Free Republic

Baghdad — For the first time Iraq has joined with Iran in labelling Saddam Hussein and his henchmen as the military aggressors of the 1980-88 war between the two countries and of Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The joint statement, issued Thursday during Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi's historic trip to Iraq, comes as the Shiite Muslim-dominated governments of both countries try to forge better ties following Saddam's ouster two years ago. The former Iraqi dictator, who was captured in December, 2003, is facing charges including killing rival politicians during his 30-year rule, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait in 1990 and...

George Bush and Tony Blair will whoop for joy. A strongly pro-war film has been premiered at the Cannes film festival - and it comes from Iraq. The main part of Hiner Saleem's Kilomètre Zéro, premiered in competition for the Palme D'Or, is set in 1988 against the backdrop of the deaths of thousands of Iraqi Kurds at the hands of Saddam's cousin, "Chemical" Ali Hassan al-Majid. It is framed by scenes of the main characters, now exiled in France, rejoicing at the fall of Baghdad in 2003. "I am against war of any kind," Saleem said. "But we didn't...

Hundreds of thousands of rusty munitions leftovers from the Iran-Iraq war are scattered across the green fields and gentle hills of the two countries' common border. Long ignored, they are now being harvested by insurgents who recycle them into crude but highly deadly bombs to use against U.S. and Iraqi troops. Saddam-era ordnance, repackaged as roadside bombs or bundled together to use in car bomb attacks, has been the leading killer of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Concerned about the growing trend, the military is paying Iraqis thousands of dollars for information about weapons caches.... The military has allocated hundreds of...

HER dusty file was one of hundreds of thousands of documents stacked in a house in a wealthy neighbourhood of Baghdad. Asma Rasheed married a pilot, lived comfortably in the presidential compound of Saddam Hussein and directed a microbiology programme that was not supposed to exist. Rasheed’s light blue folder has emerged from a huge archive seized by forces loyal to Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, which opposed Saddam. The archive — a dark who’s who of Iraq — reveals the tiniest details of blandishments and humiliations by a paranoid regime that shared the Nazis’ obsession...

I can't say this any better than the wonderful Iraqi who blogs as hammorabi.blogspot.com, so I'll just let him speak for himself, and for a substantial number of informed Iraqis: The news from some areas in Iraq indicates that at least thousands of Iranian crossed the border inside Iraq for support to MS [Moqtadah al Sadr] militia and as clandestine agents. The Iraqis now knew very well what the Iranian thugs trying to do inside Iraq. Today alone and only in one point the Iraqi Police arrested at least 40 Iranian sneaked into Iraq with out documents in one coach....

Saddam Could Call CIA in His Defence A report prepared by the top CIA official handling the matter says Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the massacre, and indicates that it was the work of Iranians. Further, the Scott inquiry on the role of the British government has gathered evidence that following the massacre the United States in fact armed Saddam Hussein to counter the Iranians chemicals for chemicals. Few believe that a CIA man would attend a court hearing in Baghdad in defence of Saddam. But in this case the CIA boss has gone public with his evidence, and...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Warheads believed to contain the deadly nerve agent cyclosarin that were found by Polish troops in Iraq date back to Saddam Hussein's war with Iran in the 1980s, authorities said Friday. "Beyond any doubt, the warheads date back to 1980-88 and were used against the Kurds and in the Iraqi-Iranian war," said a statement from the Polish command. Last month, Polish troops in south-central Iraq recovered 17 rockets for a Soviet-era launcher and two mortar rounds filled with chemical substances, said Lt. Col. Robert Strzelecki, a spokesman for the Polish-led force, in a telephone interview from...

The discovery of an Iraqi artillery shell armed with nerve gas has the liberal community and mass media in a panic. The 155mm nerve gas shell was rigged to kill U.S. troops but it failed. U.S. Brig. General Mark Kimmitt confirmed the discovery during a news conference in Baghdad. Yet, the discovery of nerve gas was followed by a second revelation. A second shell, equipped with mustard gas was found two weeks ago. The mustard gas shell identified by the special WMD inspection team in Iraq appears to be one of 550 declared by Saddam to U.N. inspectors during the...

I have heard a lot of grumbling on the left in regards to Donald Rumsfeld being responsible for sending Anthrax to Iraq (along with other nasties) to be used to develop a weapons program. I am well aware of the hegemonic lies about the US arming saddam. I know that while the US did send him some arms between 83 and 88, the total $ amount was the least among all countries who did the same - including Denmark. The above facts are easy to find however, I cannot find any information on the Rummy/Anthrax issue, i am assuming that...

A fourth round of tests conducted on mortar shells found in Iraq 10 days ago by Danish troops has determined that they did not contain chemical weapons, contradicting field tests by British and Danish experts last week. The results of the latest evaluation by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho were announced Sunday by the Danish Army Operational Command. The results mirrored findings late last week by a U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group, which was dispatched to the site in Basra after the British and Danish tests indicated that the shells contained a form of...

