Aiding & Abetting War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

As the final parts of this belated Bulletin are put together, the arrest of Saddam Hussein by the U.S. occupation forces in Iraq has been announced. Great discussion of the process by which the former Iraqi dictator will be tried is circulating among the endless group of (male) experts that the various administrations and media outlets rely on for their insightful opinions.

One important ingredient that seems to have eluded the watchful eye of the west has been some discussion of the various figures which have aided and abetted Mr. Hussein during his reign. So, for example, almost exactly ten years ago to the date of Saddam Hussein’s arrest, we saw that the current Secretary of Defense for the U.S., Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, was smiling as this “Special Envoy” shook hands with one of the employees of the CIA. Documents released by Iraq last year in an attempt to comply with new UN Security Council threats to re-invade, revealed the German and U.S. companies supplying the Iraqi military with the means to develop, manufacture and deliver chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and Kurdish civilians during this period.

For the U.S., these exports were, of course, all approved by the U.S. State Department. We know, too, that U.S. Congressional committees and both European and United Nations teams had determined by the end of 1995, that Iraq had used chemical weapons in their war against Iran. The response of the U.S. administration was to prevent Iraq from being specifically named at the UN as the culprit for these war crimes. Indeed, reports from U.S. sources indicate that the U.S. actually provided satellite information to the Iraqi so that they could +“calibrate” their chemical weapons delivery systems in their use against Iran.

The Reagan administration managed to stifle the Congressional report and subsequently provided half a billion dollars in agricultural subsidies to the Iraq. Not to be outdone, the Bush (senior) administration followed with a 1 billion dollar subsidy. (a very detailed summary of declassified document and documents obtained through the freedom of information act in the US can be found at the National Security Archives www.gwu.edu/ ~nsarchiv/special/iraq/index.htm).

So, with all of this help from western nations who where profiting from these crimes, one might wonder who should stand trial for these war crimes and crimes against humanity.