Posted on 11/23/2004 10:31:48 AM PST by UpHereEh
Amman, Jordan - Members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime are considering suing the Bush administration in the World Court for alleged war crimes in Iraq, the chief of the former dictator's legal team said on Monday.
Ziad al-Khasawneh told The Associated Press that Saddam's Jordan-based defence team could not initiate legal action on its own against the US government in the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands, because the tribunal refuses to hear any individual cases.
"Since the World Court doesn't accept cases from individuals, the lawsuit could be filed on behalf of members of President Saddam's government," al-Khasawneh said.
He declined to identify any former Iraqi officials who might bring such a suit, or say if they were in Iraq or abroad.
It was not immediately clear if the lawsuit - if it were filed - would create a legal precedent or whether the World Court has heard cases previously from toppled governments.
"We are toying with the idea of filing the lawsuit," said al-Khasawneh, who heads the legal team appointed by Saddam's wife, Sajida.
'Illegal'
He said the latest American incursion into the troubled city of Fallujah, including the killing of an apparently unarmed and wounded Iraqi by a US marine at a mosque, was "one of scores of examples of American atrocities".
Al-Khasawneh said the legal team was also encouraged by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statements describing Iraq's invasion as "illegal".
In September, Annan told BBC television that the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 "was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view. From the charter point of view, it was illegal".
The legal team has enlisted an unspecified number of attorneys from the United States, Britain and France to assist in the possible lawsuit, al-Khasawneh said.
He said there were no lawyers from Arab countries, apparently because of sensitivity by Arab governments.
Jordanian government officials were not immediately available to comment.
Jordan, a key Arab ally of the United States that currently chairs the International Criminal Court, has turned down several American requests this year to extend immunity to American peacekeepers against prosecution for war crimes.
But government officials have said privately that Jordan has promised to avoid taking action against the peacekeepers.
F--- off, Socialist jerks.
Note to tyrannical terrorist jackwits: we aren't subject to the World Court.
But if you want to be, that's fine. We know what you did under Saddam's rule.
I vote we put panties on their heads; line then up; and then shoot them.
F em all.
--Boris
WE don't recognize any stinking "world court" populated by "judges" from such bastions of democracy and freedom like Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Nice try, Mussa. Won't work.
Good.
The United States of America does not recognize this kangaroo court. It's for socialist vermin States and defense teams delaying justice for ruthless facist dictators.
Works for me.
And I am thinking about suing them in the "Court of Graybeard"
It will have the same effect.
Saddam's people will soon have their hands full with their own people trying them in court.
Someone has to say it: BRING IT ON!!!
Cool! Then we can mock both of them for being pathetically irrelevant at the same time! :-P~ Neener. Neener.
Sure.
And just which one of you is going to come and get GWB?
Posturing, posturing, posturing.
And guess what? They can get the big raspberry because we don't care.
Actually, he's close. The invasion wasn't "illegal", it was "extra-legal". Thats what war is. When law, treaties, diplomacy, and common sense are insufficient to contain a conflict, you are in a state of war. You have by definition found yourself beyond law.
Declarations of War are out of fashion these days, they are issued couched in terms so guarded as to cloud their meaning. But they are important. A Declaration of War is public recognition of your actual condition; you are announcing to the world that you are in an extra-legal condition, and will be taking action accordingly. We sometimes refer to this as a state of emergency, a state of exception, but these are softer ways of saying the same thing.
The primary purpose of war is the return to the rule of law and reason. You pave the way by taking direct action againsts individuals or regimes who refuse to be so bound. Once they have been destroyed, and once their followers have become convinced that law and reason are preferable to the alternative, war ends.
Kofi Annan must exercise some discretion and humility. His organization is implicated in corruption and criminality in Iraq, his own actions in Rwanda are worthy of suspicion, and his organization is guilty of criminal acts in the Congo. I would favor an investigation of his personal finances, and I would favor an investigation of the actual performance of his organization across the board.
Ok. Try us, convict us, sentence us......then come try and get us.
Bunch of morons
ROFLMAO!! Let them try!
..but only SHOOT them after making them play a little game called 'Possum'....
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