- Let's go back to 1946. An International War Crimes Tribunal
had just been established in Nuremberg, Germany, to punish the aggressors
who began a war. Now, when you open the door to the courtroom, you see
Hermann Goering as the judge. Standing under Goering is the lead prosecutor,
Julius Streicher. His material witnesses include Hess, Geobbels and Himler.
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- The defendants are the leaders of the Warsaw ghetto uprising
of 1944 and the Polish government of September 1, 1939. The leaders of
the uprising are charged with resisting an occupation and the Polish government
officials are charged with shooting back after their country was invaded
by Germany.
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- All court officials are members of the Nazi Party. They
include a few Poles who lived in Poland for only a short time because they
fled their country of birth and formed Polish opposition groups while living
in Germany, all the time becoming rich because of German Nazi money being
lavishly donated to their cause. The court states that the defendants will
be given a fair trial.
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- Sound preposterous? Yes it is, but a similar scenario
is occurring right now in Iraq.
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- The government of the country of Iraq is being put on
trial by quislings and other U.S. apologists. Some judges and jurists have
only recently returned to Iraq. They needed road maps to find Baghdad.
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- I say the Iraqi government is being put on trial because,
to this day, not one internationally legitimate action has taken place
that has deemed the current bunch of Iraqis who were recently "elected"
to be a government. To many, the Ba'athists still represent the Iraqi government.
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- In 1991, as terms of a cease-fire in the Gulf War, Iraq
was ordered by the U.N. to rid itself of what was deemed "weapons
of mass destruction." It did. By 1992, Iraq told the world, "We
don't have any more." Today, we all know Iraq told the truth.
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- An embargo that took the lives of almost two million
people was in place from 1991-2003. Today, we know that the embargo was
based on U.S. lies and was wrong.
-
- With all that knowledge, the U.S. invaded Iraq in March
2003. More than 100,000 Iraqis died from the military intervention. All
killed because of lies.
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- Months after the invasion, Secretary-General Kofi Anan
of the U.N. deemed the invasion "illegal."
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- Let's put all these pieces together. The U.S. attacked
and occupied Iraq without provocation. And, the act has been labeled illegal
by the head of the international governing body that regulates international
legal matters. The infrastructure of Iraq has been destroyed, along with
thousands of houses and buildings. Today, schools, hospitals, public transportation,
utilities, and many other aspects of daily life are in shambles because
of the actions of the aggressor nations, the U.S. and, to a much lesser
extent, Great Britain.
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- Now, it's time for a war crimes tribunal. But, the one
being set up is similar to the fairy tale scenario I previously mentioned.
The victims are to be put on trial and the aggressors and their stooges
will run the trial. It's quite simple: things are ass-backwards.
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- The U.S. has killed some members of the Iraqi government
and kidnapped others. Of those kidnapped is Saddam Hussein, the main cog
in the U.S. 15-year demonizing of Iraq that led the American people to
celebrate a slaughter.
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- Saddam was illegally kidnapped in December 2003. Since
then, he has been in a secret jail and only allowed to see a lawyer once.
His captors have broken many international laws in keeping him in isolation.
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- Over the 15 months he has been imprisoned, Saddam Hussein
has been sent millions of letters from people worldwide offering wishes
of good will. The U.S. has only delivered four to him. They were from his
family and were heavily censored.
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- Currently, Saddam Hussein's active legal team consists
of about two dozen lawyers. There are more than 2,000 lawyers, from many
countries, working on his behalf behind the scenes for no pay. They have
donated their time and effort because of the travesty about to occur in
Iraq.
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- Ziad al-Khasawna is the head of the legal team that works
out of Aman, Jordan. The group is called "The Defence and Support
Committee of President Saddam Hussein, His Comrades and All Prisoners of
War and Detainees in Iraq." The organization's name may be long-winded,
but it is relevant considering the illegal incarceration of the Iraqi government
and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.
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- On February 28, 2005, Al-Khasawna spoke to the Foreign
Correspondents' Club of Japan concerning the plight of President Saddam
Hussein. Al-Jazeera News covered the event and published an article written
by Juoian Ryall on its website on March 1, 2005. Following are statements
given to the assemblage by al-Khasawna:
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- According to international law, Saddam Hussein and his
government are still the legitimate leadership of Iraq and everything that
has happened since the start of the occupation is illegal.
-
- The oppression of Iraq is not based on any international
law but was made under the pretext that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq confirmed it had no weapons of mass destruction, so that means that
what is going on there now is the law of power, not the power of law.
-
- The head lawyer then went on to describe how he has not
been allowed to see his client, despite numerous requests. He told the
group that it is difficult to defend Saddam because the occupation authorities
have placed many unreasonable restrictions in the way.
