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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Sammy's defense minister on his way to court |
| 2004-12-17 |
| Saddam Hussein's defense minister, who surrendered to American forces last year, will appear alongside another notorious general — known as Chemical Ali — when investigative trials open next week, an official said Friday. Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmad, who gave himself up in September 2003 at a coalition military base in the northern city of Mosul, will be among the first two to face the hearings, which interim Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announced will commence next week. An Iraqi government official said on Thursday that Saddam's notorious former right-hand man, Ali Hassan al-Majid — known as Chemical Ali for his use of chemical weapons — would head the list of 11 top regime members to appear at the initial investigative court hearings. "Chemical Ali and Sultan will be the first to face the hearings," the official, who is familiar with the proceedings, told The Associated Press. Ahmad was No. 27 on America's list of 55 most-wanted regime figures. He surrendered on Sept. 19, 2003, to Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who was then the commander of the 101st Airborne Brigade. Ahmad is in U.S. military custody at an undisclosed location in Baghdad. During the 1991 Gulf War, Ahmad, then a lieutenant general, served as deputy chief of staff. He headed the Iraqi delegation at cease-fire talks. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 This is a pathetic joke. Anyone who is commonly known as Chemical Ali should be summarily executed by a firing squad comprised of equal numbers of Kurds and Iranians. This monster should not be allowed to soil the legal process. For war crimes/genocide cases like Chemical Ali, he should have one day to plead his case/beg for his life before a tribunal. At the end of the day the tribinals' judgement should be pronounced and the next morning the firing squad should execute the monster if he has failed to prove his innocence. Forget about this Western crap about innocent until proven guilty. These are monsters who masterminded/gave orders for others to commit heinous crimes against mankind. Milosevic has been running circles around the well paid scholarly looking justices at the World Court, and the way things are going I'd bet he's going to have the charges dismissed. It's unfair to the victims' families to force them to wait and wait and have them see devils like Chemical Ali and Saddam Hussein have teams of lawyers run mack trucks through the loopholes in our Western style legal process and be eating filet mignon while sleeping on Tempeurpedic mattresses in their air conditioned jails. |
| Posted by: joeblow 2004-12-17 12:06:31 PM |