The U.S. Media Plays Along With the Farcical Trial of Chemical Ali

[rodeodance]

The U.S. Media Plays Along With the Farcical Trial of Chemical Ali


http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/#60659

Posted by Barry Lando on August 25, 2007 at 5:00 AM.

Like a distant historical footnote to the bloody tragedy raging in Iraq, the trial of Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Chemical Ali, and 14 other former lieutenants of Saddam, began this week. The prosecutor accused them of perpetrating “ among the ugliest crimes ever committed against humanity in modern history.”

In a just world, George H.W. Bush and James Baker would also be in the dock.

Chemical Ali and his cohorts are being charged with the slaughter of tens of thousands of Shiites following the failed uprising of 1991. It is the third trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal for crimes against humanity committed during Saddam’s reign.

But, from the beginning, the Tribunal has been a uniquely Kafkaesque affair: first because of the total disconnect between the drama being played out in the court room and the slaughter going on outside the heavily fortified Green Zone. Secondly, by the fact that the horrific history of the 1991 repression is being recounted as if it occurred in an international vacuum. No mention whatsoever of the complicity of the United States and President George H.W. Bush in those bloody events,

Though the British Press has made some mention of America’s role, as far as I can make out, the major American media –and that includes the New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, CNN and the Associated Press— have not made even the faintest allusion to the U.S. involvement.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

[Richard Steele]

1. K&R

[PDJane]

2. I'm glad that

that Jordan is protecting Saddam's daughter. These trials are obscene.

[Briar]

3. Like most things since September 11

this has been partly about revenge (how the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq were sold to the American people) and mostly about politics. It actually suggests that our famed western sense of justice is rotten at the core - either scapegoats are thrown like raw meat to the baying populace wanting to avenge the victims (that goes for domestic crime too - the source of the popularity of the death sentence) or enemies of the west are prosecuted for crimes no worse than the west has committed itself. The winners protect themselves, though their crimes are no worse. They, however, have ensured they are above the law and can continue to break it.