Pictures of Execution Shown To Prisoners

It seems that prisoners being held by the US in Guantanamo Bay have been shown photos of Saddam Hussein, hanging from a rope following his execution.

That at least is the case according to lawyers for David Hicks, Australia's only Guantanamo inmate.

Joshua Dratel, the lead American lawyer for Hicks, said that pictures of Saddam's trial were also shown to detainees, along with articles about executions carried out by extremists.

Quote:

"Displaying photos of condemned men to those who may be facing capital charges can only be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate and compel submission under a threat of death and mentally torture an already abused detainee population."

A spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said:

"This is the first we've heard of it. Mr Hicks did not take the issue up with the consul-general when he had the opportunity, nor has the legal team made an approach to us to follow it up with the Americans.

It's very hard to attempt to verify some of these claims if Mr Hicks himself doesn't feel the need to raise it with us directly."

Call Bush To Account

Can anyone explain to me how it is that the US and UK governments are still claiming that the lives of the Iraqi people have improved since the regime change?

Iraq's Death Squads 2 builds on a previous Dispatches investigation (7 Nov 2006) which revealed the close links between London & Washington backed Shia politicians as the new democratic leaders of Iraq & the death squads responsible for mass murder.

Thousands of civilians are being deliberately killed every month in Iraq - more than were killed in the final years of Saddam's regime. Working with local Iraqi journalists, reporter Deborah Davies shows how night after night death squads rampage through Baghdad's previously mixed neighbourhoods. Up to a hundred bodies a day are dumped on the streets, often showing signs of torture with electric drills. Whole areas of Baghdad have now been ethnically cleansed.

While the US and UK governments have been blaming Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda for the deaths, Dispatches reveals how the majority of these murders have been carried out by the Shia militia which have systematically infiltrated and taken over police units and entire government ministries. And it highlights how the killers act with impunity - there's little investigation into their activities.

Bush and Blair need to be called to account for this.

Chemical Ali Claims Immunity

Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", Saddam Hussein's cousin claimed immunity from prosecution yesterday.

He told Iraq's High Tribunal that it had no right to try him for war crimes, because US forces were immune from prosecution for their alleged wrongdoing in Iraq.

Ali Hassan al-Majid said:

"If I made a mistake, then those (the Iraqi government and US troops) who are currently implementing a law that covers all parts of Iraq should be punished. I issued a law for a part of Iraq only."

Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon told al-Majid that US troops "have immunity in Iraq only. There were soldiers who were tried and received harsh punishment."

The trial will resume on February 7th.

Saddam's Cousin Unrepentant

Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", Saddam Hussein's cousin stated in court yesterday that he had given orders to destroy Kurdish villages during the campaign against the Kurds in the 1980s.

Ali Hassan al-Majid claimed that the area "was full of Iranian agents. We had to isolate these saboteurs."

I am the one who gave orders to the army to demolish villages and relocate the villagers."

Adding:

"I am not defending myself. I am not apologising. I did not make a mistake."

The trial continues.