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  • Defiant Saddam appears in court

    Defiant Saddam appears in court

    Iraq's ex-leader Saddam Hussein has made a defiant first appearance before an Iraqi judge, branding President George W Bush as the "real criminal".
    He defended Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, said he was still president and rejected the court's jurisdiction.

    He arrived in handcuffs and chains at the court near Baghdad airport to hear charges of war crimes and genocide.

    TV pictures of the hearing were released to international broadcasters shortly after the hearing finished.


    'Theatre'

    The images - cleared for broadcast by the US military - were the first of Saddam Hussein since his capture in December. They showed Iraq's former president looking thin, haggard and with a trimmed, grey beard.

    Saddam Hussein, described by reporters at the hearing as both defiant and downcast, denounced the proceedings as "theatre" and questioned the validity of the law he was to be tried under.

    "I am Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq," he replied when asked to confirm his identity at the hearing, which took place inside one of his former palaces, now a sprawling US base.

    The BBC's Arab affairs analyst, Magdi Abdelhadi, says this is the first time an Arab ruler has appeared before a judge to face charges related to abuse of power and the brutal oppression of his own people.

    He says it is an historic moment not only for Iraq but for the entire region.

    Ousted Arab rulers were usually either summarily executed or forced to flee the country, he adds.

    Read more here:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3855359.stm
    Attached Files
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

  • #2
    Saddam mocks accusers in court

    Saddam mocks accusers in court

    Saddam Hussein arrived in chains at a palace complex once used by his inner circle for hunting, fishing and other pleasurable diversions.

    The ex-Iraqi leader was flown to the complex by helicopter and brought to the makeshift courtroom in an armoured bus, escorted by four US military vehicles and a military ambulance.

    The handcuffs, attached to a chain around his waist, were then removed, dropping to the floor outside the courtroom with a clatter.

    He was then taken inside by two imposing Iraqi prison guards, while six other guards waited outside.

    With free hands, the former president was able to jab his finger aggressively at the judge when he became animated, during the half-hour hearing to read out the seven preliminary charges against him.

    'President'

    Dressed in a grey pin-striped suit and white shirt - and looking thinner than before - the ex-Iraqi leader was at times defiant and at times subdued.

    But he was wholly different from the submissive and dishevelled prisoner last seen by the world when he was captured in December.

    One of the few reporters allowed in the courtroom, from Qatari-based al-Jazeera TV, said that at first Saddam Hussein refused to reply when he was asked to confirm his name.

    "Are you Saddam Hussein?" the judge said.

    Looking indignantly at the court official he replied: "Yes, Saddam Hussein, the president of the Republic of Iraq."

    The judge then repeated "Saddam Hussein al-Majid?" using the former leader's full name.

    "Saddam Hussein, the president of the Republic of Iraq," repeated the man in the dock, emphatically. Throughout the hearing he refused being referred to as the "former Iraqi president".

    And when asked where he lived, Saddam Hussein replied:"I live in every Iraqi house."

    This obstreperous attitude during the initial exchange seemed to set the tone for the whole hearing.

    Read more here:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/3857165.stm
    Attached Files
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

    Comment


    • #3
      Saddam fights back in court

      The moment when Saddam Hussein's handcuffs and chains were heard clanking outside the courtroom was almost unbearably dramatic.

      Yet when he entered, the effect the new government here had hoped to make was unexpectedly undermined.

      True, Saddam Hussein looked older and diminished and somehow haunted, yet there was plenty of his old imperious manner, and that was not at all what the government had wanted.

      The judge banned the sound of Saddam Hussein's voice on television but that merely gave the impression he was being gagged. And then some of the sound was made available anyway.

      The timing of it all meant the pictures aired on American breakfast television, and that spread suspicions here that it was really all about helping US President George W Bush in the opinion polls.

      So did the fact that the only reporters in court were from American organisations.

      Most importantly, Saddam Hussein was able to raise the whole contentious subject of the rights and wrongs of last year's invasion.

