Judith Rueff (translation by Leslie
Thatcher), "The Court in Charge
of Trying Saddam Has No Legal Standing," Liberation (France), July 1, 2004
"Today,
Saddam faces justice at last. But where are the others accused of crimes
against humanity?," The Independent, July 1, 2004
[Evidence offered by a top CIA man could confirm the testimony given by
Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad Thursday that he knew
of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers.--Sanjay Suri, "Saddam Could Call CIA
in His Defence," Inter Press Service, July 2, 2004]
Jude Wanniski, "An Advocate
for Saddam Hussein," wanniski.com, July 3, 2004
[Americans hold Saddam Hussein. Americans ran the court in which he
appeared. Americans censored the tapes of the hearing. Who do you think is
running the country?--Robert Fisk, "So
this is what they call the new, 'free' Iraq," The Independent, July 4, 2004
Michael Howard and David Teather, "Saddam
trial chief faces Iraqi murder charge," Guardian, August 9, 2004
[US and Iraqi officials have decided that the special tribunal that will
pass judgment on Saddam Hussein will not be able to accuse any foreigner of
complicity. Yet the history of the past 40 years is full of instances where
non-Iraqis, including five US presidents, at least three French presidents,
several British prime ministers and many western businessmen, have been
aware of and even implicated in the crimes of the Ba'athist regime.
US support for mass killings in Iraq began as early as the presidency of
John Kennedy. In 1963, alarmed by the sight of President Abdel-Karim Qassem
cosying up to Moscow and threatening to nationalise Iraq's oil industry, the
US decided to act. In February 1963 it supported a coup by the fiercely
anti-communist Ba'ath party.--Michel Despratx and Barry Lando, "Iraq: crimes and
collusions," Le Monde diplomatique, November, 2004]
["Legally, the United States is bound to ensure that Saddam Hussein has
counsel since the US has exclusive control over him, and the denial of such
access to counsel leaves the US legally liable for the deprivation of his
civil rights."--Robert Winnett, "Saddam
bids to challenge case in US," Times, December 19, 2004]
VIDEO: Barry Lando and Michel Despratx,
"Web
of Deceit: The Trial You'll Never See," 2004
[The intention of the United States to convict the former leader in an
unfair trial was made starkly clear by the appointment of Chalabi's nephew
to organize and lead the court. He had just returned to Iraq to open a law
office with a former law partner of Defense Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith,
who had urged the U.S. overthrow of the Iraqi government and was a principal
architect of U.S. postwar planning. . . .
Finally, any court that considers criminal charges against Saddam Hussein
must have the power and the mandate to consider charges against leaders and
military personnel of the U.S., Britain and the other nations that
participated in the aggression against Iraq, if equal justice under law is
to have meaning.--Ramsey Clark, "Why I'm Willing to Defend
Hussein," Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2005]
Robert Fisk, "Saddam
interrogation screened - in silence. The question is: Why?,"
Independent, June 14, 2005
John F. Burns, "Hussein Tribunal
Shaken by Chalabi's Bid to Replace Staff," New York Times, July 20, 2005
[Western human rights groups have warned that Saddam is unlikely to get a
fair trial. Critics here and abroad have said that the proper forum for the
trials would have been an international tribunal of the kind that has spent
four years hearing the case against the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan
Milosevic, in The Hague.--John F. Burns, "On eve of
Saddam's trial, questions," New York Times, October 19, 2005]
[Ramsey Clark, 77, who has pursued a career as a human rights lawyer since
serving under President Lyndon Johnson from 1967-69, met Saddam last
week.--Hala Jaber and Ali Rifat, "Top US
lawyer shows Saddam how to stall his trial," Sunday Times, December 4,
2005]
[The Geneva Convention, to which Washington is a signatory, explicitly
forbids an occupying power from creating courts.--Sara Flounders, "The Trial of Saddam Hussein,"
International Action Center, December 9, 2005]
Kim Sengupta, "Chaos
as Saddam trial chief judge replaced again," Independent, January 24, 2006
Robert F. Worth, "Prosecutors Show Execution Orders Signed by Hussein," New York Times,
February 28, 2006
[Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam
Hussein, as lawlessness and sectarian violence sweep the country, the former
U.N. human rights chief in Iraq said Thursday.--Kim Sengupta, "
