Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
December 20, 2006
Pg. 16
By Marc Santora
BAGHDAD, Dec. 19 — Images of villagers dying from what prosecutors said was a chemical attack on Kurds were shown here on Tuesday at the trial of Saddam Hussein.
Mr. Hussein is facing charges of genocide in connection with the deaths of 50,000 Kurds in a campaign that ultimately killed 180,000 Kurds in the 1980s. He has already been convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the killing of 148 Shiites.
The images shown by prosecutors were some of the most graphic evidence presented against Mr. Hussein to date. Shot in April 1987 and May 1988, the videotape shows attack helicopters flying low over the mountains as villagers scatter, some in trucks, others on foot. Women cluster near tents, crying as white smoke gathers.
The aftermath of the chemical attacks was seen in videotape that showed bodies frozen in death, including a baby, mouth open.
“Where are the terrorists they wanted to kill?” a prosecutor, Munqith al-Faroon, asked the court.
The prosecutors sought to bolster the emotional images by presenting what they said were internal government memos that showed that the attacks were directed by top government officials.
The defense maintains that rather than trying to systematically purge the area of Kurds, the government was conducting a legitimate military operation against separatists who threatened the government while Iraq was at war with Iran.
Mr. Hussein, who appeared in court with his six co-defendants, was largely quiet during the session.
Elsewhere in Baghdad on Tuesday, violence outside the Green Zone, the seat of administrative power, continued to seethe. Fifty-one bodies, many apparently killed execution-style, were collected from the streets of the capital. Among them was a prominent Iraqi actor, according to an Iraqi official.
Gunmen wearing police uniforms hijacked a payroll delivery for a government ministry, getting away with the equivalent of $875,000.
In Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, there was growing tension over the death of a prominent sheik, Muhsen al-Kanan, who was killed five days ago by men wearing police uniforms. On Monday and Tuesday, gunfire could be heard erupting across the city through the night.
In Baquba, in the north, 12 bodies, including those of two women, were found Tuesday.
A United States marine died Tuesday from wounds he had received while fighting in Anbar Province, the heart of the Sunni insurgency, the American military said.
December 20, 2006
Pg. 16
By Marc Santora
BAGHDAD, Dec. 19 — Images of villagers dying from what prosecutors said was a chemical attack on Kurds were shown here on Tuesday at the trial of Saddam Hussein.
Mr. Hussein is facing charges of genocide in connection with the deaths of 50,000 Kurds in a campaign that ultimately killed 180,000 Kurds in the 1980s. He has already been convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the killing of 148 Shiites.
The images shown by prosecutors were some of the most graphic evidence presented against Mr. Hussein to date. Shot in April 1987 and May 1988, the videotape shows attack helicopters flying low over the mountains as villagers scatter, some in trucks, others on foot. Women cluster near tents, crying as white smoke gathers.
The aftermath of the chemical attacks was seen in videotape that showed bodies frozen in death, including a baby, mouth open.
“Where are the terrorists they wanted to kill?” a prosecutor, Munqith al-Faroon, asked the court.
The prosecutors sought to bolster the emotional images by presenting what they said were internal government memos that showed that the attacks were directed by top government officials.
The defense maintains that rather than trying to systematically purge the area of Kurds, the government was conducting a legitimate military operation against separatists who threatened the government while Iraq was at war with Iran.
Mr. Hussein, who appeared in court with his six co-defendants, was largely quiet during the session.
Elsewhere in Baghdad on Tuesday, violence outside the Green Zone, the seat of administrative power, continued to seethe. Fifty-one bodies, many apparently killed execution-style, were collected from the streets of the capital. Among them was a prominent Iraqi actor, according to an Iraqi official.
Gunmen wearing police uniforms hijacked a payroll delivery for a government ministry, getting away with the equivalent of $875,000.
In Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, there was growing tension over the death of a prominent sheik, Muhsen al-Kanan, who was killed five days ago by men wearing police uniforms. On Monday and Tuesday, gunfire could be heard erupting across the city through the night.
In Baquba, in the north, 12 bodies, including those of two women, were found Tuesday.
A United States marine died Tuesday from wounds he had received while fighting in Anbar Province, the heart of the Sunni insurgency, the American military said.