Posted on 06/30/2004 4:46:00 AM PDT by kattracks
BAGHDAD, June 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein, who brutalised Iraqis for decades, said good morning and sought to ask some questions when the United States handed him over to Iraqi justice on Wednesday, a witness said.Saddam, who was captured hiding near his hometown of Tikrit in December, looked in good health as he appeared before an Iraqi judge in the first legal step towards a trial for the cruelties he inflicted during his 35 years of power.
"Saddam said good morning and asked if he could ask some questions," Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will try the former dictator, told Reuters.
"He was told he should wait until tomorrow," said Chalabi, who was in the courtroom where Saddam and 11 of his former lieutenants were turned over to Iraqi legal custody.
But many of the other former Iraqi officials were nervous and agitated, said Chalabi, who has received numerous death threats since taking on the task of helping amass evidence against Saddam and preparing a special tribunal to try him.
Saddam, 67, is accused by Iraqis of torturing and killing hundreds of thousands of people with the help of officials in his Baath party. Saddam became president in 1979, but had already been Iraq's strongman since a Baathist coup in 1968.
His former lieutenants appeared nervous and some were hostile as they were told they would be charged on Thursday.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in poison gas attacks, including one that killed about 5,000 Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in 1988, appeared especially rattled.
"He looked very scared. He was shaking," said Chalabi.
Saddam will remain in the physical custody of U.S. forces. He and the 11 others are to be charged on Thursday.
Saddam fled when U.S. forces entered Baghdad on April 9 last year after making a final defiant public appearance near a mosque in the capital. He was then filmed, looking disoriented, unkempt and with a bushy beard, as U.S. military doctors examined him after his capture on December 13.
Among others to be handed over were former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz; Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, his secretary; Sabawi Ibrahim, Saddam's maternal half-brother; Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; and Aziz Salih Numan, Baath Party regional commander and head of the party militia.
These men and others among the 55 most wanted Iraqis on a U.S. list are seen as witnesses who could help prove a chain of command linking Saddam to crimes against humanity.
Saddam will be charged with ordering the 1988 massacres of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, according to Chalabi.
Personally I'm hoping he gets the "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" treatment ala the scene of the stairway..
In May 1945 (maybe late April), Himmler fled westward to the American/British lines, hoping to be accomodated in negotiations for a separate peace and a continuation of the war against the Soviets. He was rebuffed, and taken into custody. While in custody, he crunched the cyanide capsule.
Rommel actually was forced to commit suicide because of his peripheral involvement in the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler. He wasn't involved in the attempt itself, but he had had conversations with some of the plotters in France, and wouldn't have been in the least sad to see Hitler go. He had given serious consideration to simply "opening the front" in his area (he commanded Army Group B, a large portion of the German forces in northern France) and letting the Allies sweep east.
In Hitler's paranoia after the attempt, Rommel's name came up, and Hitler sent men to Rommel while he was recuperating from wounds suffered when his staff car was strafed by American fighters. They told him, basically, take this vial of poison we brought with us and your family won't get prosecuted. Otherwise, we take you to a kangaroo "People's Court" trial, you'll be found guilty, and your whole family dies with you. So he took the poison to spare his wife and son. The German public was told he died of a "brain aneurysm" due to his injuries, and he was given a state funeral.
It would've been interesting to see if Rommel would have been brought up on war crimes charges post-war, had he lived. Personally, I doubt it. He was very much a professional soldier and there was never any documentation of atrocities committed under or by his command, in France or in North Africa.
}:-)4
I'd swear that looks like a cat, but who am I to argue?
I haven't had my first cup of java yet.
I like the swinging touch Dave, nice one, LOL!
I think that's SOP in the mideast. I heard they had 103 public beheadings in Saudi Arabia in 1999. They also cut off body parts the same way, in public.
Ah, I thought you had him mixed up with Hess, which was an earlier defection.
Material I'd seen on Himmlers fate indicated the the negotiations for a separate peace (via Swedish Count Bernadotte) and his capture by the British were seperate events. Oh well, material from this era will be mined for decades to come!
Let the Kurds try Chemical Ali and dish out his punishment.
Or Upper Manhattan...or Seattle...or San Francisco...or her in Minneapolis.
That is a cat.
However, most Iraqis hate Dogs.
I think that while the $oddomite is swinging, that it would be great if a Great Dane walked up to the "Swinging $oddomite" and lifted its leg to ---- -- ---
The full Mooose would be great for the $oddomite and his thugs.
While they are hanging in there, send in a bunch of Big Dogs with very full bladders.
See my #71.
Agree completely.
His chances of a return to power must now be ranked at above 20%-and rising.
An amazing reversal of fortune.
The rumors came from the usual source, the IRC.(internetional Red Cross) who has cause the U.S. a load of grief in the last few months.
They are controlled by the Euro trash.
Chirac?
"Welcome to FR. Did you have anyone specific in mind?" I doubt it'll answer, no balls. Nice catch.
There's too many to get specific.
"obviously he won't get a fair trial in Iraq. They should move him to some place like Oregon."
I know a bunch of "good 'ol boys" here in northeast Florida that would like to converse with that guy.
As for Saddam, I'm not sure which would be best for him. What were his favorites again? Oh yeah, feeding people alive to his starving dogs and the plastic shredder. First though, he ought to have his hands surgically removed, his ears and tounge cut off and his genitals removed.
I hate to wonder if they will. Does the new Iraqi leadership have the cojones to execute these killers? We shall see.
Saddam will not live to see 2005.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.