Mallon's Media Watch

Posted 2:24 PM by John Mallon | link

From Fr. Peter West: Why Saddam had to Go:

Dear Friends,

Below is a little reminder of why Saddam Hussein had to go and why our troops are fighting for a noble cause. I have heard some "pro-life" people say they can't vote for President Bush because of his decision to invade Iraq. Fighting terrorism is pro-life. To compare our fight against an evil regime in Iraq and the establishment of a democratic government with the 3700 babies killed every day by abortion is highly offensive.
Sincerely,

Fr. Peter West
Staten Island, New York

As a young man, Saddam Hussein quickly established reputation for brutality by committing his first murder at the age of 19.

There are 22 countries in the Arab world. Saddam believed that Iraq had a unique role in the history of the Arab world. He dreamed of a unified Arab world being led by Iraq to serve the interests of the Arab people. He viewed himself as another Nebuchadnezzar.

Sadaam murdered members of his Ba'ath Party who could possibly oppose him as he rose in power. On becoming President of Iraq, one of Sadaam's first acts as President was to convene an assembly of Ba'ath party leaders on July 22, 1979. Names were read of members that Saddam thought could oppose him. These members were labeled "disloyal" and were removed from the room one-by-one to face a firing squad. After the list was read, Saddam congratulated those still seated in the room for their past and future loyalty. The room erupted in applause and shouting in support of Saddam.

Saddam executed General Adnan Khairallah Tuffah because of his growing popularity. Tuffah was the brother of Sadaam's ex-wife Sajida and Saddam's boyhood friend.

In August 1995, Saddam's daughter Rana and her husband Hussein Kamel Majid and Saddam's daughter Raghad and her husband, Saddam Kamel Majid, defected to Jordan, taking their children with them. They returned to Iraq when they received assurances that Saddam Hussein would pardon them. Within three days of their return in February 1996, both Hussein Kamel Majid and Saddam Kamel Majid were executed. The Majid brothers were Saddam's cousins.

One of Saddam's role models was the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin. Saddam particularly liked the Stalinist techniques of establishing informers in every neighborhood or apartment house. This, coupled with savage punishments for real or suspected traitors and their families, created a fear among the population that made rebellion difficult.

A 2002 referendum, asked the question whether Saddam should continue to lead Iraq. 100% of voters thought he should, and that the turnout was 100%. However, he was the only presidential candidate on the ballot and voting was mandatory.

Human rights groups have documented cases of state-sponsored rapes of women and systemic acts of torture for political ends.

Saddam's eldest son, Uday, tortured athletes and others that displeased him.

The following is an excerpt from Time magazine's interview with Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector. The aticle was published on September 16, 2002

Time: You've spoke about having seen the children's prisons in Iraq. Can you describe what you saw there?

Ritter: The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children ˜ toddlers up to pre-adolescents ˜ whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene.

In 1990 Saddam attacked his neighbor Iran.

Casualty figures from the Iran-Iraq War are highly uncertain, though estimates suggest more than one and a half million war and war-related casualties -- perhaps as many as a million people died, many more were wounded, and millions were made refugees. The Iraqis suffered an estimated 375,000 casualties, the equivalent of 5.6 million for a population the size of the United States. Another 60,000 were taken prisoner by the Iranians. Iran's losses may have included more than 1 million people killed or maimed. The war claimed at least 300,000 Iranian lives and injured more than 500,000, out of a total population which by the war's end was nearly 60 million.

During the war Saddam received international condemnation after he ordered the use of chemical weapons on Iranian troops. The war ended in a bloody stalemate with no gain to either side. Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in ruins.

Saddam Hussein's systematically used chemical weapons on Kurdish troops and population centers. The worst incident occurred on March 16, 1988 when Iraqi troops, on orders from Saddam to stop a Kurdish uprising, attacked the Kurdish town of Halabjah with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents killing 5000 people, mostly women and children. Also, according to anti-Saddam opposition groups, around 100,000 other Kurds have been exiled since 1991.

Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", was accused of ordering the use of poison gas to slaughter Kurds in 1988. Ali is now in US custody.

Despite suffering several hundred thousand casualties, the Iraqi Army grew larger and stronger during the Iran-Iraq War. Kuwait, fearing a Khomeini-led fundamentalist Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East if Iran won, had lent Saddam between twelve and fifteen billion dollars to modernize his military and fight Iran. By August 1990 Iraq's army, with 900 thousand troops in uniform and another million in civilian reserves, was the fourth largest in the world. It was well-equipped with 5,700 tanks, including Soviet- made T-55s and T-62s, and 3,700 artillery pieces. The Iraqi Air Force, the sixth largest in the world, possessed 950 combat aircraft, including MIG-21s and MIG-23s. 13

In 1990, Saddam ordered invaded his neighbor Kuwait.

The United Nations Security Council gave Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and the Security Council declared war on Iraq. Saddam ignored the deadline and the Security Council declared war on Iraq. Iraq was expelled from Kuwait and lost an estimated 20,000 troops.

Following the war, popular uprisings erupted in the north and south parts of the nation. These uprisings were swiftly and ruthlessly repressed and thousands of Iraqis were killed. A United Nations trade embargo was placed on Iraq following the war and Saddam tightened his control over Iraq.
UNSCRs 686, 687 and others require Saddam Hussein to release immediately any Gulf War prisoners and to cooperate in accounting for missing and dead Kuwaitis and others from the Gulf War. Saddam has continued to violate these resolutions.

Saddam Hussein has failed to return, or account for, a large number of Kuwaiti citizens and citizens of other countries who were detained during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and continues to refuse to cooperate with the Tripartite Commission to resolve the cases.

Of 609 cases of missing Gulf War POWs/MIAs representing 14 nationalities - including one American pilot - under review by the Tripartite Commission on Gulf War Missing, only 4 have been resolved. