http://www.google.com/search?q=ramsey+clark+saddam+hussein
From Bill Weinberg, NYC anarchist WW3 Report.
http://www.ww3report.com/80.html
> ...25. AMERICAN "LEFT" HAS ITS IDIOTS TOO
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark--now a leader of the anti-war
movement--defended Saddam Hussein March 28, dismissing reports of his
brutality as part of a US disinformation campaign. Asked about the death of
an Iraqi dissident who was reportedly put in a glass cage and eaten alive
by dogs while Saddam and other top leaders watched, Clark told WLIE-NY
radio's Mike Siegel: "That's the most absurd story I've heard in a long
time... Propaganda can be pretty vicious. If you believe that, you're a
hopeless case."
Clark did acknowledge the veracity of reports that Saddam's son-in-law was murdered after he defected in the 1990s, but he declined to pin the blame on Saddam, saying the assassination was carried out by "people working for the [Iraqi] government, apparently." Asked if Saddam controlled the government, Clark responded, "The government is a lot of people."
Asked about other accounts of Saddam's brutality from defectors, Clark responded: "I've worked with problems of defection and informers for years and years and they're not generally reliable. You have to be careful about who you're talking to. I also recognize propaganda. And I hear more garbage and propaganda coming out about how evil the Iraqi people are." He then chastised Siegel: "I think you're just fantasizing with propaganda. It shows your own hatred and narrow-mindedness." (NewsMax.com, March 30) ( http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2003/3/30/124708 ) WW3 REPORT was unable to independently verify the glass cage incident, but it is sort of beside the point. Many allegations against Saddam are doubtless disinformation, but implying that all of them are is also disinformation.
See also WW3 REPORTS #s 53 & 49 [top]
Clark confuses the Iraqi people w/ the Regime. It is one of those cliches (which does not make it false!) constantly reiterated by speakers to delegations to countries under US imperialist threat, "That we distinguish between the US people and the USG." Does Clark and the WWP distinguish between the Iraqi Baathist State and the People/Masses? Or as an industrial band from the UK in the 80's, "Test Dept., " put it, do they (being rhetorical again) believe in, "One Party, One State, One People." ? Give these folks a pomo bath. And a copy of Hannah Arendt's book on totalitarianism.
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff For the story behind the story...
Sunday, March 30, 2003 12:49 p.m. EST
Ramsey Clark: Saddam Not Brutal
Appeasement movement leader and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark defended Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Friday, saying that reports of his brutality were part of a U.S.-backed disinformation campaign.
Asked about an eyewitness account of the torture death of an Iraqi dissident who was put in a glass cage and eaten alive by dogs while Saddam and other top leaders watched, Clark told WLIE-NY radio's Mike Siegel, "That's the most absurd story I've heard in a long time."
"Propaganda can be pretty vicious," the appeasement activist warned before trashing the torture account a second time. "If you believe that, you're a hopeless case."
Clark did, however, acknowledge the truthfulness of reports that Saddam Hussein's son-in-law was murdered after he defected in the 1990s and was then persuaded to return, but he declined to pin the blame on the Iraqi dictator.
Instead, he blamed the execution on "people working for the [Iraqi] government, apparently."
Asked if Saddam controlled the government at the time, Clark responded, "The government is a lot of people."
The anti-war leader said that other accounts from Iraqi defectors who have described Saddam's brutality, as well as reports of terrorist training operations inside Iraq, were probably false.
"I've worked with problems of defection and informers for years and years and they're not generally reliable," Clark told WLIE. "You have to be careful about who you're talking to. I also recognize propaganda. And I hear more garbage and propaganda coming out about how evil the Iraqi people are."
He then chastised radio host Siegel for spreading accounts of Saddam's brutality. "I think you're just fantasizing with propaganda. It shows your own hatred and narrow-mindedness."
Minutes later, the former LBJ attorney general condemned U.S.-backed economic sanctions against Iraq during the 1990s as "absolute genocide."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Saddam Hussein/Iraq