-
- Curtis Doebbler is the leading U.S. attorney on Saddam
Hussein's defense team. Recently, well-known peace activist Ramsey Clark
was added to the squad.
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- On January 20, 2005, Doebbler issued a statement that
covers many of the illegalities and irregularities of the upcoming trial.
Here it is in its entirety as published by <http://www.uruknet.info>www.uruknet.info:
-
-
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- Update on the Representation of President Saddam Hussein
Dr. Curtis F.J. Doebbler Member of the Legal Team representing Saddam Hussein
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-
- January 20, 2005
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- Although continued attempts are being made to establish
access to the President of Iraq who has been held without access to a lawyer,
only one meeting has been arranged more than one year after the detention
began. This meeting took place with one of the lawyers of Committee under
strict monitoring (both visual and audio) whereby two US military officials
were present at all times. This meeting was not under conditions that meet
the minimum standards for access to legal counsel provided by international
law (e.g. in article 14 of the ICCPR). Neither has this meeting been followed
up with additional meetings. It is estimated that counsel need at least
several hours of daily contact with their client to be able to consult
with him and to facilitate the preparation of his defense. Unless such
access is immediately provided all charges against the defendant should
be dropped because of the serious violations of his human rights.
-
- Furthermore, legal counsel's inability to have access
to evidence or formal charges also contributes to the irreparable violation
of defendant's rights. For more than one year, and despite statements by
United States and Iraqi government officials that huge amounts of evidence
exist, no access to any of this evidence has been granted to defense counsel.
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- Finally, legal counsel for the President continue to
dispute the legitimacy of the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the following
reasons:
-
- 1. The tribunal is the result of an illegal invasion
of Iraq which unequivocally violated international law, namely article
2(4) of the Charter of the United Nations. Attempts to justify this use
of force as somehow justified by Iraq's reaction to UN Security Council
resolutions are inconsistent with statements of the majority of both the
permanent members of the UNSC and the total membership of this body and
are devoid of any legal basis. To satisfy basic principles of justice any
court concerned with trials in Iraq that have resulted from the United
States' illegal use of force must be able and willing to try American's
who have committed crimes against peace, including American President George
W. Bush.
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- 2. The tribunal is illegal because it is constituted
outside the ordinary Iraqi judicial and as the result of steps by the United
States as the occupying power in Iraq to interfere with the existing judicial
power in Iraq in a manner that renders it liable to violate international
human rights and humanitarian law. An occupying power is forbidden from
destroying the judicial of an occupied territory and replacing it with
a judicial with allegiance to itself that will not prosecute its own soldiers
who have violated international law. Nevertheless, the United States did
just this in vetting all Iraqi judges for their political opinions and
affiliations and removing those judges who disagreed with the occupiers'
political opinion. This action contravenes general international law that
provides that an occupation is not sovereignty and therefore prohibits
the occupier from changing the institutions of government when the changes
contribute to the violation of international law.
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- 3. The extraordinary nature of the Iraqi Special Tribunal
is evidenced by the fact that it would have been illegal even under the
Iraqi Administrative Law of 8 March 2004, except for the special dispensation
which is given in that law. Despite the dispensation, however, the Special
Tribunal does not meet the minimum standards of international law required
for a fair trial and is thus illegitimate.
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- 4. The Iraqi Special Tribunal does not meet the requirement
of being a competent, independent, and impartial tribunal. It is not competent
because it has been established by an occupying power in violation of international
law as an attempt to usurp the sovereignty of the Iraqi people. It is not
independent because it his been established by the United States as the
occupying power and not a sovereign Iraqi government and because it lacks
the authority and will to trial United States citizens who have violated
international law by illegally invading Iraq. It is not impartial because
the judges remain anonymous and "faceless judges" have been held
to be prima facie violation of the requirement of impartiality.
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- 5. The Iraqi Special Tribunal also violates international
law because it denies defendant's basic fair trial and due process rights.
Defendants have not been able to meet their lawyers in any meaningful way.
Evidence of torture and mistreatment of defendants has not been investigated.
Defendants have been denied facilities to prepare their defense. Defendants
have not been charged. Defendants have been denied access to any of the
alleged evidence against them. All of these failures constitute violations
of defendants' rights.
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- 6. Only a tribunal created by international mandate and
with truly impartial judges sitting can try a head of state who has been
captured pursuant to an illegal invasion of his country. The Iraqi Special
Tribunal is not such a tribunal and constitutes a serious violation of
international law.
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- At the end of December 2004, Mr. Ramsey Clark formally
joined the defense team efforts. He will be responsible for legal action
taken in the United States and contacts with the press in the United States.
He will also advise the legal team being assembled in Jordan under the
auspices of ISNAD.
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- www.uruknet.info/?p=10105
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