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Witness: 'You are in a cage, Saddam'
Associated Press ^ | 09/12/06 | QAIS AL-BASHIR

Posted on 09/12/2006 7:05:26 AM PDT by presidio9

A Kurdish villager testified Tuesday he left behind his mother and two sisters as he fled a 1988 attack by Saddam Hussein's forces. Years later, his relatives' identity cards were found in a mass grave, he said.

"Congratulations! You are in a cage, Saddam," witness Ghafour Hassan Abdullah said as he stared at the ousted president.

Saddam listened silently but lost his temper when a lawyer described Iraqi Kurdish rebels as freedom fighters. "You are agents of Iran and Zionism! We will crush your heads!" he shouted.

Saddam and six others are on trial for their roles in the 1987-88 campaign known as Operation Anfal, launched after a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq during the final stages of the 1980-88 war with Iran. If convicted, the defendants could face death by hanging.

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday after the court heard four witnesses who implicated Saddam and his forces in gassing the Kurds and conducting mass arrests and killings of civilians.

Abdullah, 29, told the court that Iraqi planes gave cover to advancing ground troops, who shelled his village and other Kurdish communities in February 1988.

"At night, I heard the screaming of women and children," he said. He said he fled to neighboring Iran, but that his mother and two sisters went missing. Years later, their ID cards were found in a mass grave near Hatra, he said.

Before the judge cut off his microphone, Saddam has insisted that the crackdown was directed against Kurdish guerrillas who were allied with Iran, said that "in any country in the world where there is rebellion, the authorities ask the army to defeat it."

The prosecution demanded that Saddam's statement be considered a confession, a request noted by the presiding judge.

During the session, Saddam also demanded "neutral" experts who were not Americans examine the identities of the witnesses and the bodies of people allegedly found in mass graves.

Tuesday's session is the fifth since Saddam's trial on genocide charges opened on Aug. 21.

Abdullah demanded compensation for the loss of his family and asked rhetorically why the Kurds, a non-Arab minority, were suppressed under Saddam's regime.

"Why? Because we are Kurds. Why did all disasters befall on us? Because we are Kurds," he said.

Another witness, Kurdish farmer Mahmoud Hama Aziz, said he lost a brother in fighting with Iraqi forces in 1987, months before their village was razed. Iraqi forces "stole everything in the village, then burned it down," he said.

Aziz said he fled with two friends to the Iranian border, leaving behind a sister-in-law and her five children who later disappeared. In 2004, he identified bodies of four of them found in a mass grave in northern Iraq.

A third witness, Omar Khudhir Mohammed Amin, 53, said he lost 19 members of his family — including his four brothers and sisters and their children — in the offensive.

On Monday, Saddam accused Kurdish witnesses of trying to create ethnic divisions by alleging chemical attacks and mass arrests in their villages during the Anfal crackdown, which the prosecution says claimed up to 180,000 lives.

Saddam is awaiting an October verdict in the first case against him — the nine-month trial in the killings of 148 Shiites in Dujail. He and seven co-defendants also could face the death penalty in that case.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: crushyourhead; diealready; pleasediesoon
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1 posted on 09/12/2006 7:05:29 AM PDT by presidio9
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To: presidio9

For crying out loud, when is he going to get his neck stretched?


2 posted on 09/12/2006 7:08:06 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0
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To: presidio9

When will this trial ever end? I'm ready for these poor people to get their justice and for Saddam to go to hell, where he belongs.


3 posted on 09/12/2006 7:08:35 AM PDT by demkicker (democrats and terrorists are intimate bedfellows)
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To: presidio9
Saddam listened silently but lost his temper when a lawyer described Iraqi Kurdish rebels as freedom fighters. "You are agents of Iran and Zionism! We will crush your heads!" he shouted.

Yeah, like Iran and Israel are buddies...
4 posted on 09/12/2006 7:09:54 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: demkicker

Even OJ Simpson is going "this is a long-a$$ trial."


5 posted on 09/12/2006 7:09:57 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: ConservativeMind
Saddam listened silently but lost his temper when a lawyer described Iraqi Kurdish rebels as freedom fighters. "You are agents of Iran and Zionism! We will crush your heads!" he shouted.

