Can the US imprison Saddam Hussein?

[miguel]

Can they charge him with planning the assasination of a standing US president (Bush the elder) in 1993? Wouldn't that bring in some kind of prison sentence? Anyone have insight on this?

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

The worst tyrant since Stalin

and Pol Pot

. . . and the best we can do is . . . "Saddam tried to kill my daddy!"

 

[miguel]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc
The worst tyrant since Stalin

and Pol Pot

. . . and the best we can do is . . . "Saddam tried to kill my daddy!"

Do you try to be an @ss, or does it come naturally?

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Your thread . . . post asinine questions . . . get asinine answers.

 

[Czar]

What case does the US have against saddam?

 

[miguel]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc
Your thread . . . post asinine questions . . . get asinine answers.

Why not just not post in it if you feel it's so stupid?

 

[Lonyo]

Can other countries imprison US presidents for plotting to assasinate, or assasinating, their leaders?

Can the US decide to improsin Saddam after they've said they will let the Iraqi people decide his fate?
Wouldn't it be the best idea ever! Then the Iraqi people will love the Americans soooo much.(!)

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Czar
What case does the US have against saddam?

LOL, LOL, LOL.

 

[TapTap]

The Iraq's are going to hang the bastard anyway.
But it does bring up an odd topic for a Marion, IL. Prison guard at dinner:
"How was work today hon?"
"Same old, same old. Saddam and Noriega got in to another fistfight today, and damn if Gotti-jr. didnt jump on the pile.."

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: Shanti

Originally posted by: Czar
What case does the US have against saddam?

LOL, LOL, LOL.

well, I'm asking, do you have an answer?

 

[RabidMongoose]

Sure, the US can do whatever it wants with Saddam Hussein.

 

[MovingTarget]

I see nothing wrong with trying him for that. We have the ability and authority to. However, that does in no way mean that he shouldn't also be tried by the Iraqis. Its like when someone commits a capital crime in the worst sense who is still tried and convicted because of that act, but at the same time has petty theft charges added onto that list. It makes no difference except for the list of things he is tried for being more complete. If we try to make him serve out his sentence that we put on him from our trial before letting him be tried by the Iraqis, then we would have a problem Otherwise I don't see this as much of an issue.

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
Sure, the US can do whatever it wants with Saddam Hussein.

Yep. Gotta love being the only super power in the world. Never gets lonely at the top

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Czar

Originally posted by: Shanti

Originally posted by: Czar
What case does the US have against saddam?

LOL, LOL, LOL.

well, I'm asking, do you have an answer?

1. The Iran-Iraq War. During the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein and his
forces used chemical weapons against Iran. According to official
Iranian sources, which we consider credible, approximately 5,000
Iranians were killed by chemical weapons between 1983 and 1988. The
use of chemical weapons has been a war crime since the 1925 Chemical
Weapons treaty, to which Iraq is a party. Also during the Iran-Iraq
War, there are credible reports that Iraqi forces killed several
thousand Iranian prisoners of war, which is also a war crime as well
as a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, to which Iraq is
a party. Other war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by
Saddam Hussein and the top leaders around him against Iran and the
Iranian people also deserve international investigation.


2. Halabja. In mid-March of 1988, Saddam Hussein and his cousin Ali
Hassan alMajid -- the infamous "Chemical Ali" -- ordered the dropping
of chemical weapons on the town of Halabja in northeastern Iraq. This
killed an estimated 5,000 civilians, and is a war crime and a crime
against humanity. Photographic and videotape evidence of this attack
and its aftermath exists. Some of this is available to scholars and
God willing -- to prosecutors through the efforts of the International
Monitor Institute in Los Angeles, California. More visual evidence is
available from Iranian cameramen, who collected their images of the
victims of this brutal attack -- most of whom were women and children
-- in a book published in Tehran. The best evidence of all is from the
survivors in Halabja itself.

3. The Anfal campaigns. Beginning in 1987 and accelerating in early
1988, Saddam Hussein ordered the "Anfal" campaign against the Iraqi
Kurdish people. By any measure, this constituted a crime against
humanity and a war crime. Chemical Ali has admitted to witnesses that
he carried out this campaign "under orders." In 1995, Human Rights
Watch published a compilation of their reports in the book Iraq's
Crime of Genocide, which is now out of print. Human Rights Watch needs
to reprint this book. Human Rights Watch estimated that between 50,000
and 100,000 Kurds were killed. Based on their review of captured Iraqi
documents, interviews with hundreds of eyewitnesses, and on-site
forensic investigations, they concluded that the Anfal campaign was
genocide. I challenge anyone to read the evidence cited in Iraq's
Crime of Genocide and come to any different conclusion.

