Posted on 12/05/2005 10:39:05 AM PST by Ben Mugged
Men and women were tortured for days and babies left to die in an interrogation facility which featured a meat grinder for human flesh, the first prosecution witness to face Saddam Hussein told the court on Monday.
After weeks of delay and legal arguments over security and the legitimacy of the court, the trial of Saddam and seven co- defendants on charges of crimes against humanity heard confusing but graphic witness evidence of torture and summary execution.
"I swear by God I walked by a room and on my left I saw a grinder with blood coming out of it and human hair underneath," said 38-year-old Ahmed Hassan, who said he had been kept in room 63 at the Hakmiya intelligence headquarters in Baghdad.
Hassan, the first witness to face Saddam in court, said he was 15 when Saddam visited the village in July 1982 and Shi'ite militants tried to assassinate him.
Speaking technically as an individual plaintiff alongside the state, which is pressing charges of crimes against humanity, Hassan said he and his family were among hundreds of people rounded up in a security operation run by Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti after an attempt on Saddam's life in the village.
Barzan, one of Saddam's three younger half-brothers and the former head of the feared Mukhabarat intelligence service, is one of Saddam's seven co-accused in the case relating to the killings of 148 mostly Shi'ite Muslim men from Dujail.
"Barzan was present. He had red cowboy boots and blue jeans and a sniper rifle," Hassan, a stockily built worker with a round face and a graying beard, told the heavily fortified court in central Baghdad.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Where is the MSM to denounce torture??
Why don't we end the trial tomorrow, and then take Saddam out back and put HIM through the grinder. Bastard.
It's about time this stuff comes out.
I hope they convict him and execute him. That will send a strong message both to Iraqi citizens and the terrorists. If they do anything less, the message will be one of weakness to Iraqi citizens, and encouragement to the terrorists.
You know the drill...
I guess Ramsey Clark got a stiffy when he heard this.
According to a correspondent on CNN this morning those are alleged deaths.
I kid you not.
But according to some dems, Iraq was better off under Saddam. May they rot in h*ll.
And this is the man that John Kerry and the deomocrats would have permitted to stay in power.
Finally, something from the Saddam side that I can support.
We should remember that Democrats who opposed the war are basically saying that they do not have any problem with this or with this continuing to this very day.
Amazing. I'd missed that one, maybe a good thing for my blood pressure, which I'm sure is now off the charts.
I saw women being tortured," he said.
"My brother was given electric shocks while my 77-year-old father watched,"
a woman told a guard that her infant baby needed milk or he would die.
"He died and the guard threw him from the window," Hassan told the court.
"Pregnant women gave birth in the prison. Their babies died."
Hassan, the first witness to face Saddam in court, said he was 15 when Saddam visited the village in July 1982 and Shi'ite militants tried to assassinate him.
Hope and Pray that Saddam burns in hell for the rest of eternity....
Remember boys and girls - Iraq is worse off because Saddam is out of power.
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