Did he make the little finger pinching movement when he said this??
6 posted on 09/12/2006 7:14:37 AM PDT by Diggler (American Infidel)
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To: presidio9
We will crush your heads!

I wish I knew how to post a freakin' picture here. A link is the best I can do (reference to Kids in the Hall): http://2flower.250free.com/deancrush.jpg
7 posted on 09/12/2006 7:15:03 AM PDT by RedCell ("...thou shalt kill thine enemy before he killeth you by any means available" - Dick Marcinko)
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To: RedCell
I do believe I have found a new tag.
8 posted on 09/12/2006 7:17:39 AM PDT by -=SoylentSquirrel=- ("You are agents of Iran and Zionism! We will crush your heads!")
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To: RedCell
I wish I knew how to post a freakin' picture here. A link is the best I can do (reference to Kids in the Hall): http://2flower.250free.com/deancrush.jpg

To post a picture, just enter the info in this format: <img src="http://www.website.com/image.jpg">

So, for your picture, you would enter: <img src="http://2flower.250free.com/deancrush.jpg">

...which gives you this:


9 posted on 09/12/2006 7:18:45 AM PDT by TChris (Banning DDT wasn't about birds. It was about power.)
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To: presidio9

The problems in Iraq will not end till Saddam is dead.

Top priority must be given to his execution. How many Iraqi's must die in the meantime?


10 posted on 09/12/2006 7:20:29 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. Slay Pinch)
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To: TChris

That's it? Easy-peasy. Thanks for the info. I'm so oblivious to HTML it's pathetic.

Cheers!


11 posted on 09/12/2006 7:31:00 AM PDT by RedCell ("...thou shalt kill thine enemy before he killeth you by any means available" - Dick Marcinko)
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To: presidio9

It is fascinating what a total yawn this is for our media.

This dictator drops chemical weapons on a domestic population and we are having a yelling match with our president about how wrong it was to take him out.

Wow!

It is breathtaking. Saddam's defense secretary described his chemical arsenal as human insecticides.

But please Media, don't interrupt your scapegoat Bush fest for the trial of such a despicable human being for which the President fully articulated as an IMPORTANT justification to the Iraq war which is now completely ignored.

thanks for posting this.


12 posted on 09/12/2006 7:32:18 AM PDT by lonestar67
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To: Diggler; RedCell

13 posted on 09/12/2006 7:34:28 AM PDT by eyespysomething (http://crumbsandfun.blogspot.com/2006/09/ana-centeno-tribute.html)
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To: lonestar67
And Schumer is saying that Iraq was better off with Saddam running it.
SPIT
14 posted on 09/12/2006 7:44:07 AM PDT by daybreakcoming
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To: presidio9

Bonk bonk on the head...bonk bonk.


15 posted on 09/12/2006 8:05:27 AM PDT by Tinman93
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To: lonestar67
thanks for posting this.

We aim to please.

16 posted on 09/12/2006 8:06:34 AM PDT by presidio9 (“The term ‘civilians’ does not exist in Islamic religious law.”)
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To: eyespysomething


(Hopefully this comes out right)
17 posted on 09/12/2006 8:09:00 AM PDT by RedCell ("...thou shalt kill thine enemy before he killeth you by any means available" - Dick Marcinko)
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To: RedCell; TChris

Yeah!


18 posted on 09/12/2006 8:09:53 AM PDT by RedCell ("...thou shalt kill thine enemy before he killeth you by any means available" - Dick Marcinko)
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To: TChris

You do realize, of course, that you've just created a monster! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA


19 posted on 09/12/2006 8:10:32 AM PDT by RedCell ("...thou shalt kill thine enemy before he killeth you by any means available" - Dick Marcinko)
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To: RedCell
You do realize, of course, that you've just created a monster! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I can only imagine what utter chaos will ensue when you discover the <font> tag!

20 posted on 09/12/2006 8:15:32 AM PDT by TChris (Banning DDT wasn't about birds. It was about power.)
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