HANDED OVER TO HIS ‘DOOM'

NY Post ^ | January 26, 2003 | BRAD HUNTER

[Norman Arbuthnot]

An Iraqi man ran to U.N. officials in Baghdad yesterday, begging them, "Save me!"

But the multinational troops dragged the desperate man away and turned him over to Saddam Hussein's security police, leaving him to face an uncertain fate.

The incident was just one of several troubling developments in Iraq as the drums of war continued to beat.

[Norman Arbuthnot]

But the multinational troops dragged the desperate man away and turned him over to Saddam Hussein's security police, leaving him to face an uncertain fate.

Uncertain fate?!? If this poor SOB is still alive it is only because Saddam and Sons want to torture him.

[Cindy]

No uncertain fate...no wonder the Iraqi scientists won't talk.

[Jeff Chandler]

Tick, tick, tick...

[mvonfr]

No uncertain fate...

Uncertain fate is correct; there are many different ways to torture and kill a man.

[DakotaGator]

Iraq maintains it's doing everything it can to "encourage" the scientists but says they are refusing because of fears their information could be distorted.

No. They fear their bodies will be distorted!

[FairOpinion]

...the U.N. handed him to Iraq troops,...
----

Add the UN to the Axis of Evil.
How can those inspectors sleep at night, knowing that they are responsible for whatever happened to that poor man, who foolishly thought the UN can be trusted.

[Travis McGee]

The entire so-called inspection regime is such a disgusting joke.

As if these scientists could ever give up their secrets to inspectors who turn a man screaming "save me!" back over to the Iraqi secret police!

[FairOpinion]

Uncertain fate is correct; there are many different ways to torture and kill a man.
----
"The document listed Saddam's favoured methods of torture.

They included eye-gouging, piercing of hands with an electric drill, suspension from a ceiling, electric shock, rape and other forms of sexual abuse, beating of the soles of feet, mock executions, extinguishing cigarettes on the body and acid baths."

From CNN article talking about the document released by the UK about Saddam's tortures and human rights abuses.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/12/02/sproject.irq.dossier/

[hotpotato]

They didn't turn him over to the Iraquis. The Iraquis dragged the poor man from the UN vehicle. There is absolutely nothing the inspectors can do about it. They are not there to take in refugees. And they don't have a military to back them up were they to offer refuge to anyone. It was very sad but what the incident did do was to serve as an example to the world what lies behind the Iraq borders for those poor people. Not likely we will ever know what happened to him but what we witnessed made a huge statement. I only hope the anti-war protesters were watching. Did anyone notice if it was played on the big three networks (saw it on CNN, MSNBC and FOX).

[FairOpinion]

And here is the actual dossier about Saddam's human rights violations, calling it that is the understatement of the century.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/02/uk_human_rights_dossier_on_iraq/pdf/iraq_human_rights.pdf
excerpts:

Prisoners are beaten twice a day and the women
regularly raped by their guards. They receive no
medical treatment, but some prisoners have
survived up to a year in the “Mahjar”.

“At first they put me in a compressed room less than one metre high and with the same width.

The prisoners here are kept in rows
of rectangular steel boxes, as found in mortuaries,
until they either confess to their crimes or die.
There are around 100-150 boxes which are
opened for half an hour a day to allow the
prisoners some light and air. The prisoners
receive only liquids.

In sector four (of the prison) they have ten rooms, all painted pitch black. Once there, you could
see nothing and would not know whether it was night or day. For there were no lights in those
rooms. You could hear nothing. The rooms were infested with large numbers of lice and rats.
I spent about eight months in those rooms

50-60 metal boxes the size of old tea chests in
which detainees are locked under the same
conditions as the “Sijn Al-Tarbut”. Each box has
a tap for water and a floor made of mesh to allow
the detainees to defecate.

In early 1998, the Iraqi regime obstructed a UN
weapons inspection team which was trying to
investigate claims that Iraq had conducted
biological weapons experiments on prisoners
during the mid-1990s.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..but then, the U.N. inspectors shockingly turned over the young man to Iraqi police - the people he was running from. Last night, the fate of both men was unclear....

Gutless UN yellowbellies.

By their own code, they should be in front of the International Court of Justice, and charged with human rights abuses for those disgusting acts of cowardice.

[FairOpinion]

"The Iraquis dragged the poor man from the UN vehicle."
---

That's what I thought at first, but then in several articles they said specifically that the UN security did it. Note also that yes, indeed the UN compound can provide asylum. This happened right in front of the compound -- they could have easily had the guy get inside, before the Iraqi soldiers got there, and instead, they turned him over to them. Here is an excerpt from an article, posted on a related thread, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/829283/posts ,see post #43.

"U.N. security arrived and, with Iraqi police, carried the man by his feet and arms into the fenced compound, the witnesses said. Ueki said the man was turned over to Iraqi authorities at a government office adjacent to the compound, but the spokesman had no further comment on the man's identity or purpose.

More than 100 inspectors and staff of other U.N. agencies have their offices at the site, the three-story former Canal Hotel, about four miles from the city center.

Such U.N. compounds traditionally provide diplomatic protection to persons seeking asylum."

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...there is absolutely nothing the inspectors can do about it...

Nonsense.

There are times in your life when you have to stand up for principle, regardless of the consequences. This was one of those times, and (just like always) UN personnel choked.

[First Amendment]

Hiro Ueki, a U.N. spokesman confirmed that two scientists refused to be questioned without Iraqi officials present, so the inspectors canceled the interviews.

It's such a stupid charade the UN is carrying out. Any child would know that any scientist who wants to live and his family to live will never tell anything to the UN.

[MHGinTN]

They 'seek' to have private interviews with Iraqi scientists (noodle-spined requests are unbecoming, even in a scavenger hunter). They aid Saddam in putting the fear of torture into any scientist who would presume to speak freely, by tossing a doomed man to the Iraqi torture goons. Yes, the UN inspector regime is forcing the Iraqi dictator's hand ... at least that's what the frogs and schnitzels think. I'm for not telling them when the bombing will start. Let them discover the joys of Saddam's wrath.

[hotpotato]

The articles state it was not the inspectors that turned him over to Iraqis but UN security (whoever makes up UN security, they are not a force put there to start a war with Iraqi security and soldiers, their purpose is to guard the UN compound from the occasional fanatic who may want to harm the inspectors... you know... like the intruder that was caught carrying knives). The guy jumped into the car with the inspector who was startled by a man shouting in Arabic (gee, I dunno, maybe the inspector didn't speak Arabic and has heard about westerners in Muslim states being used for target practice and was afraid he was next and sought help from an Iraqi guard). The photos (as well as videos) I've seen show the inspector in the *passenger* seat, not exactly in a position to drive away to save this guy. I do know I see a *lot* of inconsistencies in what's being reported here on FR. I'm not yet ready to judge the inspectors or their motives. But what I do know is if they are going to get kicked out of Iraq for taking in refugees, it would be preferable were it to be someone from this group:

Taken from one of the articles:

The inspectors have been particularly eager to find Iraqi scientists, engineers or other specialists who may have information about any continuing programs to develop chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, prohibited to Iraq under U.N. resolutions.

War/diplomacy with a sadistic dictator does not make for easy choices.

[happygrl]

How can those inspectors sleep at night...

Don't worry, they do a moral lobotomy on these guys.

[pitinkie]

The UN inspector is in the Drivers seat.

[pitinkie]

OOPss..no hes not sorry.