4. The invasion and occupation of Kuwait. On August 2, 1990, Saddam
Hussein ordered his forces to invade and occupy Kuwait. It took
military force by the international community and actions by the
Kuwaiti themselves to liberate Kuwait in February 1991. During the
occupation, Saddam Hussein's forces killed more than a thousand
Kuwaiti nationals, as well as many others from other nations. Evidence
of many of these killings is on file with authorities in Kuwait and at
the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva. Saddam Hussein's
forces committed many other crimes in Kuwait, including environmental
crimes such as the destruction of oil wells in Kuwait's oil fields,
massive looting of Kuwaiti property -- Saddam's son Uday appears to
have treated Kuwait as his personal used car lot. As well, Saddam
Hussein's government held hostages from many nations in an effort to
coerce their governments into pro-Iraqi policies. During the war,
Iraqi authorities also committed war crimes against Coalition forces.
War crimes against American service members were detailed in a report
to Congress and in an article by Lee Haworth and Jim Hergen in Society
magazine back in January 1994.

5. The suppression of the 1991 uprising. In March and April of 1991,
Saddam Hussein's forces killed somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000
Iraqis, most of them civilians. The story of the uprising of the Iraqi
people is one of courage and hope for the people of Iraq and has been
told by men such as former Iraqi General Najib al-Salihi in his book
Al-Zilzal, "The Earthquake," The story of the uprising that started in
the south, a part of the country traditionally neglected and deprived
by Saddam Hussein's government in Baghdad, deserves to be better known
outside of Iraq. Most of those killed were civilians, not resistance
fighters -- a distinction that Saddam Hussein did not respect in 1991
any more than he has before or since. This qualifies as a crime
against humanity and possibly also a war crime.

6. The draining of the southern marshes. Beginning in the early
1990's, and continuing to this day, Saddam Hussein's government has
drained the southern marshes of Iraq, depriving thousands of Iraqis of
their livelihood and their ability to live on land that their
ancestors have lived on for thousands of years. This is clearly not a
land reclamation project, or a border security project, as some of
Saddam's defenders have claimed. Instead, as groups such as the Amar
Foundation have begun to document, Saddam's efforts have served to
render the land less fertile, and less able to sustain the livelihood
or security of the Iraqi people. This qualifies as a crime against
humanity and may possibly constitute genocide.

7. Ethnic cleansing of ethnic "Persians" from Iraq to Iran, and an
ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the non-Arabs of Kirkuk and
other northern districts. This ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing
was documented by the former U.N. Special Human Rights Rapporteur for
Iraq, Max van der Stoel in his reports in 1999.

8. Continuing unlawful killings of political opponents. Many groups
have documented Saddam Hussein's ongoing campaign against political
opponents, including killings, tortures, and -- lately -- rape. As
some of you may know, the regime has been using sexual assaults of
women in an effort to intimidate leaders of the Iraqi opposition. We
salute the courage of opposition leaders such as General Najib
al-Salihi for speaking out about this crime. The regime is also
carrying out a systematic campaign of murder and intimidation of
clergy, especially Shi'a clergy. The number of those killed unlawfully
is difficult to estimate but must be well in excess of 10,000 since
Saddam Hussein officially seized power in 1980. The number of victims
of torture no doubt well exceeds the number of those killed.

 

[SViscusi]

Originally posted by: Shanti

Originally posted by: Czar

Originally posted by: Shanti

Originally posted by: Czar
What case does the US have against saddam?

LOL, LOL, LOL.

well, I'm asking, do you have an answer?

1. The Iran-Iraq War. During the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein and his
forces used chemical weapons against Iran. According to official
Iranian sources, which we consider credible, approximately 5,000
Iranians were killed by chemical weapons between 1983 and 1988. The
use of chemical weapons has been a war crime since the 1925 Chemical
Weapons treaty, to which Iraq is a party. Also during the Iran-Iraq
War, there are credible reports that Iraqi forces killed several
thousand Iranian prisoners of war, which is also a war crime as well
as a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, to which Iraq is
a party. Other war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by
Saddam Hussein and the top leaders around him against Iran and the
Iranian people also deserve international investigation.


