Why Saddam trial skips big atrocities (Gwynne Dyer)

[struggle4progress]

<snip> The former Iraqi dictator is not being tried for invading Iran in 1980 and causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, nor for using poison gas on Iranian troops and on rebellious Kurds in Iraq itself (notably at Halabja in 1988, when at least 5,000 Iraqi Kurd civilians died), nor for invading Kuwait in 1990, nor for slaughtering tens of thousands of Iraqi Shias in the course of putting down the revolt that followed his defeat in that war. <snip>

The United States seized ALL the documents concerning ALL of Saddam’s abuses during its invasion of Iraq two and a half years ago. It also has at least half of Saddam’s former senior ministers and generals in its prisons, and could easily find many who would give evidence against him in return for clemency for themselves. If Washington wanted to see Saddam tried for his truly monstrous crimes, then that would happen. But it probably won’t. <snip>

It was US intelligence photos from satellite and AWACS reconnaissance that provided the raw information about Iranian positions, and US Air Force photo interpreters seconded to Baghdad who drew Saddam the detailed maps of Iranian trenches that let him drench them in poison gas. It was the Reagan administration that stopped Congress from condemning Saddam’s use of poison gas, and that encouraged American firms and NATO allies to sell him the appropriate chemical feedstocks plus a wide variety of other weapons.

It was the US State Department that tried to protect Saddam when he gassed his own Kurdish citizens in Halabja in 1988, spreading stories (which it knew to be false) that Iranian planes had dropped the gas. It was the US that finally saved Saddam’s regime by providing escorts for tankers carrying oil from Arab Gulf states while Iraqi planes were left free to attack tankers coming from Iranian ports. Even when one of Saddam’s planes mistakenly attacked an American destroyer in 1987, killing 37 crew-members, Washington forgave him. So the US doesn’t want any of Saddam’s crimes that are connected with the Iran war to come up in his trial. <snip>

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/461445

[applegrove]

1. Thanks for posting. n/t

[number6]

2. cause "we" don't wanna get into who ....

supplied the gas and money for the big atrocities ...:hide:

[struggle4progress]

6. Panama, from ... The CIA's Greatest Hits

For most of his life, Manuel Noriega got along very well with the CIA. As far back as 1959, he was reporting on Panamanian leftists to the Americans; by 1966, he was on the CIA payroll. Despite-or maybe because of-Noriega's "perverse" treatment of prisoners, he was deemed worthy to be trained at the notorious School of the Americas (also known as the "School of Dictators" or the "School of Assassins" ), run by the US Army in Panama City (it's since moved to Ft. Benning, Georgia). <snip>

In 1976, Noriega paid a visit to CIA Director George Bush in Washington. Bush's successor was less comfortable with Noriega and took him off the CIA payroll, but when Bush became vice-president in 1980, Noriega went back on, with a six-figure annual salary. <snip>

By 1989, however, the love affair was over. Noriega had angered his handlers by waffling on his opposition to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and he was showing other disquieting signs of disobedience. <snip>

What changed after the invasion? Violence, fraud and drug trafficking continued unabated. But, unlike Noriega, Panama's new rulers knew how to follow orders, and agreed to reconsider the Torrijos treaties, under which all US military bases in Panama would be shut down by the year 2000.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA%20Hits/Panama_CIAHits.html

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. They plan on executing him right away after this little trial.

No way are they going to allow any of that to be brought to the surface.

[struggle4progress]

5. "The new law allows him only one appeal, and after that he must be hanged

within 30 days."

[pretzel4gore]

4. it's the US/britain using depleted uranium...

how can these war crims judge anybody?
dyer's another professional mischief maker/time waster, who ignore the overthrow of the legal government in the usa to cry about some minor league political gangster like mugabe or gaddafi or arafat or saddam...dyer cares about his silk uderwear, and his filet mignon etc, that's all this paid goofball cares about.
i doubt saddam hussein was anywhere as bad as the 'conga line of sukkholes' spend so much of their energy proclaiming and promoting, while overlooking bush and blair. there's a fundamental dishonesty at work, and no one can deny it

[highplainsdem]

7. Important column. Thanks for posting this! Recommended.

[mikelgb]

8. I had thoughts about this the other day...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5103306