The head of Iraq's Interim Governing Council says Iran should be paid reparations for the war that Saddam Hussein waged against it in the 1980s. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim said further discussion was needed to decide what if anything Iraq would pay itself. Iran claims $100bn in reparations for the brutal eight-year war that claimed about one million lives. Mr Hakim's remarks may augur improving Iran-Iraq relations now Saddam Hussein is in custody. The prominent Iraqi is also the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) the most important Shia Muslim party represented on the governing...

TEHRAN (AFP) Sep 22, 2003 Iran marked the anniversary of the outbreak of its long war with Iraq on Monday with a defiant display of military might, showing off its latest ballistic missiles sporting anti-Israeli and anti-US slogans and vowing not to back down to mounting pressure over its nuclear programme. In a military parade kicking off "Sacred Defence Week", seven of the Islamic republic's new Shahab-3 missiles were rolled out on mobile launchers daubed with the slogans "We will crush America under our feet" and "Israel must be wiped off the map". According to a commentary given over loud-speakers...

The history of U.S.-Iran relations for the past 50 years has been plagued by a series of well-intentioned, but ill-advised U.S. policies toward Iran -- all of which later came back to haunt American interests in the Middle East. America needs to break free from this vicious cycle of misguided polices. The solution is to support Iranian students, and the time is now. Iranian students, increasingly joined by the general public, have held demonstrations denouncing the tyranny of the theocracy for the past two days. These spontaneous outcries for freedom are but preludes to plans for countrywide demonstrations against the...

Iran exchanged the bodies of 83 Iraqi soldiers for 45 of its own troops killed during its 1980-1988 war with Iraq, in the first such transaction since before the US-led war on Baghdad, the official IRNA news agency reported. The remains were exchanged by the International Committee of the Red Cross at Shalamsheh border post, 10 kilometers (six miles) east of Iraq's southern port of Basra, the head of the search committee for missing soldiers, Mir-Feysal Baqerzadeh, told IRNA. Press reports said Tehran recently refused a British offer to return the remains of dozens of Iranians found in southern Iraq,...

Nizar Khazraji, a prominent Iraqi general who defected to the West, was assassinated Monday on his way to attend a U.S.-called meeting of opposition groups in the southern city of Nassiriya. Khazraji was sometimes mentioned as a possible successor to Saddam Hussein. In February last year, London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat quoted opposition sources in Syria as saying the US had chosen Khazraji to run Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam. The CIA was reported to have helped him escape to Kuwait from house arrest in Denmark, where prosecutors were investigating his alleged role in gas attacks on the Iraqi Kurds....

Iran Warns U.S., Britain Over Fate of POWs in Iraq 6 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will hold U.S. and British forces responsible for the well-being of any Iranian prisoners of war who might still be in Iraqi jails from the 1980-88 conflict, the official IRNA news agency said on Sunday. The head of Iran's Committee for Searching for the Missing in Action said Iranian authorities would tell U.S. and British forces they bear responsibility for the fate of any Iranian prisoners of war in Iraq (news - web sites) who may...

Bodies in warehouse 'from Iran-Iraq war' By Andrew Johnson 07 April 2003 Hundreds of bodies discovered in a warehouse in southern Iraq by British troops may be soldiers killed in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The complex, found by a British artillery battery on Saturday, was initially thought to have been used to torture and execute opponents of Saddam Hussein's regime. However, initial findings by investigators searching for evidence of Iraqi war crimes suggested the two tin sheds, which contained more than 200 bodies and stacks of coffins, were a repatriation complex for casualties of the conflict. Earlier yesterday, Iran claimed...

Bodies Found May Be From Iran-Iraq War 8 minutes ago By PATRICK MCDOWELL, Associated Press WriterZUBAYR, Iraq - A warehouse full of hundreds of bodies appears to have been a repatriation facility for soldiers killed during the Iran-Iraq (news - web sites) war in the 1980s, military investigators said Sunday. Latest news: · 18 Kurds said killed, 45 injured in US friendly fire incidentAFP - 4 minutes ago · Bodies Found May Be From Iran-Iraq War AP - 8 minutes ago · US forces close to encircling Baghdad as British push into BasraAFP - 10 minutes ago Special Coverage  ...

The identity of the remains is the subject of huge debate Human remains found in an abandoned Iraqi military base are those of Iranian soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war, an Iranian general has said. Brigadier-General Mirfeisal Baqerzadeh said the bodies were discovered at the base near al-Zubayr in southern Iraq recently after a joint search operation between the two countries. But, he said, the current conflict had meant arrangements to return the bodies to Iran had been put on hold. Forensic scientists from the UK are due to examine the skulls and bones, which were discovered wrapped in fragments...

Iran says bodies found in Basra are its troops TEHRAN, April 6 (Reuters) - Iran said the remains of as many as 200 people found near Basra were Iranian soldiers killed during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war and demanded their immediate repatriation, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Iraq has said the bodies, discovered on Saturday by British soldiers in a military complex near Basra, were those of Iraqis killed in the 1980s conflict and recently returned by Tehran. But the head of Iran's Committee for Searching for the Missing in Action said the corpses had been unearthed in recent months by...