Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 30, 2008 By Stephen Farrell
BAGHDAD — Tariq Aziz, who for years was the public diplomatic face of Saddam Hussein’s government, went on trial in Baghdad on Tuesday, facing charges over the execution of Iraqi merchants during the Baathist era.
Mr. Aziz, 72, who was deputy prime minister under Mr. Hussein, looked frail as he entered the court carrying a walking stick. It was the first time he has appeared to answer charges since he surrendered to American forces on April 24, 2003, two weeks after Baghdad fell to American forces.
The case centers on the execution in 1992 of more than 40 Iraqi merchants who were accused by the government of price-gouging in violation of strict state controls during the time when Iraq was subject to United Nations sanctions.
If convicted, Mr. Aziz faces the death penalty. Among the other defendants are Mr. Hussein’s half-brother Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who is known as Chemical Ali.
Mr. Majid did not attend on Tuesday because of ill health after suffering a heart attack in custody. He has already been sentenced to death in another case for war crimes over his involvement in killing tens of thousands of Kurds, some by poison gas. Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman adjourned Tuesday’s hearing until May 20, citing Mr. Majid’s absence.
Speaking from Jordan by telephone, one of Mr. Aziz’s lawyers, Badie Arif, said: “It is not a solid case. They don’t even have enough to bring him to trial in the first place.”
Mr. Aziz was born in Mosul into a Chaldean Christian, Arab family, and later changed his name from Mikhail Yuhanna. He graduated from Baghdad University.
He lived in a magnificent villa on the banks of the Tigris River, in which looters found boxes of his trademark Romeo y Julieta “Churchill” cigars, bottles of Chivas Regal Scotch whiskey, Pierre Cardin shoes and books including biographies of Mr. Hussein and Colin Powell, and “Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management.”
The house is now headquarters of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a Shiite Islamist party that was one of Mr. Hussein’s principal internal foes and is now a significant force in the country’s Shiite-led government.
Elsewhere in Baghdad on Tuesday, heavy fighting erupted in the Shiite district of Sadr City as American and Iraqi troops continued efforts to curb rocket and mortar attacks on the capital’s fortified Green Zone. Many of these are launched from nearby Sadr City, a stronghold of the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.
The American military said it killed 28 gunmen during one prolonged clash on Tuesday morning, after a patrol was attacked with small arms, roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. A military statement said American troops had fought back, using rocket launchers.
Doctors in Sadr City hospitals said they had received the bodies of 21 people, including women and children, Reuters reported.
In the central province of Diyala, the police in Balad Ruz said they had found the bullet-riddled corpses of six academics who were kidnapped last week. Their families had paid $15,000 each, but the kidnappers still executed the hostages, Iraqi security officials said.
April 30, 2008 By Stephen Farrell
BAGHDAD — Tariq Aziz, who for years was the public diplomatic face of Saddam Hussein’s government, went on trial in Baghdad on Tuesday, facing charges over the execution of Iraqi merchants during the Baathist era.
Mr. Aziz, 72, who was deputy prime minister under Mr. Hussein, looked frail as he entered the court carrying a walking stick. It was the first time he has appeared to answer charges since he surrendered to American forces on April 24, 2003, two weeks after Baghdad fell to American forces.
The case centers on the execution in 1992 of more than 40 Iraqi merchants who were accused by the government of price-gouging in violation of strict state controls during the time when Iraq was subject to United Nations sanctions.
If convicted, Mr. Aziz faces the death penalty. Among the other defendants are Mr. Hussein’s half-brother Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who is known as Chemical Ali.
Mr. Majid did not attend on Tuesday because of ill health after suffering a heart attack in custody. He has already been sentenced to death in another case for war crimes over his involvement in killing tens of thousands of Kurds, some by poison gas. Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman adjourned Tuesday’s hearing until May 20, citing Mr. Majid’s absence.
Speaking from Jordan by telephone, one of Mr. Aziz’s lawyers, Badie Arif, said: “It is not a solid case. They don’t even have enough to bring him to trial in the first place.”
Mr. Aziz was born in Mosul into a Chaldean Christian, Arab family, and later changed his name from Mikhail Yuhanna. He graduated from Baghdad University.
He lived in a magnificent villa on the banks of the Tigris River, in which looters found boxes of his trademark Romeo y Julieta “Churchill” cigars, bottles of Chivas Regal Scotch whiskey, Pierre Cardin shoes and books including biographies of Mr. Hussein and Colin Powell, and “Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management.”
The house is now headquarters of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a Shiite Islamist party that was one of Mr. Hussein’s principal internal foes and is now a significant force in the country’s Shiite-led government.
Elsewhere in Baghdad on Tuesday, heavy fighting erupted in the Shiite district of Sadr City as American and Iraqi troops continued efforts to curb rocket and mortar attacks on the capital’s fortified Green Zone. Many of these are launched from nearby Sadr City, a stronghold of the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.
The American military said it killed 28 gunmen during one prolonged clash on Tuesday morning, after a patrol was attacked with small arms, roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. A military statement said American troops had fought back, using rocket launchers.
Doctors in Sadr City hospitals said they had received the bodies of 21 people, including women and children, Reuters reported.
In the central province of Diyala, the police in Balad Ruz said they had found the bullet-riddled corpses of six academics who were kidnapped last week. Their families had paid $15,000 each, but the kidnappers still executed the hostages, Iraqi security officials said.