SANTORUM COMMENTS ON TORTURE OF IRAQI BUSINESSMEN DURING SADDAM HUSSEIN’S REGIME
Contact: Christine Shott (202) 224-0610
Wednesday, June 2, 2004Washington, DC – Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, held a press conference today with Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL). The Senators introduced seven victims of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and released a never-before-seen video of torture conducted by the regime.
Senator Santorum issued the following statement on the torture of Iraqi businessmen while they were prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in 1995:
“Saddam Hussein’s regime used torture as one method of instilling fear and asserting authority over the Iraqi people. The seven Iraqi businessmen visiting with us here today suffered physical torture and mutilation by Saddam's brutal regime. In 1995, these men had their right hands removed for the crime of handling U.S. currency, and had ‘X’s’ tattooed on their foreheads as punishment for the economic strife affecting Iraq at that time.
“These men are on Capitol Hill today to share their personal experiences as a testament to the merciless and cruel treatment by the Hussein regime.
“U.S. forces entered Iraq over a year ago to liberate a nation from an inhumane and evil regime. Today, as U.S. forces continue their work in rebuilding Iraq, it is not surprising that remnants of the Hussein regime and their supporters would mount a coordinated terrorist campaign against a free Iraq. Winning freedom is not easy when the opposition believes that torture and persecution are the only ways to govern a nation. There is a lot of work left to do, but we have an opportunity to fight terrorism and to stop the horrific torture and treatment of innocent civilians.”
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Senators screen video of Abu Ghraib atrocities under Saddam
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two US senators, accompanied by seven Iraqis whose right hands were amputated for currency trading in the 1990s under Saddam Hussein, on Wednesday showed a video of atrocities committed under the old regime in Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
Senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters the three-minute, 45-second clip was a compression of a 90-minute video furnished by the Pentagon.
The video, said Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman, was "a powerful reminder of why we fought to rid Iraq and the world of this monster (Saddam Hussein) and why the Iraqi people and the world are...better off with him gone."
It showed hands being amputated, including those of the seven Iraqis present, one decapitation by sword, prisoners' tongues being cut off and others screaming in pain as their arms were shattered by blows with steel bars.
"We have to prevent the Sunni to come back to power," said Qasim Kadhim, one of the seven.
Asked whether Saddam should be tried by an international court for crimes against humanity, Kadhim said, "I don't care the way Saddam is (put on) trial. But the Iraqi people must be involved."
Saddam, captured by US forces in December, has been granted prisoner-of-war status and is believed being held somewhere in Iraq for a trial still unspecified.
The seven Iraqi former prisoners were brought to Washington by the American Foreign Policy Council, a private group, with additional funding from the US State Department, which carefully orchestrated their media appearances.
They met last week with President George W. Bush at the White House.