2. Halabja. In mid-March of 1988, Saddam Hussein and his cousin Ali
Hassan alMajid -- the infamous "Chemical Ali" -- ordered the dropping
of chemical weapons on the town of Halabja in northeastern Iraq. This
killed an estimated 5,000 civilians, and is a war crime and a crime
against humanity. Photographic and videotape evidence of this attack
and its aftermath exists. Some of this is available to scholars and
God willing -- to prosecutors through the efforts of the International
Monitor Institute in Los Angeles, California. More visual evidence is
available from Iranian cameramen, who collected their images of the
victims of this brutal attack -- most of whom were women and children
-- in a book published in Tehran. The best evidence of all is from the
survivors in Halabja itself.

3. The Anfal campaigns. Beginning in 1987 and accelerating in early
1988, Saddam Hussein ordered the "Anfal" campaign against the Iraqi
Kurdish people. By any measure, this constituted a crime against
humanity and a war crime. Chemical Ali has admitted to witnesses that
he carried out this campaign "under orders." In 1995, Human Rights
Watch published a compilation of their reports in the book Iraq's
Crime of Genocide, which is now out of print. Human Rights Watch needs
to reprint this book. Human Rights Watch estimated that between 50,000
and 100,000 Kurds were killed. Based on their review of captured Iraqi
documents, interviews with hundreds of eyewitnesses, and on-site
forensic investigations, they concluded that the Anfal campaign was
genocide. I challenge anyone to read the evidence cited in Iraq's
Crime of Genocide and come to any different conclusion.

4. The invasion and occupation of Kuwait. On August 2, 1990, Saddam
Hussein ordered his forces to invade and occupy Kuwait. It took
military force by the international community and actions by the
Kuwaiti themselves to liberate Kuwait in February 1991. During the
occupation, Saddam Hussein's forces killed more than a thousand
Kuwaiti nationals, as well as many others from other nations. Evidence
of many of these killings is on file with authorities in Kuwait and at
the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva. Saddam Hussein's
forces committed many other crimes in Kuwait, including environmental
crimes such as the destruction of oil wells in Kuwait's oil fields,
massive looting of Kuwaiti property -- Saddam's son Uday appears to
have treated Kuwait as his personal used car lot. As well, Saddam
Hussein's government held hostages from many nations in an effort to
coerce their governments into pro-Iraqi policies. During the war,
Iraqi authorities also committed war crimes against Coalition forces.
War crimes against American service members were detailed in a report
to Congress and in an article by Lee Haworth and Jim Hergen in Society
magazine back in January 1994.

5. The suppression of the 1991 uprising. In March and April of 1991,
Saddam Hussein's forces killed somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000
Iraqis, most of them civilians. The story of the uprising of the Iraqi
people is one of courage and hope for the people of Iraq and has been
told by men such as former Iraqi General Najib al-Salihi in his book
Al-Zilzal, "The Earthquake," The story of the uprising that started in
the south, a part of the country traditionally neglected and deprived
by Saddam Hussein's government in Baghdad, deserves to be better known
outside of Iraq. Most of those killed were civilians, not resistance
fighters -- a distinction that Saddam Hussein did not respect in 1991
any more than he has before or since. This qualifies as a crime
against humanity and possibly also a war crime.

6. The draining of the southern marshes. Beginning in the early
1990's, and continuing to this day, Saddam Hussein's government has
drained the southern marshes of Iraq, depriving thousands of Iraqis of
their livelihood and their ability to live on land that their
ancestors have lived on for thousands of years. This is clearly not a
land reclamation project, or a border security project, as some of
Saddam's defenders have claimed. Instead, as groups such as the Amar
Foundation have begun to document, Saddam's efforts have served to
render the land less fertile, and less able to sustain the livelihood
or security of the Iraqi people. This qualifies as a crime against
humanity and may possibly constitute genocide.

7. Ethnic cleansing of ethnic "Persians" from Iraq to Iran, and an
ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the non-Arabs of Kirkuk and
other northern districts. This ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing
was documented by the former U.N. Special Human Rights Rapporteur for
Iraq, Max van der Stoel in his reports in 1999.

8. Continuing unlawful killings of political opponents. Many groups
have documented Saddam Hussein's ongoing campaign against political
opponents, including killings, tortures, and -- lately -- rape. As
some of you may know, the regime has been using sexual assaults of
women in an effort to intimidate leaders of the Iraqi opposition. We
salute the courage of opposition leaders such as General Najib
al-Salihi for speaking out about this crime. The regime is also
carrying out a systematic campaign of murder and intimidation of
clergy, especially Shi'a clergy. The number of those killed unlawfully
is difficult to estimate but must be well in excess of 10,000 since
Saddam Hussein officially seized power in 1980. The number of victims
of torture no doubt well exceeds the number of those killed.

