BAGHDAD, Aug. 21, 2007
Iraq's 'Chemical Ali' Goes On Trial
Saddam's Cousin, 14 Others Face Charges For Brutal Crackdown During 1991 Shiite Uprising
-
-
Saddam's cousin and the former defense minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, gained the nickname "Chemical Ali" after chemical attacks on Kurdish towns during the so-called Anfal campaign. (AP Photo)
-
A woman grieves for her husband and son, killed in their Baghdad blacksmith shop during an Aug. 19, 2007, mortar attack that killed 12 people and wounded 31 in this mostly Shiite neighborhood. (AP)
-
Iraqi men put up a tent in an improvised camp for families displaced by a suicide truck bombing in the village of Qahtaniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq, Aug. 19, 2007. (AP)
-
In this still from an undated video released by the Iraqi government, Iraq's Sunni vice president Tariq al-Hashemi visits inmates as he promises them better treatment at the crowded prison in eastern Baghdad. Many of the prisoners, who were jammed into open wire cages covered with tarps, shouted out complaints of mistreatment and prolonged detentions. (AP Photo/Iraqi Government)
-
Tabbatha Lancaster, wife of Sgt. Andrew Lancaster, is comforted by Donna Vanderheyden, her mother-in-law, during a ceremony Aug. 17, 2007, at the Stockton High School football field in Stockton, Ill. Sgt. Lancaster was killed Aug. 10, 2007, in Iraq. (AP/Joe Tamborello, Journal-Standard)
-
-
Interactive Religion In Iraq An interactive guide to Iraq's religious, ethnic and ideological mix.
-
Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
-
Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
The Iraqi High Tribunal said the defendants are charged with engaging in widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population, and the evidence would include testimony from about 90 victims and witnesses.
Saddam's cousin and the former defense minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, who gained the nickname "Chemical Ali" after chemical attacks on Kurdish towns during the so-called Anfal campaign, entered the courtroom wearing his traditional white Arab robe and a red headdress.
The chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa told the men they were charged with crimes against humanity, which court officials said carries the maximum penalty of death by hanging.
In other recent developments:
ravaging Iraq. He and Syrian President Bashar Assad appeared
briefly before cameras before going into a closed meeting Tuesday.
Levin, D-Mich., said that while the military buildup has "produced some credible and positive results," the political outlook is darker. The senators said that during their visit to Iraq last week they told Iraqi leaders of American impatience with the lack of political progress, and "impressed upon them that time has run out in that regard."
The charges against Saddam's cousin stem from the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, in which the U.S. drove Saddam's forces from Kuwait.
Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north sought to take advantage of the defeat, launching uprisings and seizing control of 14 of the country's 18 provinces. U.S. troops created a safe haven for the Kurds in three northern provinces, preventing Saddam from attacking. But the late dictator's troops marched into the predominantly Shiite south and crushed the uprising, killing tens of thousands of people.
"The acts committed against the Iraqi people in 1991 by the security forces and by the defendants sitting were among one of the ugliest crimes ever committed against humanity in modern history," the prosecutor Mahdi Abdul-Amir said in opening remarks.
It was the third trial of former regime officials after the Dujail case, in which Saddam and three others were hanged for the 1982 killings of 148 Shiites, and the trial of those accused of killing more than 100,000 Kurds in a 1980s military campaign known as Anfal.
Al-Majid was sentenced to death in the Anfal case but was standing trial in the Shiite uprising case pending his appeal, the court said.
Two others sentenced to death for the Kurdish killings — Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, the former defense minister who led the Iraqi delegation at the cease-fire talks that ended the 1991 Gulf War, and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces — also were among the defendants.
Another high-profile defendant — Saddam's trusted personal secretary and bodyguard Abed Hameed Hmoud — referred to President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, when asked about his residence.
"I used to live in a house in Jadiriyah (a neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad) and now it is occupied by Jalal Talabani," Hmoud said, repeating the sentence twice. The judge ignored his remarks.
Officials in Saddam's regime still face trials for their alleged role in other crimes. These crimes include the slaying of members of political and religious parties, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the forced emigration of thousands of Shiite Kurds from northern Iraq into Iran, the execution of 8,000 members of the Kurdish Barzani tribe, and the destruction of the marshes in southern Iraq.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 83 Comments
- I''''m sure they''''ll be liberals on this board (or Muslims posing as American leftists) defending "Chemical Ali".
Far-leftists and fundamental muslims who post on these boards are known to defend jihad and any other type of evil movement or murderers.
Posted by singinrick at 05:30 PM : Aug 21, 2007
-and you sickrick are an idddiottt! With a babyborn level of intelligence. - Reply to this comment
- Donald Riegle, then chairman of the committee, said: ''UN inspectors had identified many United States manufactured items that had been exported from the United States to Iraq under licences issued by the Department of Commerce, and [established] that these items were used to further Iraq''s chemical and nuclear weapons development and its missile delivery system development programmes.''
