But what about the idyllic, kite-flying Iraq that Michael Moore told me about????The interim government was continuing to uncover many atrocities committed during Saddam Hussein's rule, he told editors in London.
"We underestimated the scale of what happened in Iraq at that time," he said. "So far we have discovered 262 mass graves, with tens of thousands of people. It's unbelievably shocking - truckloads, busloads of people buried."
There had been a recent discovery of a busload of people buried alive at Hilla, an hour's drive south of Baghdad. "Men, women and children - they were still sitting in their seats," he said. "Innocent people who rejected Saddam and his rule."
Later yesterday, it emerged that Mr Allawi had told an Arab newspaper that a broken and depressed Saddam Hussein had appealed to him for mercy, saying his regime had meant no harm during the former dictator's years running the country.
"Saddam sent me a verbal message asking for mercy," Mr Allawi said in an interview published yesterday in the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. "He said they were working for the general good and they didn't aim to harm."
Mr Allawi said the message was carried by a member of his current government. "My answer was these are things the court will determine," he was quoted as saying.
Hilla was the site of one of the worst massacres to take place under SaddamHussein's rule. After the first Gulf war in 1991, thousands of Shias and Kurds rose up against Saddam, expecting the arrival of US forces. A mass grave at Hilla was found last year to contain the bodies of about 3,000 Shia who were rounded up and killed by Iraqi forces for allegedly taking part in the revolt.
The few witnesses who escaped the massacre confirm that minibuses full of Shias were driven into trenches. Ba'ath party loyalists then shot dead the passengers, before diggers buried the evidence.
Journalists who went to the scene discovered hundreds of mummified bodies, including those of women clutching babies. The watch on one exhumed corpse was still ticking, more than 10 years later.
The massacre was one of Saddam's worst atrocities and has been known about for some time. It is one of the in dictments in his forthcoming trial. Mr Allawi has recently said that he wants to hold Saddam's trial before elections set for January in an apparent attempt to focus attention on Saddam's crimes and away from Iraq's insurgency.
Evidence of Saddam looting more than a billion dollars from Iraq's central bank was still being uncovered, Mr Allawi said. "Whatever we thought we knew, what was portrayed in the media, was nothing compared with what we saw with our own eyes when we came into Baghdad."
Mr Allawi said there was evidence of "linkages" with terrorists, including Carlos the Jackal and Ansar al-Islam, an Islamist group in northern Iraq accused by the US of providing a safe haven for al-Qaida. "I am surprised when I hear people talk about whether the war was justified. If Saddam had had his way he would have turned the whole region into hell."
Bump.
Waiting for John Kerry to hold a press conference and call Allawi a liar.
Just wait...it'll come.
And Saddam asks for mercy!
Amazing.
It's hard to determine what method of death would be evil enough for him as punishment. A thought is slicing his throat slowly over a couple of days ... chopping off limbs, one by one - mayne his toungue first ... .
But what about the idyllic, kite-flying Iraq that Michael Moore told me about????Mercy for Saddam means he will die quickly, instead of feet first in a shredder.
Were these remarks made to the UN? I wish Allawi wouldn't give the UN the opportunity to pretend it gives a rat's behind.
Here's your boy, Saddam.
Gee, I don't s'pose the writer of this carefully chosen word spews his pap from the left, huh? The Kerry Ferries will be so pleased...
Still ticking or would still run?
But he's just a puppet of President Bush, so he's obviously making this all up. </sarcasm>
And sKerry wants us to believe that GW went after saddam to revenge his Bush 41. sKerry is mentally disturbed.
You won't see this in OUR press, they are to busy covering for sKerry. Something this grusome, like the Breslan school will not be reported in our press...it would makes sKerry sound stupid.
ping
Kerry would have been more "sensitive" in dealing with Saddam, seeing as how Saddam was meaning no harm.