[A-List] US imperialism: Iraq

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

US prepares war crime charges against Saddam's 'dirty dozen'
IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 31 October 2002

WHITE House lawyers are preparing war crimes indictments against Saddam
Hussein, his sons Uday and Qusay, and against Ali Hassan Majeed, the man who
used nerve and mustard gas to kill 5000 Kurdish civilians in 1988.

The "dirty dozen" of the Iraqi dictator's kitchen cabinet are also to be
charged with offences against humanity and genocide. The fate of the core
leadership in Baghdad is a central plank of the US campaign to overthrow
Saddam, strip his military of all weapons of mass destruction and install a
democratic government.

The US administration envisages prosecutions along the lines of the
Nuremberg trials which followed the defeat of Nazi Germany in the second
world war and the international tribunal in The Hague which is trying
Slobodan Milosevic for attempted genocide.

The threat is seen as the next stage in America's escalating psychological
warfare campaign against Baghdad in advance of decisive military action some
time next year. George W Bush met Hans Blix, the UN chief weapons inspector,
in Washington yesterday to discuss implementation of a draft resolution that
would give the inspections team power to disarm Saddam.

At the UN, the United States and France moved closer to agreement on a
security council resolution, with Washington conceding the need to consult
the world body before any attack against Iraq.