This is bizarre:
Iraq’s president said Tuesday that Saddam Hussein had confessed to killings and other “crimes” committed during his regime, including the massacre of thousands of Kurds in the late 1980s.
President Jalal Talabani told Iraqi television that he had been informed by an investigating judge that “he was able to extract confessions from Saddam’s mouth” about crimes “such as executions” which the ousted leader had personally ordered.
Asked about specific examples, Talabani, a Kurd, replied “Anfal,” the codename for the 1987-88 campaign which his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan maintains led to the deaths of about 182,000 Kurds and the destruction of “dozens of Kurdish villages.”
Those villages included Halabja, where thousands of Kurdish villagers were gassed in 1988.
However, Abdel Haq Alani, a legal consultant to Saddam’s family said Saddam did not mention any confession when he met Monday with his Iraqi lawyer.
Make of it what you will.
Pb
It sounded ridiculous and transparent to me. Reuters actually put “confesses” in quotes like so, and also quoted some of Talabani’s ridiculous statements, like “Saddam deserves a death sentence 20 times a day because he tried to assassinate me 20 times”. It’s sad that WaPo couldn’t mention even that.
Another good quote, apparently “There are 100 reasons to sentence Saddam to death”–that must be some confession!
Steve S
Not really.
Saddam’s position is that he was the leader of the country, and he did these things to protect the state and crush an insurrection.
It would have been better for the US if Saddam had been found dead in the Berlin bunker, having taken his own life with a cyanide capsule and a revolver.
John Cole
PB- Pretty much what I thought. In fact, I thought I even had put quotes around confess myself. It appears I didn’t.
Zifnab
See, I can only wonder how this whole issue will progress. Already, there are dissidents in Iraq who have come to the conclusion that a Bathist Regeime, while grisly and corrupt on the surface, still doesn’t suck as hard as an American occupation. I wonder what the public reaction to Saddam’s ‘confession’ and subsequent kangaroo court proceeding will be. It would be very interesting if al Queda somehow made him into a martyr for their cause.
croatoan
His confession (or “confession,” if you prefer) for this crime lets us skip the embarrassing-for-the-US trial and go directly to the execution.
TallDave
I think he gave up when Johnnie Cochran died.
TallDave
Oh no, there will be a trial, and the US is one of the main beneficiaries, along with the Iraqis. And I don’t doubt Saddam “confessed;” it’s well-known that Saddam has been saying since he was caught that nothing he did was a crime. So I’m sure they asked him an atrocity, and he said something like “Yes, I ordered that, and I was right to do so.”
Anyway, what could he say? “Halabja? Never heard of it.” Wouldn’t wash.
Vlad
He could always claim to be one of the Saddam Doubles. That’d make for an entertaining trial, anyway.
TallDave
LOL
jobiuspublius
Saddam’s lawyer must be kicking himself.
Bob
Count his fingers and toes when he shows up for sentencing.
Jim
When I read this, I assumed he was “confessing” to ordering executions as the head of State. In my head I was hearing him say (ok, I don’t know Arabic so cut me some slack): “Heck yeah I ordered executions. So did(does) George Bush. It is one of the things the chief executive of a state does.” (Setting aside for the moment that in “our” system the chief executive does not order the execution but does play a role.) Of course, this is no defense to genocide, just saying that I thought that was gonna be his point.
PotVsKtl
The thing that’s despicable is that you are making up excuses for Saddam Hussein. You have no problem with him gassing the Kurds or killing innocent women and children just because the Marines weren’t there to stop it. You moron.
james richardson
gee, if i were a cynic i would think the timing is rather odd, almost as if it were a convenient distraction from katrina, especially since it’s so out of character to admit wrong, much less not tell, of all people, his lawyer about his confession.
if i were a cynic.
Dave
My local paper (The Grand Forks Herald) actually did put “confession” in “scare quotes” in its headline.
kl
Yeah, it’s not like more than one newsworthy thing can happen in the world at once.
capelza
You know..all that I can think of right now is the old SNL skit where it was pointed out that Allende “committed suicide by shooting himself in the back 47 times with a machine gun..”
capelza
I’m not sure it was even SNL now…just an old phrase I heard somewhere.
carpeicthus
Saddam committed crimes? Shocking.
SeanK
He Killed More Than 200,000 Kurds Including Women And Children.
And Also 5000 Kurds In 5 minutes In Halabja Also Including Women AndChildren.
———–
And How About Turkey Iran And Syria Confess How Many Kurds They Killed?
SeanK
See Halabja