Hussein charged with genocide

Iraq Forum

Ex-Iraqi leader to face trial for alleged role in attack on Kurds

Tuesday, April 4, 2006; Posted: 10:02 a.m. EDT (14:02 GMT)


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been charged for the first time with genocide, Iraqi chief investigative judge Ra'id Juhi announced Tuesday.

Juhi said that investigators had completed their work gathering witnesses and evidence and were ready to go to trial.

Hussein and six co-defendants -- including Ali Hassan al-Majeed, a former Iraqi general known as "Chemical Ali" -- will stand trial for genocide on charges relating to the Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s.

That campaign included the gassing of 5,000 civilians in the village of Halabja in 1988, but Juhi told CNN that the incident was not included in Tuesday's charges and would be prosecuted separately.

Estimates of the number of deaths in the Anfal operation range from 50,000 to nearly 200,000.

Hussein is already on trial with seven co-defendants from his former regime on charges of crimes against humanity in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination attempt against the ex-Iraqi leader in 1982.

It is unclear when the Anfal trial would begin; it could start as early as next month. It is also not clear how or if the two trials would go on at the same time.

Hussein's current trial is set to resume Wednesday after a three-week recess.

The former Iraqi leader angrily testified March 15 before much of the session was closed to the media.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Tuesday he expected the special tribunal hearing the cases would hear all of them before rendering a verdict in any.

"I believe the court is working on a plan whereby he will be tried for all the crimes then a verdict will be handed down," he said.

Hussein could face up to 20 trials on various charges, including the 1991 suppression of the Shiite uprising in southern Iraq.

Zapping the Iranians though, that seems to be alright in the eyes of the court.

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Well maybe if they brouight up the Iranian issue it would bring up where he got the weapons from and that wopuild mena the US having to answer some tough questions.

It seems irrelevant what this guy is charged with he will do what he has done since day one disrespect the judge and make a mockery of the court.

USA1- United States, the Soviet Union, West Germany, France and Britain provided military support and even components of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction program prior to and during the Iran - Iraq war. That is fact. To say otherwise is a big blanket of denial my friend.

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And the U.S. gave arms to the Iranians, as well.

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Nathaniel Hurd of Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq (CASI) (Hurd, 2001) reported the following:

In 1980 the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency filed a report asserting that Iraq had been actively acquiring chemical weapons capacities for several years. [Subsequent events proved that this estimate was very likely correct.]

In 1982 Iraqi forces reportedly started deploying chemical weapons against Iranian troops. In 1983 the use was reportedly greatly increased.

In 1982 the Reagan administration removed Iraq from the U.S. State Department's list of countries sponsoring terrorism. This opened the gate to U.S. trade and support of Iraq during the war with Iran. In 1983 the Reagan administration secretly administered the channelling of U.S. aid to Iraq, after special envoy Donald Rumsfeld helped formally reestablish relations cut off in the Six-Day War of 1967.

The Washington Post reported that in 1984 the CIA secretly started feeding intelligence to the Iraqi army. This included assistance in targeting chemical weapons strikes. The same year it was confirmed beyond doubt by European doctors and U.N. expert missions that Iraq was employing chemical weapons against the Iranians.

Despite this the Reagan administration re-established full diplomatic ties with Iraq on 26 November the same year and continued supplying Iraq with intelligence and equipment.
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Let's keep this line of discussion in that other thread, cool? I hate posting the same stuff more than once.

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I also posted a new thread with links and what not. Let me know what you think.

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