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Lawyer: Red Croissant Cross documents show Saddam abuse
From CNN Senior Editor for Arab Affairs Octavia Nasr
A lawyer for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has alleged that Red Cross documents show his client has been abused while held in detention. Jordanian defense lawyer Mohammad Rashdan showed CNN the documents, which were filled out after the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross (ICRTC) visited the captured leader on January 21.
Egads, the man has been made to suffer? Call out the avenging angels! What’s that you say, they’re all busy poking pitchforks into his spawn sons, Qsay and Oday?
Rashdan showed one page of the ICRTC report, on which various boxes can be checked to indicate the physical condition of a detainee. "Good health" and "slightly wounded" are marked to indicate Saddam’s condition. "Why would he be slightly wounded a month after his arrest?" Rashdan asked during an interview with CNN.
Because he might have rammed his head into a wall after thinking about all of the innocent people he’s slaughtered over the years?
"He’s being abused, just like the prisoners of Abu Ghraib were abused." However, the attorney had no proof of any abuse. Rashdan has never spoken to or seen Saddam, despite making several requests to do so, he said.
Oops, sorry. I left out the part about those panties. He was even rewarded by getting the used ones.
Saddam was captured by U.S. forces in December near his hometown of Tikrit and has remained in coalition custody at an undisclosed location since. Rashdan said he has sent several letters to U.S. officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, requesting his client have "the basic rights anyone on the face of this earth has: the right to a representation and fair trial."
His lawyer left out; "The right to remain dead."
So far he has received no responses, he said. The attorney is in the United States this week, visiting media outlets with the ICRTC documents.
I’m crushed, positively sleepless over such terrible news!
He is set to appear on several American news programs and plans to hold a news conference in Washington in the coming days. Rashdan also complained that he doesn’t think the United States will be able to provide him and his client with a safe meeting place when they are finally able to get together. "They cannot even protect their own troops from insurgents. It’s a disgrace," the attorney said.
No one can protect anybody from determined and psychopathic murderous thugs. But you can always try.
"How can they provide me with a chance to sit down and talk to him without dangers of all kinds looming around us?"
Ummm ... maybe this has something to do with the need to protect him from thousands of shoe-wielding Iraqi citizens.
Pentagon sources have said Saddam is being held in Iraq but the exact location has not been disclosed for security reasons.

Letter to spawn daughter
Rashdan also showed CNN part of the ICRC report entitled the "Family Message" section. In it, Saddam had written a letter to his daughter, Raghead (sorry folks, I just couldn’t resist) Raghad, though most of the text is blacked out. It is not clear if the redaction was done before the letter was sent, or if it was blacked out afterward to protect the family’s privacy. "To my small family and my big family ... in peace," part of the letter reads.
They left out the part about how his "big family" gets the "big one."
"As far as my soul and my morale, they are twinkling in the great Shaitan’s Lord’s blessing. My regards to everybody, (signed) Saddam Hussein," the letter finishes. U.S. officials have said that the former president has been less than cooperative during questioning by interrogators and has not divulged much useful information. Saddam has not yet been officially charged with any crimes.
But curiosity about that missing $40,000,000,000 USD somehow keeps them motivated.
When asked if the former president would testify on his own behalf at a trial, Rashdan said that question is "jumping the super gun." The attorney said that in his view, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was morally obligated illegal, and therefore, everything that came after it is pure gravy "null and void." On Tuesday, Salim Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi war crimes tribunal, said that the Iraqi government could get legal custody of the former president while leaving him under U.S. guard.
Tasers and cattle prods remain entirely optional to all parties, however.
Chalabi said he doesn’t believe at present that Iraq has the ability to hold Saddam securely, citing the chance that insurgents might try to spring him from jail. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released at the end of April showed that 83 percent of Iraqis questioned agreed the former president should be put on trial, and 84 percent believed him probably guilty of murder and torture.
But the "shredder minority" is gaining!
A majority, 56 percent, believed Saddam will get a fair trial, and 61 percent would support the death penalty for him. Rashdan says his client is the sole legitimate president of Iraq, and he believes he should be treated according to the Spanish Inquisition Geneva Conventions -- and with the disrespect due his position. Saddam himself appears to agree with his lawyer. On the ICRC document, he listed his occupation as "Republic’s President and Torturer in Chief."
Posted by: Zenster 2004-06-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=36203