Riegle added that, between January 1985 and August 1990, the ''executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licences for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think that is a devastating record''. - Reply to this comment
- Reports by the US Senate''s committee on banking, housing and urban affairs -- which oversees American exports policy -- reveal that the US, under the successive administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr, sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992, as well as germs similar to tuberculosis and pneumonia. Other bacteria sold included brucella melitensis, which damages major organs, and clostridium perfringens, which causes gas gangrene.
- Reply to this comment
- I''''m sure they''''ll be liberals on this board (or Muslims posing as American leftists) defending "Chemical Ali".
Far-leftists and fundamental muslims who post on these boards are known to defend jihad and any other type of evil movement or murderers.
Posted by singinrick at 05:30 PM : Aug 21, 2007
ok here goes...
chemical ali should be killed ut as far as the episode with the chemical weapons goes, we should prosecute those who used abd SOLD them the weapons. - Reply to this comment
- xzavierbrown--I have no interest in going to war with anyone in the Middle East. If Pig Oil and their Zionist proteges want war...let them fight it. My choice for the region and the world is peaceful co-existence...I want our soldiers home and vile animals who sent them there tried and hung.
Posted by Prinzowhales at 01:45 PM : Aug 21, 2007
+ report abuse
**********
The very reason why we have the military is to protect this country from foreign and domestic enemies. After 9/11 (remember that day?) the need and the reason for the military is at hand. Do not deny that there are other people who would deny you of that "choice for the region and the world is peaceful co-existence." They (terrorists) made it clear enough that they do not want to share the world with you. This country had peacefully co-existed with the world..the only people it does not are the ones that does not agree with our lifestyle and that is the ancient dogma of islam. Trust me when I say this that if these people can get thier hands on you..they will not only cut your hands off but your head as well just because you are not muslim - Reply to this comment
- xzavierbrown--Of course he had WMDs at the time of the first Gulf War! That has never been disputed. Afterwards he was forced to disarm. The UN Inspections teams oversaw the destruction of his WMDs....
This team received dozens of leads from US intelligence as to where the alleged WMDs were located--these leads were described as "worse than useless." ...
Posted by Prinzowhales at 01:39 PM : Aug 21, 2007
+ report abuse
*******
I dont know if you would remember or would choose to remember that that was a valid point before.."the UN cannot find any WMD" but after a year or so a scandal broke out that the UN was under Saddam''s payroll all that time. Now that "there were no weapons" because the UN could not find any became very weak and shady..hence the liberal media ran away from that ''reason not to go to war''.
Gathering intelligence during that time is a *** shoot. We are getting information from the people within iraq. Yes it was pretty much a guessing game but then again, remember that they very team that is suppose to police this matter was under Saddam''s payroll...remember the food for oil scandal? The UN had turned a blind eye towards Saddam''s activities. - Reply to this comment
- jankebenz-Dropping a load of nonsense and then running off is proto-typical War Pig behavior.
The grandson of a financial backer of Adolph Hitler ordered the blitzkrieg-ing of Iraq...It was "spring time, in Iraq for Bushy and the Neo-Con"...but now its freakin'' winter a few hundred yards from the Green Zone and worse than Yugoslavia for the Zio-Nazi Big Oil occupation.
Our soldiers did not go to Iraq to fight for these scumbags! Soldiers Home Now! The enemy is in Washington! The borders are open, the Constitution betrayed....
And just what in the devil is "a citizen of North America"? - Reply to this comment
- I would love to stay and spar with you anti americans, but I am a working man.I have to get back to it.I,LL be back
- Reply to this comment
- xzavierbrown--I have no interest in going to war with anyone in the Middle East. If Pig Oil and their Zionist proteges want war...let them fight it. My choice for the region and the world is peaceful co-existence...I want our soldiers home and vile animals who sent them there tried and hung.
- Reply to this comment
- Judging from the stupidity and deceptive nature of your comments, and from your dismal grammar, I can''''t help but wonder if you are an Israeli?
Posted by FeelFree1 at 01:01 PM : Aug 21, 2007
I recall you from yesterday''s posts,you''re the one who has child porn inclinations,and an obvious radical islam supporter.Hardly one to render any factual comments regarding the subject at hand Stupidity and deception is a trademark of radical islam,and their supporters as evidenced by countless terrorist attacks.
No,I am not an Israelite, I am a citizen of north america,and you? - Reply to this comment
- xzavierbrown--Of course he had WMDs at the time of the first Gulf War! That has never been disputed. Afterwards he was forced to disarm. The UN Inspections teams oversaw the destruction of his WMDs. The US made a point to never be satisfied, to continue to claim that he had them dispite the work of men like Marine, Major Scott Ritter on the team.
