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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (49666)	6/23/2004 9:35:34 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

It's funny how many of us think like that. ------------------------------------------- The West May Go On Trial with Saddam Aaron Glantz, Inter Press Service (IPS) ARBIL, Iraq (news - web sites), Jun 18 (IPS) - A year after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), the mountains and plains of Northern Iraq are still covered in landmines planted by the former Iraqi dictator's regime during the 1980s. That is when he fought a decade-long war with Iran and many battles with Kurdish guerrillas. The Red Cross has made thousands of synthetic limbs for Iraqi civilians who have lost their arms or legs. Hundreds have been killed. "We were in the village when we heard the mines go off in the middle of the night," recalls Mohammed Abuznawee, a shepherd who lives near a minefield outside Kirkuk. The Iraqi army mined the area around his village in 1985. "Over 200 sheep broke out of their pen and walked into the minefield in the middle of the night and were killed. Then my brother went out to try to save the flock. He also died." Iraq did not make any of the landmines Saddam used in his wars. They were all sold to him by Italy, China, the United States, and the former Soviet Union. In Northern Iraq the Italian built mine Valmara is the most plentiful and the most dangerous. But the U.S. built landmine, the M-14 sold to Saddam by the administration of then president Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) is also lethal. "It's almost impossible to detect," says Wiyan Abdurrachman of the Kurdish demining organisation Aras. "There's no trigger that we can look for and mine is set off by pressure." Aburrachman is angry that so many governments supported Saddam. "Saddam Hussein didn't have any mines, any ammunition. The only thing he had was money for buying the mines and guns." The governments of France, Germany and Britain sold chemical agents to Saddam's government. U.S. companies also chipped in. France sold Iraq Mirage fighter jets and the Soviets Mig-29s that were used to deliver the chemical weapons. The U.S. government added key intelligence information to make sure Saddam's planes were not shot down. "Some day," Abdurrachman says, "those who supplied him will also have to stand trial." But with a possible trial date drawing near it is still not clear whether Saddam's international backers will be called as part of a war crimes trial. Salem Chalabi, the prosecutor picked by the Bush administration is the nephew of former CIA (news - web sites) asset Ahmed Chalabi who fell from the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s grace last month amidst allegations of providing false intelligence to the CIA and spying for Iran. Salem Chalabi has not set out his case yet. Speaking to reporters in Baghdad this week Chalabi said only that he was "putting together" his chargeswhich would be ready shortly. Kurds hope Chalabi probes deep. "We want Saddam to talk," says Alan Zangana, programme director for the Kurdish Human Rights Watch in San Diego, California. "We want to know from Saddam which weapons he used and where he got them." A lot of journalists have pointed at companies, he said. "They have named French and German and American companies as selling chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein. But we need this information established as fact in a court of law. We need these companies to be pointed out in public." Zangana says Kurds and other Iraqis wronged by Saddam's Ba'ath regime could then sue the companies for damages the way survivors of the Nazi holocaust sued Swiss banks. Saddam's defence attorneys, Jordanian lawyers Mohammed al-Rashdan and chairman of the Jordan Bar Association Hussain Mjalli have not said whether they plan to call Westerners as part of a trial. Their argument is that since the invasion of Iraq was not approved by the United Nations (news - web sites), it has no legal basis. As such, they argue, the U.S.-led occupation authority has no right to change or cancel the Iraqi constitution. "Article 40 in the Iraqi constitution stipulates that the head of the state enjoys immunity against persecution," al-Rashdan told the Arab satellite network al-Jazeera. "Iraq, Iraqi people, Iraqi law were hijacked," Mjalli said. "The occupation of Iraq was illegal, so ipso facto everything that follows is illegal." Mohammed al-Rashdan and Hussin Mjalli are also threatening to sue the United States because they have not been allowed to see their client. story.news.yahoo.com

To: TigerPaw who wrote (49666)	6/23/2004 11:53:39 AM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 89467

Trent Lott Defends Prison Tortures Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and formerly the majority leader, shared a few thoughts about Iraq with reporter Deborah Solomon in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine. SOLOMON: How do you think the war in Iraq is going? LOTT: There are terrorists in Iraq who have been drawn into that part of the world. Every day we eliminate some of them; that's one more that won't be coming here. SOLOMON: What do you mean by eliminate them? Where are the terrorists and insurgents going to go? LOTT: Well, they are going to be killed. When they attack our troops, 20 or 30 or 40 at a time are being eliminated. SOLOMON: We can't kill everyone who hates America! LOTT: We can kill a lot of them, particularly when they try to kill us. Lott also elaborated as to why he has no problem with the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison. SOLOMON: You recently created a stir when you defended the interrogation techniques at Abu Ghraib. LOTT: Most of the people in Mississippi came up to me and said: "Thank goodness. America comes first." Interrogation is not a Sunday-school class. You don't get information that will save American lives by withholding pancakes. SOLOMON: But unleashing killer dogs on naked Iraqis is not the same as withholding pancakes. LOTT: I was amazed that people reacted like that. Did the dogs bite them? Did the dogs assault them? How are you going to get people to give information that will lead to the saving of lives? Lott is apparently unfamiliar with the details of the U.S. Army's widely circulated Taguba report, which describes, in addition to beatings and sodomy perpetrated by U.S. soldiers at the prison, "using military working dogs to intimidate ... and actually bite a detainee." This isn't terribly surprising: He refused to join fellow U.S. lawmakers in viewing more evidence from Abu Ghraib during congressional hearings in May, telling the New York Times: "I've already seen enough. Why would I want to go see a bunch of perverted pictures?" But if he's irked by the media's focus on the torture scandal, Lott is overjoyed by the gilding of the late President Reagan. SOLOMON: You worked closely with President Reagan. Do you think his funeral has been overblown? LOTT: I think Ronald Reagan was the best president of the last century. SOLOMON: Some members of Congress would like to see Alexander Hamilton pushed off the $10 bill and Reagan's face installed in his place. LOTT: I am an advocate of having a gold dollar with Reagan's picture on it, and calling it the Ronnie. The Canadians have the Loonie, and we can have the Ronnie. - - - - - - - - - - - - Read more of "Right Hook," Salon's weekly roundup of conservative commentary and analysis here. salon.com