OH PLEASE! Now who's not living in reality ?????

Saddam Could Call CIA in His Defense
by Sanjay Suri

LONDON - Evidence offered by a top CIA man could confirm the testimony given by Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad Thursday that he knew of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers.

Thousands were reported killed in the gassing of Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in the north of Iraq in March 1988 towards the end of Iraq's eight-year war with Iran. The gassing of the Kurds has long been held to be the work of Ali Hassan al-Majid, named in the West because of that association as 'Chemical Ali'. Saddam Hussein is widely alleged to have ordered Ali to carry out the chemical attack.

The Halabja massacre is now prominent among the charges read out against Saddam in the Baghdad court. When that charge was read out, Saddam replied that he had read about the massacre in a newspaper. Saddam has denied these allegations ever since they were made. But now with a trial on, he could summon a witness in his defense with the potential to blow apart the charge and create one of the greatest diplomatic disasters the United States has ever known.

A report prepared by the top CIA official handling the matter says Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the massacre, and indicates that it was the work of Iranians. Further, the Scott inquiry on the role of the British government has gathered evidence that following the massacre the United States in fact armed Saddam Hussein to counter the Iranians chemicals for chemicals.

Few believe that a CIA man would attend a court hearing in Baghdad in defense of Saddam. But in this case the CIA boss has gone public with his evidence, and this evidence has been in the public domain for more than a year.

The CIA officer Stephen C. Pelletiere was the agency's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. As professor at the Army War College from 1988 to 2000, he says he was privy to much of the classified material that flowed through Washington having to do with the Persian Gulf.

In addition, he says he headed a 1991 Army investigation into how the Iraqis would fight a war against the United States, and the classified version of the report went into great detail on the Halabja affair.

Pelletiere went public with his information on no less a platform than The New York Times in an article on January 31 last year titled 'A War Crime or an Act of War?' The article which challenged the case for war quoted U.S. President George W. Bush as saying: ”The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured.”

Pelletiere says the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report following the Halabja gassing, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need- to-know basis. ”That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas,” he wrote in The New York Times.

The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja, he said. ”The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been killed with a blood agent -- that is, a cyanide-based gas -- which Iran was known to use. ”The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time.”

Pelletiere writes that these facts have ”long been in the public domain but, extraordinarily, as often as the Halabja affair is cited, they are rarely mentioned.”

Pelletiere wrote that Saddam Hussein has much to answer for in the area of human rights abuses. ”But accusing him of gassing his own people at Halabja as an act of genocide is not correct, because as far as the information we have goes, all of the cases where gas was used involved battles. These were tragedies of war. There may be justifications for invading Iraq, but Halabja is not one of them.”

Pelletiere has maintained his position. All Saddam would have to do in court now is to cite The New York Times article even if the court would not summon Pelletiere. The issues raised in the article would themselves be sufficient to raise serious questions about the charges filed against Saddam - and in turn the justifications offered last year for invading Iraq.

The Halabja killings were cited not just by Bush but by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to justify his case for going along with a U.S. invasion of Iraq. A British government dossier released to justify the war on Iraq says that ”Saddam has used chemical weapons, not only against an enemy state, but against his own people.” An inquiry report in 1996 by Lord Justice Scott in what came to be known as the arms-to-Iraq affair gave dramatic pointers to what followed after Halabja. After the use of poison gas in 1988 both the United States and Britain began to supply Saddam Hussein with even more chemical weapons.

The Scott inquiry had been set up in 1992 following the collapse of the trial in the case of Matrix Churchill, a British firm exporting equipment to Iraq that could be put to military use.

Three senior executives of Matrix Churchill said the government knew what Matrix Churchill was doing, and that its managing director Paul Henderson had been supplying information about Iraq to the British intelligence agencies on a regular basis.

The inquiry revealed details of the British government's secret decision to supply Saddam with even more weapons-related equipment after the Halabja killings.

Former British foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe was found to have written that the end of the Iraq-Iran war could mean ”major opportunities for British industry” in military exports, but he wanted to keep that proposal quiet.

”It could look very cynical if so soon after expressing outrage about the treatment of the Kurds, we adopt a more flexible approach to arms sales,” one of his officials told the Scott inquiry. Lord Scott condemned the government's decision to change its policy, while keeping MPs and the public in the dark.

Soon after the attack, the United States approved the export to Iraq of virus cultures and a billion-dollar contract to design and build a petrochemical plant the Iraqis planned to use to produce mustard gas.

Saddam Hussein has appeared so far without a lawyer to defend him. A Jordanian firm is reported to be speaking up for him. But the real defense for him could be waiting for him in Washington and London.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0703-01.htm

Thank you!!!! Let's not mention that the counter culture in America are part of the problem when they don't want us to drill here for our OWN oil!!!! They can't blame that on Bush. They are also driving our economy into the ground with their counter productive demands.

We should drill for oil & start investing in alternative sourses of energy as well. I can't wait to tell the mid east where they can put their oil....

No why would I cry?

