Posted on 01/16/2004 1:57:20 AM PST by kattracks
Friday, January 16, 2004 Iraq's deposed leader Saddam Hussain will be tried in an Iraqi court by Iraqi judges, senior member of the Iraqi Governing Council Mohammed Bahr Al Oloum said.He criticised the US decision to designate the former Iraqi leader, captured by American forces in December, as a prisoner of war. He said the council has protested the decision.
"He is not a prisoner of war. He is a war criminal," he told Gulf News on the sidelines of a lecture he gave in Bahrain Wednesday night.
"The man was not captured during the war; he was caught after the end of the military operations. Secondly, he is known to have committed the most outrageous crimes against the Iraqi people," Bahr Al Oloum said.
Saddam's trial is an Iraqi affair, he said. The US has no business interfering with that, he said. "We will not accept any foreign interference in this matter. Saddam will be tried by the Iraqi people."
©Gulf News
Saddam's trial is an Iraqi affair, he said. The US has no business interfering with that, he said. "We will not accept any foreign interference in this matter. Saddam will be tried by the Iraqi people."
So we should have left this man who has committed the most outrageous crimes in power? A thank you would have been nice....
He was captured after the end of MAJOR military operations. He was still a wanted fugative and no peace treaty for the war had been signed.
Someone should tell this twit that the two categories "can" overlap.
No! That's not what was meant. Now that Saddam has been captured, the Iraqis want to be the ones to try him, although perhaps prosecution should include Kuwaiti and Iranians prosecutors and judges as well. He committed most of his crimes against Iraqis. I definitely don't think he should be tried by an ICC tribunal. A US prosecution could do for Saddam what the UN tribunal is doing for Milosevich (make him popular again). They are right. Saddam is not a prisoner of war, and for that matter neither are the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Saddam is the former head of state and head of government not an enemy soldier.
It's the lefties that want to confuse the issue. They want anyone captured while engaged in hostilities against the US to be considered "prisoners of war". They want terrorists treated as either ordinary criminals or prisoners of war. They want the Geneva Conventions to apply to Al Qaeda even though Al Qaeda is not a state and is not a signatory party to the Geneva Conventions. Furthermore Al Qaeda violated all the rules of the Geneva Conventions. They don't have a defined system of rank with a chain of command. In a military organization, a surrendering commander can order his subordinates to surrender as POWs. Those who fail to surrender can be captured and held in as criminals. Al Qaeda does not wear uniforms with insignia. They do not carry their weapons openly. They do not refrain from deliberate attacks on civilians, etc. Therefore, the US is well within its rights to not treat captured Al Qaeda as POWs. A POW must be released when a war is over. Al Qaeda detainees continue to be held even though hostilities against the government in the theaters where they were captured have ceased.
Saddam as the former head of a government with which we were at war is not a POW. Also, considering that government dissolved when the US took over Iraqi territory, and hostilities against the Iraqi military are over, we would have to release him right now if he were a POW. I think the US is trying to appease its critics by giving Hussein the treatment that would be required as a POW. It means that the Red Cross will be allowed to independently confirm that he is being treated humanely. The Iraqis are just staking out their claim to have the first shot at prosecuting Saddam, and have him held as a prisoner of state. They are rightly concerned that POW status could lead to his release or exile without a trial and punishment (execution).
Sounds good to me.
I know what he meant, but when he says 'The US has no business interfering with that', it is extremely insulting to a country that has spent billions of dollars and spilt blood to rid their country of Saddam. Somebody frees you then you spit in their face. Not very cool, IMHO.
That makes no sense at all. As soon as I heard that Saddam had been declared a POW, I knew it was the right move. Why? Well, what happens to POW's after the war is over? They don't get tried by the occupying power -- that's against the Geneva Convention. No, they get repatriated. In Saddam's case, that means being delivered into the hands of the Iraqi police. Which is just exactly where he belongs.
I am not arguing that the Iraqi's shouldn't be the ones who punish Saddam, my only issue is him saying the US has 'no business interfering'. Had the US not interferred Saddam would still be in power. So yes, the US should have some say in what happens to Saddam.
Actually, there's nothing in the Geneva Convention preventing POW's being tried for crimes they committed. If a POW murders another POW, or a guard, or he commits some other illegal act, he can be tried. For example, in WWII, a group of American POW's escaped from a camp (which is actually quite legal, under the Geneva Convention). On their way out, they set fire to a German ammunition train. When some of them were re-captured, they were tried for sabotage and executed. The Germans were actually within their legal rights to do so, under the Geneva Convention.
Sure, but no one's talking about trying Saddam for acts he's committed since he was captured. We're talking about trying him for crimes committed while he was head of state and commander in chief of the Iraqi armed forces. By declaring him a POW we then have a perfectly airtight legal justification for turning him over to the Iraqi police instead of the ICC when the time comes. And that's exactly what we want, which is why I think declaring him a POW was a good move.
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