Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Iraqis fearful, curious of Saddam’s POW status BY HAMZA HENDAWI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, IRAQ —Iraqioffi cials expressed fears Saturday that a Pentagon decision to de clare Saddam Hussein a prisoner of war will prevent them from putting the ousted dictator on tri al. The international Red Cross, however, said POW status does not preclude a war crimes prose cution. U.S. officials in Baghdad sought to assure Iraqis that no deal was made to keep them from trying the ' ousted dictator for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Iraq will have a “substantial leadership role” when the former Saddam faces justice, said Dan Senor, a spokesman for the U.S. led occupation authority. “There is no need for concern by anybody because the ultimate designation (of Saddam’s status) will be determined down the road,” Senor told a news confer ence Saturday. On Friday, a Pentagon spokesman, Maj. Michael Shavers, said the Defense Department’s top civilian lawyers have determined that Saddam — held in U.S. cus tody and under CIA interrogation since his capture last month — is a prisoner of war because of his sta tus as former commander in chief of Iraq’s military. POW status under the Geneva Conventions grants Saddam cer tain rights, including access to vis its by the International Committee of the Red Cross and freedom from coercion of any kind during inter rogations. In Geneva, Ian Piper, a spokesman for the international Red Cross, said handing Saddam over to the Iraqis for trial would not conflict with the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare, as long as he is granted due process. It is up to the United States, as Iraq’s occupier, to determine how Saddam is to be tried, Piper told The Associated Press. “The status means that he’s recognized as a formal combat ant and therefore cannot be ac cused for having waged war,” “There is no need for concern by anybody because the ultimate designation (of Saddam’s status) will be determined down the road.” DAN SENOR ADVISOR TO THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY IN IRAQ Piper said. But he added that Saddam’s prisoner of war status “does not give him immunity from accusations of crimes against humanity.” Piper said that national courts have the power to try people who break international war crimes conventions. “It’s supposed to be part of national law, and one would expect the national law to apply at the.end of the conflict.” The Geneva Conventions say that a POW can only be tried by the same courts as a member of the detaining country’s military would be tried — a military court, or a civilian court as the law allows. The conventions make no specific mention of war crimes or crime against humani ty. Saddam’s capture brought a sense of relief to many Iraqis who suffered under his 23 years of iron fisted rule. No Red Cross repre sentatives have yet seen Saddam, whom the United States says is held in a safe location. Iraqi offi cials say he is being held in the Baghdad area. The United States has said it plans to hand Saddam over to the Iraqis for trial. But that is not ex pected to happen before sovereign ty is handed back to an Iraqi gov ernment by July 1, the date desig nated for the formal end of the U.S.-led occupation. Saddam’s POW designation raised concerns among many Iraqis that it would keep him out of an Iraqi court—and made some suspicious that the Americans want it that way. “I am surprised by this deci sion,” said Dara Nor al-Din, a for mer appeals court judge and mem ber of Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council. “We still con sider Saddam a criminal, and he will be tried on this basis. This new move will be discussed thor oughly in the Governing Council.” Another council member, Mahmoud Othman, said the United States had no right to make such a decision. “The Iraqi people want Saddam to be tried for his crimes in accordance with the Iraqi law. Iraqis want to know the parties which helped Saddam to commit,those crimes and to pos sess weapons of mass destruc tion,” he said. Iraq’s justice minister, Hashim Abdul-Rahman, called the Pentagon comments “mere views” and insisted that Iraqis them selves would determine Saddam’s fate. “The only thing I do know is that Iraqi bodies will decide Saddam’s status,” Abdul-Rahman said. “We will determine his legal status when the Iraqi authorities take over this issue.” Senor sought to play down the significance of the Pentagon com ments. “It is a confirmation of what the ^United States government has said all along and that Saddam Hussein will be treated under the Geneva Conventions until determined oth erwise,” he said. On the streets of the Iraqi capi tal Saturday, some Iraqis specu lated that the Americans were try ing'to deny Iraq the chance to try Saddam for fe|ir he would expose secret contacts between Washington and Baghdad, espe cially during Iraq’s 1980-88 war against Iran. The West provided Baghdad with arms to prevent an Iranian victory that would have threatened Middle East interests. Ibrahim al-Basri, a physician, said he believed POW status was part of “a bargain between Saddam and the United States. ” , “He handed them Iraq,” al Basri said. “If the Americans wanted to clone an agent to serve them, they wouldn’t find a better one than Saddam. He brought the Americans to the Gulf, divided the Arabs, destroyed Iraq and its weapons, threatened Syria and Iran.” Fired Treasury secretary says U.S. planned Iraq war early BY SCOTT LINDLAW THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CRAWFORD, TEXAS - Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill contends the United States began laying the groundwork for an in vasion of Iraq just days after President Bush took office in January 2001 — more than two years before the start of the U.S. led war that ousted Saddam Hussein. “From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” O’Neill told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an in r~--—-—'—'— terview aired Sunday night. The official American govern ment stance on Iraq, dating to the Clinton administration, was that the United States sought to oust Saddam. But O’Neill, who was fired by Bush in December 2002, said he had qualms about what he assert ed was the pre-emptive nature of the war planning. “For me, the notion of pre-emp tion, that the U.S. has the unilat eral right to do whatever we de cide to do, is a really huge leap,” according to an excerpt of the in terview that CBS released Saturday. The administration has not found evidence that the Iraqi lead er was involved in the Sept. 11 at tacks, but officials have said they had to consider the possibility that Saddam could have undertaken an even larger scale-strike against the United States. White House spokesman Scott McClellan would not confirm or deny that the White House began Iraq war planning early in Bush’s term. But, he said, Saddam “was a threat to peace and stability be fore September 11, and even more of a threat after September 11.” “It appears that the world ac cording to Mr. O’Neill is more “From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go.” PAUL O’NEILL FORMER U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY about trying to justify his own opinions than looking at the reali ty of the results we are achieving on behalf of the American people,” McClellan said in Texas, where the president is staying at his ranch. O’Neill’s interview was part of his effort to promote a new book about the first half of Bush’s term, “The Price of Loyalty,” for which O’Neill was a primary source. The administration began send ing signals about a possible con frontation with Iraq even before* Sept. 11,2001. In July 2001, after an Iraqi sur face-to-air missile was fired at an American surveillance plane, Bush’s national security adviser put Saddam on notice that the United States intended a more res olute military policy toward Iraq. “Saddam Hussein is on the radar screen for the administra tion,” Condoleezza Rice said at the time. Yet Secretary of State Colin Powell said in December 2001, af ter the terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, that “with respect to what is some times characterized as taking out Saddam, I never saw a plan that was going to take him out.” According to the book by for mer Wall Street Journal reporter Roh Suskind, the Bush adminis tration began examining options for an invasion in the first months after Bush was inaugu rated. www.dailygamecock.com Half.com Retail Natural selection. r — — — — — — — — - — — - - i I I • For a limited time, first-time buyers I ! Save an additional $5 \ * 1 on purchases of *50 or more! 1 i Simply use this code: i ! 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