And absolutely none of those acts were against us (many were even with our support). The question is, what grounds does the U.S. have to imprison him.

 

[DT4K]

LOL, you guys are too much.

EDIT: And people flamed me in my condolences to the liberals thread for implying that some of you were defenders of Saddam.
You guys wanted examples? Just look at the above couple of posts for some Saddam defenders.

* adds Czar and SViscusi to the list of "wacky" liberals.

 

[Wolfdog]

You guys had better hope that we don't enprison him. After all the trouble that we went through to take him out of power, we need to let the arab world deal with him. They have far less humane ways of punishing people over there. Nonetheless it would make the US a worse terrorist target than we already are.

 

[Czar]

Shanti,
Thats not the job for the US to present those cases, its for the suffering parties, none of which are the US. Israel and Iran are already preparing their case towards the International Court.

So what has Iraq done to the US?

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Czar
Shanti,
Thats not the job for the US to present those cases, its for the suffering parties, none of which are the US. Israel and Iran are already preparing their case towards the International Court.

So what has Iraq done to the US?

I was not implying we should bring him here and prosecute and imprison him without international or Iraqi participation.
by the U.S. case against him, I didn't realize you only meant what did he do to us. The U.S. has been involved in gathering and documenting his crimes, so by the U.S. case, I meant all his crimes.

Although his military's alleged torture, execution, and mutilation of US soldiers would qualify us as a "suffering party".
I'm not an expert on international war crimes tribunals, but we have been heavily involved in the prosecution of Milosevic and as far as I know, we are not the suffering party in that case. Wasn't the U.S. involved in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals? Their crimes were primarily against German and French jews, not against us.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: Shanti

Originally posted by: Czar
Shanti,
Thats not the job for the US to present those cases, its for the suffering parties, none of which are the US. Israel and Iran are already preparing their case towards the International Court.

So what has Iraq done to the US?

I was not implying we should bring him here and prosecute and imprison him without international or Iraqi participation.
by the U.S. case against him, I didn't realize you only meant what did he do to us. The U.S. has been involved in gathering and documenting his crimes, so by the U.S. case, I meant all his crimes.

Although his military's alleged torture, execution, and mutilation of US soldiers would qualify us as a "suffering party".
I'm not an expert on international war crimes tribunals, but we have been heavily involved in the prosecution of Milosevic and as far as I know, we are not the suffering party in that case. Wasn't the U.S. involved in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals? Their crimes were primarily against German and French jews, not against us.

ah, I thought you meant to bring him to the US to be tried by the US and to hell with all the other parties, just an attitute I'm used to on this forum, sorry

 

[miguel]

Well, here's a news story about Iraq's neighbors lining up to sue Saddam. Near the end it has:

A senior official of the State Department said after Saddam's capture that Washington reserved the right to bring its own charges against the man U.S.-led forces ousted in April.

The official, who asked not to be named, declined to say whether the United States might seek to prosecute Saddam for an alleged 1993 Iraqi assassination attempt against former U.S. President George Bush.

 

[Phokus]

As a libertarian, i'm interested in what kind of charges against saddam you lunatic neo-conservative communist warmongers think we should bring against him since he never actually did anything to America.

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: Phokus
As a libertarian, i'm interested in what kind of charges against saddam you lunatic neo-conservative communist warmongers think we should bring against him since he never actually did anything to America.

That's why we aren't bringing charges against him. The Iraqis will, and I have a feeling they won't treat him as humanely as we would.

I am flabergasted that people actually care about Saddam... even you humanitarians.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Phokus
As a libertarian, i'm interested in what kind of charges against saddam you lunatic neo-conservative communist warmongers think we should bring against him since he never actually did anything to America.

WTF?
"neo-conservative communist" ?
WTF?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: daniel1113

Originally posted by: Phokus
As a libertarian, i'm interested in what kind of charges against saddam you lunatic neo-conservative communist warmongers think we should bring against him since he never actually did anything to America.

That's why we aren't bringing charges against him. The Iraqis will, and I have a feeling they won't treat him as humanely as we would.

I am flabergasted that people actually care about Saddam... even you humanitarians.

"Even you humanitarians"

Geeze, I hope I am that. You seemingly use it as a title of disgrace. I hope I am missing the sarcasm.


From a legal standpoint, there is no crime AFAIK that Saddam has committed against us. This is independent of what he has done elsewhere, and he is certainly accountable for that.

BTW, no one "cares" about Saddam, however many DO care about justice. The just are strong. The lynch mob is not, no matter how they shout. Justice will be done, and it needs to.