Ex-Official: Iraq Abuses Growing Worse," Associated Press, March 2, 2006
Patrick Cockburn, "Saddam
had right to kill villagers, says Tariq Aziz," Independent, March
25, 2006
[ . . . they were flown to Amman after the detention of four other defense
witnesses by US troops and "agents of the Iraqi Interior Ministry"--Abdul
Jalil Mustafa, "Saddam had right to kill villagers, says Tariq Aziz," Arab News, June
4, 2006]
[The London-based lawyer Giovanni di Stefano, who is on Saddam's defence
team, said the climate of fear around the trial was making it impossible for
the court to reach a safe verdict.--David Fickling, "Gunmen kill
Saddam lawyer," Guardian, June 21, 2006]
["If Imam Ali were alive today, would he have remained neutral?" she says
she wrote, referring to the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, a
central figure for Shiites. "If not, where would he have stood? With Bush or
with Saddam Hussein?"--Hassan M. Fattah, "For
a Shiite, Defending Hussein Is a Labor of Love," New York Times, June
24, 2006]
[ . . . two defendants told the court in Baghdad's Green Zone that the Iraqi
army had only targeted Iranian troops
and Kurdish rebels who were fighting together.--Mark Oliver, "Saddam
co-defendants deny Anfal genocide," Guardian, August 22, 2006]
[Murdered lawyers and witnesses, political meddling, judges dismissed, lies
in evidence: the prosecution of the Iraqi dictator has been flawed from the
start. With the first verdict due next week, his eventual execution seems
almost certain - but will that bring justice for his victims?--Peter
Beaumont, "
Saddam's trial farce stumbles to climax," Observer, October 29, 2006]
"Saddam
sentenced to hang," Guardian, November 5, 2006
[The Bush administration hoped the hearings would expose the nature of
Saddam's crimes that they had used, in part, to justify their invasion. They
also expected a guilty verdict, and Saddam's resulting execution, would take
the sting out of the Sunni insurgency. America spent more than $140m (£74m)
preparing for the trial, fortifying the court and training Iraqi
officials.--Michael Howard, "A court on
the verge of anarchy," Guardian, November 5, 2006]
Michael Howard and Julian Borger, "Bush
hails 'milestone' amid EU doubts over death penalty, legality and
timing," Guardian, November 6, 2006
Max Hastings, "Bush
and Blair have forfeited the moral authority to hang Saddam,"
Guardian, November 6, 2006
[So America's one-time ally has been sentenced to death for war crimes he
committed when he was Washington's best friend in the Arab world. America
knew all about his atrocities and even supplied the gas - along with the
British--Robert Fisk, "This
was a guilty verdict on America as well," Independent, November 6,
2006]
[Let's start with George Bush senior, Saddam's sponsor, and let's not forget
those journalists who echoed Bush junior's and Blair's lies that justified
the invasion of Iraq.--John Pilger, "Now
let's charge Saddam's accomplices," johnpilger.com, November 9, 2006]
[The trial of Saddam Hussein was so flawed that its verdict is unsound, the
advocacy group Human Rights Watch says.--"Saddam trial
'flawed and unsound'," BBC News, November 20, 2006]
[The US has hailed a ruling by an Iraq court that Saddam Hussein be executed
within 30 days, while the EU has urged Baghdad not to carry out the
sentence.--"Mixed
reactions to Saddam verdict," BBC News, December 27, 2006]
Bronwen Maddox, "Victor's
justice will deepen rifts that threaten Iraqi unity," Times,
December 28, 2006]
Anne Penketh, "Saddam trial verdict tarnished by Iraqi court's failings,"
Independent, December 30, 2006]
[In the aftermath of the international crimes against humanity of 2001 we
have tortured, we have murdered, we have brutalised and killed the innocent
- we have even added our shame at Abu Ghraib to Saddam's shame at Abu Ghraib
- and yet we are supposed to forget these terrible crimes as we applaud the
swinging corpse of the dictator we created.--Robert Fisk, "A dictator created then destroyed by
America," Independent, December 30, 2006]
Alan Cowell, "Around the
World, Unease and Criticism of Penalty," New York Times, December
31, 2006
[Saddam's last words were . . . "Ashadu an la ilaha ila Allah, wa ashhadu
ana Mohammedun rasool Allah" Which means, "I witness there is no god but
Allah and that Mohammed is His messenger."--"A
Lynching...," Baghdad Burning, December 31, 2006]
[Rizkar Mohammed Amin, who later resigned as the trial's chief judge, . . .
also claimed that Iraqi law stipulates an execution must be carried out 30
days after the appeal court's decision on the sentencing--"Former Saddam judge says execution violates
Iraqi law," AFP, January 1, 2007]