Saddam speaks from beyond the grave, justifies execution

The NYT is reporting that in the Baghdad court where Saddam is being prosecuted posthumously, along with his cohorts, for the deaths of some 180,000 Kurds in the 1980s, he can be heard saying on audio tape that the chemical attacks only he could order would kill “thousands.”

In response to questions posed by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, his vice president and a notorious hard-liner, he can be heard saying, “Yes, they’re very effective if people don’t wear masks....they will kill thousands.”

Court officials did not indicate how they obtained the recordings, which were deemed to be authentic according to those familiar with Saddam's voice.

Saddam can be heard saying that the chemicals “will prevent people eating and drinking the local water, and they won’t be able to sleep in their beds... they will force people to leave their homes and make them uninhabitable until they have been decontaminated.” And then adding, “I don’t know if you know this, Comrade Izzat, but chemical weapons are not used unless I personally give the orders.”

The prosecution went on to show a video of the aftermath of the Halabja attacks, in which thousands of Kurds were gassed. In the video, a father can be seen wailing as he discovers his children, as the NY Times describes the scene, "lying along a street littered with bodies; dead mothers clutching gas-choked infants to their breasts in swaddling clothes; young sisters embracing each other in death; and trucks piled high with civilian bodies."

"I ask the whole world to look at these images, especially those who are crying right now," the Times quoted the Iraqi prosecutor, Munkith al-Faroun as telling the court, referring no doubt to his compatriots and others around the world who were outraged at the way Saddam's execution had been carried out.

It was Faroun, the reader will recall and as the Times reported that was the only person present at Saddam's execution who called for restraint. As Saddam stood with the noose around his neck about to be hanged, Faroun implored the others in attendence to be respectful. "Please, no!" he can be heard saying on the illicit tape made of the moment, "The man is about to be executed."