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Proceedings and Death Verdict Against Saddam Hussein
by a Puppet Court are Illegal, Unfair and Invalid
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples' Struggle
6 November 2006
The proceedings and death verdict against Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq,
by a court of the puppet government under the US Occupation in Iraq are illegal,
unfair and invalid.
The court is a product and instrument of US aggression. As the 1945 Nuremberg
Charter states, "To initiate a war of aggression is not only an international crime,
it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it
contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
The US invasion of Iraq was made on the basis of lies and in violation of the UN
Charter. Contrary to the claims of Bush, the Hussein government of Iraq did
not have any weapons of mass destruction, did not have any connection with
al Qaida and did not pose any threat to the US.
Under the Nuremberg and UN Charters, everything that has followed the US
aggression is illegal, from Mr. Bremer's laws under the so-called coalition authority
to the so-called new constitution of the puppet government.
Saddam Hussein is supposed to be a prisoner of war of the US under the Geneva
Conventions and is in fact under the custody of the US military. In this connection,
he cannot be tried under the US Occupation for any alleged crime committed before
the war of aggression unleashed in 2003.
The unfairness of the trial of Saddam Hussein has been underscored among others
by the series of murders of his lawyers (as well as the lawyers of his co-defendants)
and by the politically motivated substitution of judges. Even the timing of the death
sentence on Hussein on Sunday, November 5 is meant to influence the impending
November 7 midterm elections in favor of the Republican party of Bush.
The charge against Hussein and his co-defendants for having allegedly murdered
143 people in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt on his life in 1982 pales
in comparison to the far more colossal crime of aggression perpetrated by the US
against the Iraqi people.
The US has already killed more than 650,000 Iraqi people since 2003, not to mention
the death of more than 1.5 million Iraqis, including more than 500,000 children,
during the 12-year period of bombings and economic sanctions from 1991 onwards.
The killing rampage of the US is unabated. The US has also incurred nearly 3000 US
death casualties and nearly 40,000 wounded casualties.
US imperialism is the plundering and murdering monster in the eyes of the Iraqi people
and the people of the world. As the imperialist chieftain, Bush should be brought to
court for having committed the worst possible crime, which is aggression. His crimes
against humanity are incomparable to the charges being leveled against Saddam Hussein
who has emerged as a patriot and martyr in the eyes of so many Iraqis and Arabs.
The brutal occupation of Iraq by the US and its accomplices is inciting the people of
Iraq to wage armed resistance to attain national liberation and democracy. ###
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