You believe too much of what Bush tells you and dont read the facts enough!
What facts are you using for all your assumptions?
Why would you think the ME needs our help?

Your turn! Lets here your answers!

ooo.. i wish i could wrap it up in a nice little box with labels...this one is good this one is evil...
BUT it is not entirely so.
good things CAN come from evil things perhaps.


and the media is warped...any way we look at it.
from new world order theories..
to the goverment is good...lets do what they want us to do theories.
i believe both are inaccurate

idk.....

Here you go madman,
http://www.mediamonitors.net/robinmiller10.html

What Happened at Halabja?

The only verified Kurdish civilian deaths from chemical weapons occurred in the Iraqi village of Halabja, near the Iran border, where at least several hundred people died from gas poisoning in mid-March, 1988. We know that Iran overran the village and its small garrison of Iraqi troops; what is contested is who was responsible for the deaths--Iran or Iraq--and how large the death toll was.

The best evidence is a 1990 report by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College.[2] It concluded that Iran, not Iraq, was the culprit in Halabja. Lead author Stephen Pelletiere, who was the CIA's senior political analyst on Iraq throughout the Iran-Iraq war, has described his group's findings:

"The great majority of the victims seen by reporters and other observers who attended the scene were blue in their extremities. That means that they were killed by a blood agent, probably either cyanogens chloride or hydrogen cyanide. Iraq never used and lacked any capacity to produce these chemicals. But the Iranians did deploy them. Therefore the Iranians killed the Kurds."[3]

These are the facts as I read them in 1988 and as taught at The Army war College to US Army Officers!
How Bush and Company were able to twist the truth and get millions to believe the lies is a fault that lies with the complacent attitudes of the sheeple who refuse to look at the facts themselves!

Maybe this will help you out...not all of these people are Americans.

Therin lies the problem...too much FOREIGN influence in our politics. Another nail in our coffin. Not to mention politicians who want to keep getting elected...they just keep helping themselves at our expense.

oh..me..Im just guessing at everything..
bush and i dont have an intamite relationship..
i stopped answering his phone calls months ago.

i would like to go check the situation out for myself..my own eyes..


america..is a great nation..
somehow many nationalities..many backgrounds..the rich and poor...
manage together realitvely well even with all of our freedoms..

well except the indians...we kinda blew them away mostly and forced them to change their lifestyle..

Bush , Cheney , Rumsfeld , and the rest of the gang are tyrants but you are happy with them being tyrants . You and reality do not mix .
Are you seriouisly saying That those who kill innocent men , innocent women and innocent children for filthy political agenda are not tyrants ???!!!.

So you have no facts to back your assumptions.
You dont even acknowledge the problems of race tolerance America has within our borders!
Oh boy, I wished I had a pair of those Rose colored glasses!
Not..........
Have you ever left your home town?

This discussion is a world wide concern. It is not just ours. Canada is our allies their sons and daughters are dying right along side ours!
Our DA Presidents Foreign Policy is affecting the whole world!

Wow, and what are your sources? Let me guess... the news?? If so take a second look, because they don't report anything they don't want to report... and they don't report anything without their own spin being placed upon it. Your so called facts may be facts... or they may be so much of the drivel that is fed to Americans who refuse to think and research for themselves (or even cross reference with other sources).

NEWSFLASH!!!! I don't live under oppression!

We have freedoms.

No one is knocking on my door & telling me what to wear etc etc. I DON'T LIVE IN FEAR! What country do you live in to spout those lies? You are mistaking us for YOUR country maybe. Our leadership are not tyrants...go talk that trash to syria & the sudan...and all those mid east countries that don't allow their people freedoms we enjoy. REALITY CHECK!!!!

Stop with the lies. I'M SICK OF THEM!!!!

Yu know what? Yu can't have it both ways...people want our help when it suits them...other than that we are accused of being imperialistic & dominating. Stop talking on both sides of your mouth & THINK about what you are saying.

I'd love to stick it to this world .... we should supply our own oil & tell the world to solve their own problems. Let's see how well they do without our hand extended. ????

John McCain voted against Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday.

He must not love America

He is right!
Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Gonzales, Libby, Abramoff, etc are the biggest group of conspirator liars Ive ever seen since Richard Nixon and they have him beat by a long shot!
Just because you are too blind to see it doesnt make it untrue.
My God woman, they made history for the first time the US has invaded another country without provocation!

I think Hitler did that!
Didnt he?

You must live in a shell
located in the 19TH century!

Why would we destroy our enviornment for something that would not do any good for ten years and only drop the price of gas in ten yrs by pennies?
The technology exists to move beyond fossil fuels and with a National effort could be accomplished in half that time!

Man oh man you Republicans must really be feeling the heat!

Dont make baseless claims of inaccuracies. Prove they are false or dont say anything at all! I provide links to my information for the sake of those who have not seen what I know!

Wow, 15 pages and you guys are still going at it??

Must be some very persistent people in this debate.


Yes, I know, But just trying to throw some humor in here, lol.

As long as there exists a few who hold their eyes shut I will be there trying what may to pry them open!