Posted on 03/05/2007 1:27:24 PM PST by Tulsa Ramjet
Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, has told a court that Iran, not Iraq, was to blame for a 1988 gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds.
Aziz, whose lawyers said is in poor health as he waits in a US military jail in Baghdad for his own trial, testified as a defence witness in the Anfal case.
Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali", and five other former senior Baath party officials are on trial for their roles in a 1988 military campaign which prosecutors say killed up to 180,000 people, many of them gassed.
Looking tired and pausing several times to drink water, Aziz - once the public face of Saddam's regime - blamed Iran for a gas attack in the Iraqi Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988, in which 5,000 people were killed.
"The chemical weapons used at that time causing the death of thousands of people were made with cyanide gas and not mustard gas. Iran had this gas at this time, not Iraq," said Aziz.
Aziz said that two papers he obtained on the Internet while he was in office prove his claim. He said one was a report from an "Institute affiliated to US department of defence called 'Seaman' which was published in 1989".
(Excerpt) Read more at english.aljazeera.net ...
Has Aziz hired David Irving onto his defense team?
why haven't they hung this SOB.
for two seconds .... consider the implications if this story is true
I hope his oversized glasses fall off his face at the gallows.
I'm not a big fan of him.
Aziz: "You dumb @sses! The "Purrrrrrrrrrsians" did it! We only had mustard gas to kill people. Boy, have YOU guys got a mistrial on your hands. Even I know the difference between Mustard gas and Cyanide!...Where's my water."
FWIW, isn't Aziz the Christian?
Evidentally he didnt get them from the DU. If he did, he'd be blaming the US
And I guess the Iranians gassed themselves during their war with Iraq.
Yes. He is emphatically stating, that as a Christian and facing mortal destiny of a well-slacked rope, he has decided to come clean in that they only gassed their people with Mustard gas, not cyanide. Albeit they occassionally borrowed some cyanide, left over from the 10 year war, but, they didn't make it their prime mover of crowd control.
Well, I guess Aziz is almost at the end of his rope.
I think think its remarkable that he didn't blame Israel.
"Yes. He is emphatically stating, that as a Christian and facing mortal destiny of a well-slacked rope, he has decided to come clean in that they only gassed their people with Mustard gas, not cyanide. Albeit they occassionally borrowed some cyanide, left over from the 10 year war, but, they didn't make it their prime mover of crowd control."
right....
And, he's second ONLY to Baghdad Bob on the "most compelling witness list".......!!!
~~~~~~~~~
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/cw/program.htm
Although the Iraqis initially used chemical weapons to prevent defeat and to reduce battlefield losses, they later integrated CW attacks into combined-armed operations designed to regain lost territory and to gain the offensive. Iraq's use of CW in the war with Iran can be divided into three distinct phases:
1983 to 1986--used in a defensive role; typically to deflect Iranian human-wave assaults. In 1984 Iraq became the first nation to use a nerve agent on the battlefield when it deployed Tabun-filled aerial bombs during the Iran-Iraq war. Some 5,500 Iranians were killed by the nerve agent between March 1984 and March 1985. Tabun kills within minutes. Some 16,000 Iranians were reported killed by the toxic blister agent mustard gas between August 1983 and February 1986.
1986 to early 1988--iraq adapts use against Iran to disrupt Iranian offensive preparations.
early 1988 to conclusion of the war-- Iraq integrated large nerve agent strikes into its overall offensive during the spring and summer of 1988 leading to the ceasefire.
Iran used chemical weapons late in the war, but never as extensively or successfully as Iraq. The success of Iraqi offensive operations in the southern sector in mid-1988 ultimately caused the Iranians to cease hostilities. The use of chemical weapons contributed to the success of these operations.
The first chemical attacks by Saddam Hussein against civilian populations included attacks launched by Iraqi aircraft against 20 small villages in 1987.
Saddam Hussein's forces reportedly killed hundreds of Iraqi Kurds with chemical agents in the Kurdish town of Halabja in March 1988. The poison gas attack on Halabja was the largest-scale chemical weapons (CW) attack against a civilian population in modern times. Halabja had a population of about 80,000 people who was predominantly Kurdish and had sympathised with Iran during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Troops from the Kurdish Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) entered Halabja on 15th March 1988, accompanied by Iranian revolutionary guards. The Iraqi CW attack began early in the evening of March 16th, when a group of eight aircraft began dropping chemical bombs; the chemical bombardment continued all night. The Halabja attack involved multiple chemical agents -- including mustard gas, and the nerve agents SARIN, TABUN and VX. Some sources report that cyanide was also used.
Well he always tried to play the role of a maverick, and some, especially in Europe, believed him. He know that Iran is becoming the target now, so he thought he could make this claim to give him an extra mileage.
"he thought he could make this claim to give him an extra mileage."
Maybe he will enter the gov'ts witness protection program:
Woman in grocery store: Babu! Nice to see you. How are the kids?
Aziz (with fake beard): Good Mrs. Smith. Growing like weeds. Oh, what aisle is the mustard gas on,..er...mustard dressing?
Mrs. Smith: Aisle 7, have a nice day.
Aziz: And you! (mutters under breathe) you yankee mother of swine.
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