Webloggin » Head Judge in Genocide Trial Pals up to Saddam Hussein

The New York Times has a front page AP article that claims the head judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial is paling up to the former murdering dictator.

The chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial said Thursday that he does not believe Saddam was a dictator.

Judge Abdullah al-Amiri made the remark in a friendly exchange with the deposed leader, a day after the prosecution said the judge should step down because he is biased toward the defense. Saddam and his co-defendants are being tried on charges of committing atrocities against Kurds in northern Iraq nearly two decades ago.

Questioning a Kurdish witness Thursday, Saddam said, ”I wonder why this man wanted to meet with me, if I am a dictator?”

The judge interrupted: ”You were not a dictator. People around you made you (look like) a dictator.”

”Thank you,” Saddam responded, bowing his head in respect.

Isn’t that quaint? It sounds strikingly familiar to the interview Mike Wallace gave to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

How does my hair look judge?

Why you look grand Sadammy ol’ pal! I can’t imagine how a good looking guy like you could be called a dictator!

Of course you can never discount the possibility that murderers loyal to Saddam may have gotten to Judge Abdullah al-Amiri in some way. Better to coax him to your side than flat out murder him. Thankfully Saddam Hussein is being judged by a panel of judges and not just his old buddies that served under him for a good part of their career.

A little background on this trial. Saddam Hussein and six others are being tried for genocide surrounding their role in Operation Anfal that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds. The attack was actually a campaign that occurred between Feb 23 and September 6 in 1988. They included chemical attacks that burned and blistered the victims who died in shivering pain. Saddam’s forces also went in and razed villages, trucking Saddam’s enemies out in sealed trucks and subjecting them to firing squads before they were dumped into mass graves.

Let us not forget that we are talking about men, women and children.

It might be germane to remind supporters of the left that this is the profile of the person they would have kept in charge. Saddam the dictator. The man who commanded his army to use chemical weapons in many wars, the man who had no problem running rape rooms and the man who ordered the indiscriminate torturous deaths of all who opposed him no matter age, sex or race. Yet we are led to believe that Iraqis were better off under his rule.

True to form, Saddam fell back into his old ways as he questioned the Kurdish witness.

Saddam lashed out Tuesday against what he called ”agents of Iran and Zionism” and vowed to ”crush your heads” after listening to Kurdish witnesses tell of the horrors allegedly committed by his fallen regime.

So you see Saddam Hussein is an all around nice guy. A poor sap that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There is nothing better than an AP Report to soft peddle the real crimes of Saddam Hussein. No longer are the chemical weapon attacks against the Kurds recorded as factually having been committed by his regime; they are now allegedly committed.

Previous witnesses said the remains of relatives who went missing during Operation Anfal were found in mass graves several years later. Some recalled how they survived chemical attacks allegedly carried out by Saddam’s regime against the Kurdish population.

Yeah, I know, splitting hairs. They probably have a legal obligation to pop the phrase in; after all, it is court. It just kind of irks me; especially when so many AP bombs have been thrown at the U.S. military without the same protections on the perception of guilt. I can’t even tell if they are applying the phrase “alleged” to the chemical attacks or Operation Anfal in general.

The whole AP report is nothing more than a whitewash as far as I am concerned. They are treating Hussein with kid gloves as if the true picture of this murdering scum would serve the left’s political enemies. We have to keep in mind that an impeachment against President Bush would be much less appealing if Saddam is viewed in the same light as Stalin and Hitler. That prospect is simply unpalatable to many who are “reporting” the news.

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