Sunday, January 17, 2010

Bye, Bye

'Chemical Ali' to be hanged within days
"The former spy chief and first cousin of Saddam was today sentenced to death for ordering the slaughter of more than 5,000 Kurds in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja with chemical weapons in 1988.

It was the fourth death sentence the 68-year-old has received for atrocities committed during the brutal three-decade reign of the Ba'athists. Iraq's deputy justice minister, Busho Ibrahim, said Majid's execution was now imminent."
Also, buried near the bottom of the article:
"...the US detention centre in which Majid has been held since being captured six years ago will continue to house prisoners until August, despite being scheduled to close on 31 December as part of a much-heralded security agreement between Washington and Baghdad. The status of forces agreement signed between both states had flagged the ­closure of the Camp Cropper detention centre as a milestone of security progress."
[---]
"Ibrahim said the extension of the US detention programme had been requested by Iraq."
[---]
"Among those still in Camp Cropper, inside the US Victory base near Baghdad airport in the west of the city, is the former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz, who was reported to have suffered a stroke in his cell over the weekend that has left him partially paralysed and unable to speak.

Aziz and other Saddam loyalists are due to be moved to a Iraqi/US prison in Camp Taji, a military base north of Baghdad that will also house detainees considered by the US military too dangerous to free, or to hand over to Iraqi officials."
At any rate, good riddance to the whole lot.

Related: Michael Totten interviews Christopher Hitchens
"MJT: You know Mullah Krekar, this fanatic in Norway from Iraqi Kurdistan?

Hitchens: I do know Mullah Krekar.

MJT: The Kurds in Iraq say if he goes home, they'll kill him.

Hitchens: Oh, no question.

MJT: But in Norway he gets state welfare benefits.

Hitchens: Do know anyone in Iraqi Kurdistan who actually prays five times a day?

MJT: No.

Hitchens: And you're not going to, either. They have just as much a claim to being Muslims, Sunni Muslims, as anybody else, yet no jihadist from Birmingham went to help the Kurds when they were being genocided—or Anfalled—by Saddam's atheist state."
The Hitchens interview is well worth a read. Part 2, which discusses Iran, is here.

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