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Hussein's "Trial": A Last and Lost Chance for the U.S.
How Bad Was Hussein: Proof in the Pudding
Charges Filed Against Hussein for 1982 Massacre of Shiite Villagers
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: July 17, 2005
The Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try Saddam Hussein said in a statement today that Mr. Hussein and three others will be referred to criminal court on charges related to the killings of about 150 Shiites in the Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/international/m [...]
Given the near-desperate need now for any plausible justification for the war, a reasonable person would conclude that any show trial for Hussein would lead off with the most infamous of accusations made ad nauseam by the pro-war lobby: the alleged genocide by poison gas of Kurds. This incident played the lietmotif in the demonization of Hussein and was the key piece of evidence "proving" the malicious intent of Hussein to use WMDs eventually against Americans, and is the critical point in butressing the very dubious notion that the world is better off today without Hussein than before the war.
It is therefore puzzling that the the lead off first trial will concern a relatively minor incident. Assuming that the prosecutors would lead with their strongest case first to ensure conviction, it begs the question: how strong is the case against Hussein for his alleged genocide of the Kurds?
Apparently, not very. I predict that much like the case with WMDs, the demonization of Hussein will eventually turn out to be nothing more than another effervescent agitprop mirage.
Submitted on Sun, 2005-07-17 16:30
Re: The "Trial" of Saddam Hussein
Is it not a piece of charming yet quixotic "justice" that out of all the countless atrocities, mass murders, and ethic exterminations, involving millions, of which Saddam Hussein stands accused, the one found most deserving now of the attention of the Iraqi Special Trinumal (IST) is a 1982 skirmish involving 150 deaths in a little hamlet north of Baghdad known as Dujail.
The details are routine: some yahoos taking pot shots at a Hussein motorcade to register their discontent, triggering an energetic response involving some choppers straffing villagers, bulldozers renovating residences, and officers arresting some 1,500 locals. As for tactics, this incident mirrors a typical Israeli or American incursion. What is not typical is the fact that Dujail was the base for now PM al-Jafaari and his Islamic fundamentalist Dawa Party: payback time.
This trial is a two-edged sword. No doubt there is an avalanche of evidence, with dramatic tear-soaked testimonials and heart-wrenching pictures of little bitty kids blown to smithereens, and its presentation may provide a propaganda boost for the interim government and a diversion away from the grim facts of daily life in Iraq today.
Yet if the show trial at the Hague for Milosovic is any predicator, Hussein may exploit the court to expose American complicity and collusion, and thus gain converts to his both his innocence and his version of history.
If this trial is to prove the IST to be anything more worthy than a sham kangeroo court, justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. Humman Rights Watch has already written off the whole process as a sham without substantive and procedural improvements. Hussein's lawyers have been barred by the US to even meet with their client. America maintains a stranglehold on the court.
This first trial will set the pattern for the eventual trial of the century: Hussein's alleged use of WMDs, his alleged genocide against the Kurds, and his alleged violent suppression of the Shiites-the prime reason for which this invasion ex post facto has been justified. If it appears to be a farce, America will have lost a last opportunity to prove to the world its legal, moral and ethical justifications for the war, -if true, and Hussein will have gained a presumption of innocence, in the face of a manifestly unfair, and indeed, unAmerican trial process.
Re: Hussein's "Trial": A Last and Lost Chance for the U.S.
neocynic,
The one certainty about the forthcoming trial is that it will be a 'show trial'. No one can, who has any sense, will take this seriously as the whole procedure is tainted from the start.
In an article in the Belfast Telegraph, Patrick Cockburn, says that in the terrible daily grind of life in Baghdad, with its spasmodic electricity supply and lack of air conditioning in temperatues of 50 degrees, defective sanitation, fuel shortages, and bombs going off, the Iraqis are showing almost complete disinterest in the forthcoming trial. This is now purely for the benefit of the outside world and has almost no relevance to the wretched lives of the Iraqi people.
Message was edited by: brolly3
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