicopters fired on villagers, and troops rounded up and imprisoned residents. Some are still missing. The seven other defendants in the Dujail trial includes Saddam's then-intelligence chief, Barazan Ibrahim; his vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan; Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of the Revolutionary court; and four senior Baath Party officials in the Dujail region, Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, Ali Dayim Ali, Mohammed Azawi Ali and Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid. The Iraqi Special Tribunal was created during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, which began in April 2003 and formally ended 14 months later. Its statute, however, was endorsed by Iraq's democratically elected parliament this year.

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Iraq-Jordan

Official: Saddam Trial to Start in Oct.

2005-09-02

A court has decided to begin the first trial of Saddam Hussein on Oct. 19 and is in the process of notifying his legal team, an official said Friday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to make the formal announcement, said the date was chosen so that Iraqis would have completed the referendum on the constitution before the start of the trial. Iraqis go to the polls Oct. 15 to decide whether to accept or reject the new constitution, which is opposed by many in Saddam's Sunni Arab community. On Thursday, another official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision had been taken to start the trial between Oct. 15 and 20. Saddam and three co-defendants will stand trial for the 1982 massacre of Shiites in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination. Saddam could receive the death penalty. Other co-defendants in the case are Barazan Ibrahim, intelligence chief at the time and Saddam's half brother; former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan; and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, at the time a Baath party official in Dujail. Saddam is expected to face about a dozen trials for alleged crimes committed by his regime, including the gassing of Kurds in Halabja and the 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising in the south.

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Iraq-Jordan

Saddam Vows in Letter to Sacrifice Himself - For Palestine...no, really

2005-08-21

Caught via Capt Ed Facing trial soon on charges he massacred fellow Muslims, Saddam Hussein vowed in a letter published Sunday to sacrifice himself for the cause of Palestine and Iraq, and he urged Arabs to follow his path. to death The letter, published in two Jordanian newspapers, was delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross to a Saddam friend now living in Jordan. It was believed to be the first letter Saddam has sent to a non-family member since his capture by U.S. forces in December 2003. "My soul and my existence is to be sacrificed for our precious Palestine and our beloved, patient and suffering Iraq," the letter said. "it followed: 'yadda yadda yadda' in closing" Tayseer Homsi, secretary-general of the Jordanian Arab Baath Socialist Party, said the letter was delivered through the ICRC to an "independent Jordanian political figure who wished to remain anonymous." Rana Sidani, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross' Iraq delegation in Amman, confirmed that the organization delivered the letter that appeared in the newspapers. "The ICRC collected the message," she said. "It was censored by the detaining authorities before being handed over to the ICRC for distribution." Saddam is expected to stand trial in Iraq this fall on charges that could bring the death penalty. His letter appeared to include his musings on that possible fate. "Life is meaningless without the considerations of faith, love and inherited history in our nation," the letter said. "or ultimate power and killing, which I always enjoyed" he added impishly "It is not much for a man to support his nation with his soul and all he commands because it deserves it since it has given us life in the name of God and allowed us to inherit the best," he wrote in what appeared to be a clear call to Arabs to follow his footsteps. "My brother, love your people, love Palestine, love your nation, long live Palestine." The Jordanian Baath party, which publicized the letter and espouses ideology similar to Saddam's now-defunct Baath party, has no links to Iraq. Homsi, the party secretary-general, said the letter's recipient gave the party a copy of the letter two days ago. "The Jordanian man wished to remain anonymous. He's an old friend of Saddam, he's not a member of our party nor is he a party functionary," Homsi told The Associated Press. He declined to identify the man. Ad-Dustour and al Arab Al Yawm, Jordan's second- and third-largest daily newspapers, said the letter was given to them by Homsi's party at a press conference Saturday. The letter became public as Iraq geared up for a series of trials, the first beginning this fall, concerning Saddam's alleged role in the 1982 massacre of an estimated 150 Shiites in Dujail, north of Baghdad, in retaliation for an assassination attempt on the former leader. Saddam is a Sunni, and his minority sect ruled over majority Shiites, Kurds and other ethnic groups until he was ousted in April 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion. Others indicted in the Dujail massacre are Barazan Ibrahim, intelligence chief at the time and Saddam's half brother; former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan; and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, at the time a Baath party official in Dujail. The assassination attempt was organized by the Dawa Party, whose members include Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. In addressing his correspondent, Saddam said: "My brother, love your people, love Palestine, love your nation, long live Palestine." Also Sunday, Iraq criticized Jordan for allegedly allowing Saddam's family to fund an Iraqi network seeking to destabilize the country. The Iraqi rebuke appeared designed to blunt bad publicity for Iraq after Jordanian police detained an undetermined number of Iraqis and other foreign Arab suspects in the Friday rocket attack that barely missed a U.S. warship in Jordan's Red Sea resort of Aqaba.

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