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Saddam shown warcrimes video { December 18 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/6540.htmlhttp://www.theherald.co.uk/news/6540.html
Saddam shown videos of his crimes
WILLIAM TINNING December 18 2003
INTERROGATORS are trying to get Saddam Hussein to confess to crimes by showing him videos of mass graves, torture and executions under his dictatorship, United States officials said yesterday.
The former Iraqi president is also being shown footage of anti-Saddam protests in an attempt to break his spirit. Sources close to the CIA, which is leading the questioning, said he had so far not disclosed any significant intelligence.
Officials with access to interrogation reports said the video technique was being used in an effort to provoke Saddam into making unguarded statements.
Officials told the USA Today newspaper that by showing him taped evidence which could be used against him in a human rights trial it was hoped he will speak out. Such tapes showing torture and executions were made by the Saddam regime and used to intimidate opponents.
Details of the process used by interrogators came on the same day that Abdel-Aziz al Hakim, president of Iraq's governing council, insisted that judges in Iraq, and not politicians, would decide Saddam's fate.
Al Hakim said the former Iraqi dictator would be given a fair trial that would meet international standards of law although he declined to say whether he believed Saddam should receive the death penalty.
After talks in London with Tony Blair, prime minister, and Jack Straw, foreign secretary, to discuss Iraq's transition to democracy, al Hakim said: "He (Saddam) will be tried and after that we will do what the judge and the court will decide.
"The court will look at all the allegations against Saddam and the other criminals of the Ba'ath party and they will decide how to deal with these issues according to international legal standards."
The question of whether Saddam should receive the death penalty has split international opinion.
George W Bush, the US president, believes he deserves the "ultimate penalty" for his crimes. Many European countries, the United Nations and the Vatican are opposed to capital punishment.
Straw told a news conference, which he jointly hosted with al Hakim, that Britain opposed the death penalty, but he said it was up to Iraqis to decide Saddam's fate.
"As a sovereign nation Iraq will be making its own sovereign decisions and some of those we may not agree with," Straw said. "This may include decisions on the death penalty. We are against the death penalty, that is our sovereign decision, with which a democratic Iraq may or may not agree."
The foreign secretary paid tribute to the courage and fortitude shown by al Hakim who lost 63 members of his family, including eight of his brothers, to the Iraqi regime.
The Ministry of Defence's senior official yesterday said the Iraqi conflict could have been avoided if the UN Security Council had adopted a second resolution. Sir Kevin Tebbit, the MoD's permanent under secretary of state, told the House of Commons defence select committee that it was a misconception that Bush took the decision to invade Iraq many months ahead of the outbreak of hostilities in March.
Sir Kevin said: "I don't believe that the president himself had any fixed views until very very late in the day, after the failure of the second UN Security Council resolution.
"The UN discussions were very serious, very thorough. It is a great tragedy that it (the second resolution) was not achieved. If other countries had been able to apply pressure, it still might have been possible to avoid military action."
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