Red Cross visits Saddam Hussein

BBC News ^ | 2/21/04

[areafiftyone]

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has visited imprisoned former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for the first time.

Spokesman Nada Dumani said two ICRC officials, including a doctor, visited him on Saturday and hope to conduct further visits.

They carried out a physical and mental evaluation of the former president, who is in US custody in Iraq.

They also took a letter from Saddam Hussein for his family.

[cake_crumb]

Where are the obligatory "The US is treating the Former President of Iraq in a shameful and illegal manner. We demand that President Hussein be restored to his former position, post haste!"

Incoming. Bet on it.

[PoisedWoman]

They evaluated this madman's mental condition? They'll blame GWB for Saddam's insanity now.

The letter to family members bothers me. Which family members? His extended web of cousins and other "family" is busy blowing up US soldiers in Baghdad and Tikrit. This note could contain a map to buried billions, ammo, or even the WMD. Let's hope some US code experts read it before it left the jail.

[Wheee The People]

There seem to be some people on this thread that object to the Red Cross seeing Saddam. The Red Cross wastes a lot of money and I don't donate to 'em. BUT they are the international group that might get access to captured Americans in time of conflict or war. They have some quasi status under the Geneva convention if I recall correctly. This includes the delivery of letters to family.

So the mocking of the Ross Cross, for this effort, seems out of place, giving that others could someday limit their access to our troops. Knock the Read Cross for legitimate reasons, not for visiting prisoners of war, which Saddam currently is classified as.

[Cap Huff]

I agree with you on this one. I do not agree with some that the Red Cross does, and I also do not contribute to them given the questionable financing, but I do have a different view of them regarding POWs. My dad was a POW in WWII and he often mentioned how the Red Cross parcels he received was the difference between life and death for him. I probably would not now be typing this had the Red Cross not contributed much to keeping the future father of Cap Huff alive.

[Jeff Gordon Fan]

They carried out a physical and mental evaluation of the former president, who is in US custody in Iraq.

Don't they mean cruel dictator instead of president?

[cake_crumb]

I don't see how it can be considered news though - unless to be used as yet another club with which to bash the president and lose the war on terror - which Iraq is an intrinsic part of.

[concerned about politics]

Did they remember to give them a "tolerance" brochure?
Did they ask him donate blood as a $400 donation?
Did they teach him about the glories of aborting children?
Did they explain the evil of guns, and why the world should remove them?

If they forgot, they're slipping.

[concerned about politics]

The letter to family members bothers me. Which family members?

Dear cousin Mohammad,

Dig out the bios and release them .

Thanks and Praise Allah,
Saddam.

[concerned about politics]

My dad was a POW in WWII and he often mentioned how the Red Cross parcels he received was the difference between life and death for him.

That was the old Red Cross. Today, it's the New and Improved PC Red Cross. They perform social engineering now. The blood is simply a $400 donation.

[Let's Roll]

They can call him president if they want ... at my house we call him "wood-chipper boy".

[Cap Huff]

Yes, I know that there is a great difference between then and now. I gave up contributing to them years ago (I used to do so out of a sense of gratitude for what Dad experienced).

Nevertheless, I do think that in a POW situation the Red Cross would continue to do whatever it could for our military. Its just that today our enemies don't even come close to the Nazi's in terms of some semblance of humanity. The Nazi's at least let the parcels go through, and Dad was able to receive some letters from home.

[sheik yerbouty]

It's more the Red Crescent now.

[Moonman62]

Don't they mean cruel dictator instead of president?

I wonder if they refer to Hitler as the former Chancellor of Germany.

[Lijahsbubbe]

Its just that today our enemies don't even come close to the Nazi's in terms of some semblance of humanity. The Nazi's at least let the parcels go through,

Same evil, different day.

[FairOpinion]

"Where was the Red Cross when all the Iraqi's were being murdered by Saddam?"

==

EXACTLY!!!

Where was the Red Cross, when the Taliban were murdering their people in Afghanistan?

And is the Red Cross visiting the jailed prisoners in Iran, which the Mullah's arrest and probably murder?

Is the Red Cross visiting the political prisoners of Castro?

Is the Red Cross paying attention to the concentration camps in N. Korea?

Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag

http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,1136483,00.html

[Libertina]

Sadly, the Red CRoss then and the Red cross now are two diferent entities... Just as education then and now are different. I remember the shameful way they used September 11th donations. Bu I am glad they made such a difference in your dear father's life!

[FairOpinion]

A terrible thought just struck me.

Considering how the Red Cross cannot be trusted, they may well deliberately or accidentally reveal Saddam's location, and the terrorists and Baathists may try to attack and free him.

Can you imagine how terrible it would be to lose him now?!

[FairOpinion]

Now the RED in the Red Cross stands for communism, not for blood, and the CROSS part is being ignored.

[Libertina]

Excellent observation, FairOpinion.

[Spottys Spurs]

"Where was the Red Cross when all the Iraqi's were being murdered by Saddam?"

EXACTLY! This is pure crap!!