The Saddam Trial, Part II

More in-depth reporting of the testimony today at Saddam’s trial:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Men and women were tortured for days and babies left to die in an interrogation facility which featured a meat grinder for human flesh, the first prosecution witness to face Saddam Hussein told the court on Monday.

After weeks of delay and legal arguments over security and the legitimacy of the court, the trial of Saddam and seven co- defendants on charges of crimes against humanity heard confusing but graphic witness evidence of torture and summary execution.

“I swear by God I walked by a room and on my left I saw a grinder with blood coming out of it and human hair underneath,” said 38-year-old Ahmed Hassan, who said he had been kept in room 63 at the Hakmiya intelligence headquarters in Baghdad.

Hassan, the first witness to face Saddam in court, said he was 15 when Saddam visited the village in July 1982 and Shi’ite militants tried to assassinate him.

Speaking technically as an individual plaintiff alongside the state, which is pressing charges of crimes against humanity, Hassan said he and his family were among hundreds of people rounded up in a security operation run by Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti after an attempt on Saddam’s life in the village.

Barzan, one of Saddam’s three younger half-brothers and the former head of the feared Mukhabarat intelligence service, is one of Saddam’s seven co-accused in the case relating to the killings of 148 mostly Shi’ite Muslim men from Dujail.

“Barzan was present. He had red cowboy boots and blue jeans and a sniper rifle,” Hassan, a stockily built worker with a round face and a graying beard, told the heavily fortified court in central Baghdad.

He said Saddam, from the Sunni Arab minority, asked a 15-year-old boy if he knew who he was. “He said ‘Saddam’. Then Saddam hit him in the head with an ash tray,” Hassan said.

[…]He said it was while he was climbing the stairs there that he saw the meat grinder. “No one escaped torture,” he said.

“They would put a mask on my eyes and because I was young it would fall down. I saw women being tortured,” he said.

“My brother was given electric shocks while my 77-year-old father watched,” Hassan said. “They told us, ‘why don’t you confess, you will be executed anyway’,” he said.

“One man was shot in the leg with two bullets? Some people were crippled because they had their arms and legs broken.”

He said they were held in Hakmiya for 70 days. While they were there a woman told a guard that her infant baby needed milk or he would die.

“He died and the guard threw him from the window,” Hassan told the court. “Pregnant women gave birth in the prison. Their babies died.”

But at least these prisoners were not forced to wear panties on their heads…then the Left would be crying. Throwing babies out a window, no big deal…but panties, watch out.

Havn’t we heard from some on the left that Iraq would have been better off with Saddam in power? Even Clinton said recently that Saddam was bad, but his staff were good folks:

Former president Bill Clinton praised Saddam Hussein’s lieutenants and their underlings on Tuesday, saying they were mostly “good” and “decent” people.”

“When [the U.S.] kicked out Saddam, they decided to dismantle the whole authority structure,” Clinton told an audience at American University in Dubai. “Most of the people who were part of that structure were good, decent people who were making the best out of a very bad situation,” he added.

While Clinton didn’t name, names, Saddam’s authority structure was dominated by his two murderous sons, Uday and Qusay, as well as notorious characters like Ali Hassan al-Majid, [aka Chemical Ali], Barzan al-Takriti, who ran the Iraq’s brutal intelligence service, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who governed northern Iraq during chemical weapon attacks in the Kurds, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash [aka Mrs. Anthrax], who was a member of Saddam’s Baathist National Command.

Clinton offered praise for Saddam’s lieutenants during the same speech where he criticized the U.S. invasion of Iraq as “a big mistake.”

This would be his staff:

Ali Hasan al-Majid: member of the Revolutionary Command Council, 1988-present; Minister of Interior, 1991 (March thru November); Minister of Defense, 1991-1995.

Abid Hamid Mahmud: Presidential Secretary, 1992-present.

Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri: Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, 1979-present.

Tariq Aziz: Deputy Prime Minister, 1979-present.

Taha Ramadan: Vice President; First Deputy Prime Minister, 1979.

Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (half-brother of Saddam Hussein): presidential adviser; regime official, 1979-present.

Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti (half-brother of Saddam Hussein): presidential adviser; regime official, 1980-present.

Qusay Hussein (Saddam Hussein’s younger son): oversees all Iraqi intelligence and security services, the Republican Guard, and the Special Republican Guard. In 2001, was named Deputy of Ba’ath Party’s Military Bureau and elected member Ba’ath Regional Command.

Uday Hussein (Saddam Hussein’s older son): editor of Babil newspaper and in control of all Iraqi media; National Assembly member; chairman of Iraq’s Olympic Committee; known for his violent and unstable behavior.

Previous:

The Saddam Trial
Tariq Aziz Making A Deal

Curt

See author page