> On 9/16/05, Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>> On tape. I've heard it on the PBS Frontline
>>> documentary on Saddam
>>> Hussein.
>>
>> You speak Arabic?
>
> Yes, (insert saracstic emoticon) HRW and PBS Frontline,
> manufactured a hoax. Make a tape with the voice of Ali Hassan Al Majid
> , and "translate" it.
> They also did it w/ the video, also seen on Frontline,
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/longroad/etc/cron.html
>> ...Several weeks into his presidency, Saddam calls a meeting of the
> Ba'ath Party leadership and insists it be videotaped. He announces
> there are traitors in their midst and reads out their names. One by
> one, the individuals are led out, never to be seen again. Tapes of the
> meeting are sent throughout the country, allowing Saddam to send a
> message to the Iraqi elite.
>
> They used the same experts that used the fake Alger Hiss typewriter
> that typed those phony Pumpkin Papers, the Hitler Diaries, the Anne
> Frank Diaries, the Pentagon Papers, the Nick Berg beheading video and
> those fake al-Qaeda and Chechen Jihad videos too.
The translation presented was stiff, and the vernacular was *obviously* western. As I said, it sounds like a reiteration of GWB's "bring it on" brag.
They (Mil?-Int) always made Mohammar Gaddfi ( remember him?) sound like that too.
You also might want to note that just before 911, a group of muslims in San Jose California was claiming that the translation of a cockpit tape of a skyjacked airliner in the middle east (that had US passengers on board) was FUBAR, but that little story was lost in the din of a NYC skyscraper crashing to the ground.
Believe what you like Michael, I believe forensic evidence myself. 100,000, where's the forensic evidence? It's not there, and most likely never was.
Here's the latest on what Reuters describes as:
An "...event (that) appeared stage-managed"
As Saddam's day in Iraq court nears, hiccups emerge
Fri Sep 16, 2005 4:04 AM ET
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Some predict it could be the "trial of the century" but bringing Saddam Hussein to justice has hardly gone smoothly and may get rockier still.
In a little over a month, the ousted Iraqi dictator is due to be tried for crimes against humanity in connection with the deaths of 150 Shi'ite men in a village called Dujail, just north of Baghdad, following a failed 1982 assassination bid.
The case is being handled by Iraq's Special Tribunal, a body set up with American help in 2003 to try members of the former government for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The script calls for Saddam and seven others to take the stand on October 19 in a specially built courtroom inside Baghdad's heavily defended Green Zone, and the world will watch the trial on television.
Most Iraqis say they can't wait to see their overthrown president in court, nearly two years after he was captured, and many hope he is eventually put to death. If convicted, he faces execution by hanging.
But others question the legitimacy of the tribunal and wonder whether Saddam can get a fair hearing in his own country. They point to signs of political influence over the court and worry that its independence has been compromised.
Saddam's lawyers have made clear they plan to challenge the tribunal's legitimacy once the trial opens, and argue that an international court, like the one trying former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the Netherlands, would be fairer.
They have even alleged physical abuse. In July, Saddam's lead lawyer accused a tribunal judge of starting a brawl with his client. Iraqi officials and the U.S. military denied it.
Foreign advisers to Iraq's court acknowledge some problems.
"There has been the appearance of the government exerting influence over the court ... there have been challenges," said a source close to the tribunal, who asked not to be named.
"But you have to give the Iraqi people and the tribunal a chance to surprise those who are skeptical, and show that they value and cherish the rule of law," he said.
The proof may come with the trial. If it is seen as legitimate it will go a long way to silencing the doubters, but the build-up to the event hasn't always inspired confidence.
COMPROMISED?
The first head of the tribunal, Salem Chalabi, the nephew of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, was removed by the previous government last year in murky circumstances after he was implicated and then cleared in a finance official's death.
A 42-year-old corporate lawyer, Salem Chalabi had been appointed by the Americans and was responsible for selecting judges and prosecutors, while overseeing the tribunal's work.
Under Chalabi's direction, Saddam and several deputies briefly appeared in a makeshift courtroom in July 2004, but no formal charges were made and the event appeared stage-managed. At the time, the government promised a trial by the end of the year.
That never happened as investigators struggled amid deteriorating security conditions to gather evidence from mass graves and other sites against Saddam and his henchmen.
Eventually they fixed on the Dujail case because, tribunal sources have said, it was relatively straightforward and the clear evidence made a conviction more likely.
The much larger crimes of which Saddam is accused, such as ordering the killing of thousands of Kurds with chemical weapons in the 1980s and the violent crushing of a Shi'ite uprising in 1991, would have to wait until more evidence was collected.
In recent months, the government has repeatedly promised that a trial is just weeks away, raising the hopes of Iraqis keen to see Saddam in the dock, only for the tribunal to assert its independence and announce that no date had been set.
Two months ago, several tribunal employees were dismissed after they fell foul of the de-Baathification commission, a body set up to remove members of the former Baathist government from public office. It is overseen by Ahmad Chalabi.
Some judges, including the one investigating Saddam, were also threatened with removal, prompting the Iraqi parliament to step in and rewrite the Special Tribunal's statute to enable that judge and others to remain in their posts.
However, the new statute under which Saddam must be tried has yet to be published officially, so the trial is effectively on hold. Publication is due soon.
Even if the trial goes ahead and Saddam is convicted, another hurdle lies in wait. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader who opposes capital punishment, must sign any death warrant. Will he sign one for his old enemy?
#33#