USA considers lynching Saddam Hussein

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Boston Globe, Aug. 1, 2003

US debates bid to kill Hussein and avoid trial

By Bryan Bender

WASHINGTON -- Senior Bush administration officials are debating whether
to order military commanders to kill rather than capture Saddam Hussein
to avoid an unpredictable trial that could stir up nationalist Arab
sentiments and embarrass Washington by publicizing past US support for
the deposed Iraqi dictator, according to defense and intelligence
officials.

Trying Hussein before an Iraqi or international criminal court would
present an opportunity to hold the Ba'ath Party regime accountable for
its repression and murder of thousands of people over the past three
decades.

Iraq's new US-backed Governing Council said this week it wants to try
Hussein in an Iraqi court, something the occupation authority there has
said it supports. The New York Times, citing unnamed State Department
officials, reported today that the administration favors creating a
tribunal of Iraqi judges to try Hussein for crimes against humanity if
he is caught.

But as US troops step up the hunt for Hussein near his hometown of
Tikrit, the prospect of an open trial that puts him on a public stage
has given pause to some in the administration, according to government
officials with knowledge of the high-level meetings. Among those said to
have taken part in the discussions are Vice President Dick Cheney and
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.

One of the officials, who is involved in the Iraq reconstruction effort,
described at least one of the leaders as having ''mixed feelings'' about
whether to kill or capture Hussein.

Cheney, whose office would not comment on the issue last night, and
senior Bush advisers are said to worry that a trial would be a spectacle
in which Hussein could tap into Arab anxieties about the American
occupation, try to implicate the United States for previously coddling
the regime, and assert Iraq's compliance with United Nations resolutions
outlawing weapons of mass destruction -- measures that the
administration says gave legal justification for the war.

full:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/213/nation/US_debates_bid_to_kill_Hussein_and_avoid_trial+.shtml

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