Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Saddam Hussein could face up to 500 charges at a tribunal, but he will be tried on only 12 well documented counts because prosecuting him on all would be a ‘‘waste of time,’’ the Prime Minister’s spokesman Laith Kuba said on Sunday. Kuba also said that Saddam is likely to be tried within the next two months on various charges, including alleged crimes committed in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Saddam has been accused of ordering the killing of thousands of Shiites and Kurds who rose up against him in 1991 following the Gulf War that liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.
‘‘There should be no objection to a trial taking place within that time,’’ Kuba said during a press conference. ‘‘It is the government’s view that Saddam’s trial should take place as soon as possible.’’ No date has been set for the trial.
Saddam, who has been held in a US-run detention facility in Baghdad since being captured in December 2003, was arraigned on July 1 in Baghdad on broad charges. The charges include killing rival politicians over 30 years, gassing Kurds in the northern town of Halabja in 1988, invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing the Kurdish and Shiite uprising.
Iraqi forces searching the country’s western province of Anbar on Saturday, uncovered a network of bunkers hidden in a vast underground quarry, equipped with air conditioning, food and a wide assortment of weapons, a Marine spokesman said.
The quarry, near the town of Karmah, was as long as three football fields and separated into rooms that had apparently housed insurgents, the spokesman, Capt Jeffrey Pool, said in a statement.
‘Within the various rooms, Iraqi security and coalition forces discovered four fully furnished living spaces, a kitchen with fresh food, two shower facilities and a working air conditioner,’’ Pool said. The weapons included mortars, artillery shells and rockets along with night-vision goggles and cell phones.