      That is something the Iraqi government could really do without.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/3858539.stm
      Attached Files
      "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

      Comment


      • #4
        shouldn't he be tried at the hague, since its war crimes we're talking about here?

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Asim Aquil
          shouldn't he be tried at the hague, since its war crimes we're talking about here?
          I don't think the Iraqi interim government views the war crimes court in Den Haag as having juridstiction over this case, I know the US doesn't.
          "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Asim Aquil
            shouldn't he be tried at the hague, since its war crimes we're talking about here?
            Only if the UN intervenes/invades, he can be tried in The Hague (i think). Or Kuwaitis would have to file a motion for the 1991 invasion.
            Last edited by Jay; 01 Jul 04,, 23:10.
            A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Jay
              I think only if the UN intervenes, he can be tried in The Hague.
              Well, the UN couldn't really intervene.
              "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Irondüke
                Well, the UN couldn't really intervene.
                He probably meant from the beginning, i.e. the US didn't invade, the UN did.

                I don't care about the politics of this, I just want this evil bastard punished, in what ever way the Iraqis see fit.
                No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                Comment


                • #9
                  Those goddamned greedy kuwaitis caused all the recent problems over there and don't forget ambassador Gillespie's conversation with Saddam.
                  After the war with fannatical Iran,Iraq was in terrible finnancial shape,millions of soldiers
                  dead and wounded and then Kuwaitis sheiks start to flood market with cheap
                  oil and drilling into Iraq oil fields.I would do exactly the same thing as the Saddam did.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by bodybag
                    Those goddamned greedy kuwaitis
                    How did they force him to fill mass graves with women and children?
                    No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                    I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                    even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                    He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Confed999
                      How did they force him to fill mass graves with women and children?
                      Well, the very nature of Arab politics....almost all the arab rulers committed crimes like these, only difference is they went un-noticed.
                      A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Jay
                        Well, the very nature of Arab politics....almost all the arab rulers committed crimes like these, only difference is they went un-noticed.
                        Oh, alot of us noticed them, but I still don't see how the Kuwaitis forced Saddam to starve, torture and kill his own people. Nearly every race has commited crimes like these, so I am not quick to blame "Arab" rulers, just tyrants in general.
                        No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                        I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                        even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                        He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Confed999
                          Oh, alot of us noticed them, but I still don't see how the Kuwaitis forced Saddam to starve, torture and kill his own people. Nearly every race has commited crimes like these, so I am not quick to blame "Arab" rulers, just tyrants in general.
                          Whoever(western powers) created state of Iraq bears some responsibility to what is going on in Iraq



                          .There are just to many ethnic groups(kurds,shia,sunn etc.) and each of them has ambition of creating independent state.Saddam in my view had his hands full
                          of uprisings and revolts. He did what every dictator does,but there is just this thing- oil.If not for the OIL I guarantee we would never hear nothing abaout Iraq
                          Last edited by bodybag; 02 Jul 04,, 02:04.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Before it was Iraq, the UK controled the region. They became an independant kingdom that, to the best of my knowledge, was quite benign, and ruled for decades. Saddam has propagated the racial hatred in his country as a means of control. This keeps his enemies from uniting to overthrow him. It's a pretty standard strategy for tyrants.
                            Originally posted by bodybag
                            If not for the OIL I guarantee we would never hear nothing abaout Iraq
                            Oil is the driving force for some, it matters little to most others though. Individual motives don't mean anything, because every motive is covered by someone's views. Grenada, Vietnam and Serbia have little, if any, oil production, for example.
                            No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                            I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                            even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                            He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Confed999
                              Before it was Iraq, the UK controled the region. They became an independant kingdom that, to the best of my knowledge, was quite benign, and ruled for decades. Saddam has propagated the racial hatred in his country as a means of control. This keeps his enemies from uniting to overthrow him. It's a pretty standard strategy for tyrants.

                              Oil is the driving force for some, it matters little to most others though. Individual motives don't mean anything, because every motive is covered by someone's views. Grenada, Vietnam and Serbia have little, if any, oil production, for example.
                              British rule wasn't much better, not for the Kurds at least.

                              Comment

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