This team received dozens of leads from US intelligence as to where the alleged WMDs were located--these leads were described as "worse than useless." Either we gave them the best leads we had, or we lied to them. If it was the former, then we had no intel as to Iraqi WMDs and thus no excuse for an invasion. If the latter, we simply lied and invaded and used our lies as our rationale for the invasion. - Reply to this comment
- down to defeat if it were not for our support--the WMDs we sent him... the satellite info we gave him for targeting...the loans that we gave him and our oil kingdom friends gave him.
Posted by Prinzowhales at 01:14 PM : Aug 21, 2007
+ report abuse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*****
so does this mean that you are validating that Saddam had WMD??? and would you now validate that we need to resolve this matter in middle east using our own resoruces instead of outsourcing our wars using proxies like saddam?
flip flop - Reply to this comment
- Judging from the stupidity and deceptive nature of your comments, and from your dismal grammar, I can''''t help but wonder if you are an Israeli?
Posted by FeelFree1 at 01:01 PM : Aug 21, 2007
+ report abuse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**************
Judging from your past posts justifying and defending any and every terrorist act, past and present that I cannot help but wonder you are terrorist - Reply to this comment
- jankebenz-Internet Explorer isn''t bringing up your site.
No one likes Saddam, no one supports Saddam...but Bush and the occupation compare so unfavorably with him...
What I''m sure your article doesn''t mention is the US support for Saddam when he came to power and launched his forces in a war of aggression against Iran. He would have never acted on his own and he would have gone down to defeat if it were not for our support--the WMDs we sent him... the satellite info we gave him for targeting...the loans that we gave him and our oil kingdom friends gave him.
Let''s not forget the picture that speaks volumns...the picture of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein...a meeting of mass murderers.
Let''s also not forget that our ambassadress to Iraq gave Saddam the go-ahead for his attack on Kuwait. Such would be viewed as ''an inter-Arab affair and not a concern of the US.'' He was betrayed by his capo, GB41. We have 250,000 Americans on disability...over 13000 dead from the effects of this ''cheap'' war. - Reply to this comment
jankebenz,
Judging from the stupidity and deceptive nature of your comments, and from your dismal grammar, I can''t help but wonder if you are an Israeli?- Reply to this comment
- here are some stats for you saddam defenders and supporters.
Saddam Hussein
Full name Saddam Hussein al-Majid al-Tikriti. AKA ''Great Uncle'', AKA ''Lion of Babylon'', AKA ''Lion of Iraq'', AKA ''Beast of Baghdad''. Saddam translates to ''One Who Confronts''.
Country: Iraq.
Kill tally: Approaching two million,
www.moreorless.au.com 7 2000-2007
taking into account the huge death toll this murderous tyrant and his regime were responsible for,tell me why the U.S. is not justified in stepping in to free the Iraqies from this type of tyrannical dictatorship
Don''t bother to try to diminish the atrosities he commited, the prove has been established.Just like when the nazies dennied the number of dead by their hands,till the mass graves were discovered - Reply to this comment
- As we''ve seen from the case of the "Ringworm Children"--the thousands of Sephardic Jewish children exposed to high doses of lethal and damaging radiation who either died immediately or lingered in agony through life, passing the damage to their genetic code on to the following generations...the children of many of our soldiers, the bravest of our brave, have been damaged by the radiation from depleted uranium.
This is the same kind of ruthless, soulless murder that we saw under Lenin and Trotsky.
Soldiers Home! This War is an Abomination! You have been betrayed. The enemy is in Washington. The borders are open. Troops Home Now!! - Reply to this comment
- Bush and the other enemies of human freedom and progress attacked Iraq for Oil and Israel. Bush wanted this war from the beginning. Despite calling for a "more humble foreign policy" than that of Clinton, he launched the Stupid Peoples'' War against Afghanistan and Iraq for the sake of Oil, Israel and Opium using the false flag attacks of 9-11 as an excuse, as a ''psychological driver'' to legitimize the wars.
Not only are thousands of our soldiers being murdered by depleted uranium, suffering from the effects of it and seeing their children born with massive birth defects because of this poison, but we are seeing the Pentagram denying responsibility for its crimes against our soldiers and against the people of Iraq. - Reply to this comment
- http://www.newswithviews.com/Dean/carolyn5.htm
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/du.htm
------------------
These sites, particularly the American Gulf War Veterans Association site show the dangers of depleted uranium to our troops. Its shows what we can expect in the Stupid Peoples'' War in terms of future illnesses.
The Regime lied about the Iraqi WMDs. They lied about the Iraqi nuclear weapons program. They lied about connections to al Qaeda. They are lying about the science and effects of DU on the human body...on the bodies of our soldiers...on the bodies of our Iraqi victims. - Reply to this comment
gslinger3,
You sure are allotting a good deal of attention to the comments of someone that you claim to be irrelevant.- Reply to this comment
Mike Huckabee on GOP "rock stars," 2012, health care reform and more.
