Rangel, Discover Saddam's Holocaust
6-13-2005
Top House Democrat Charlie Rangel still refuses to apologize for comparing President Bush's alleged "deception" over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to Hitler's extermination of 6 million Jews.
But if Rangel is looking for evidence of the real Holocaust in Iraq, he need only pick up a copy of last Sunday's Hartford Courant.
Relying on congressional studies as well as reports from an array of human rights groups, the Courant put together a frightening list of Saddam's atrocities.
A few highlights:
# The Iraqi dictator executed as many as 1 million Iraqis during his 24 years in power.
# 17,000 Iraqis were "disappeared" during the same period.
# Saddam had 40 of his own relatives murdered.
# Human Rights Watch estimates that Hussein's 1987-1988 campaign of terror against the Kurds killed at least 50,000 and as many as 100,000 - in attacks that used chemical and nerve agents on 40 Kurdish villages. The largest attack was on Halabjah, which resulted in approximately 5,000 deaths.
# A total of 2,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed during Saddam's blitzkreig.
# In 1998 alone, 4,000 prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib.-
# 3,000 prisoners were executed at the Mahjar prison from 1993 to 1998.
# 2,500 prisoners were executed between 1997 and 1999 in a "prison cleansing campaign."
# At least 130 Iraqi women were beheaded between June 2000 and April 2001.
# Saddam committed sixteen violations of the Hague and Geneva conventions during his 1990 invasion of Kuwait, according to a Pentagon report, including torture by amputation, electric shock, rape, forced self-cannibalism and dismemberment. |
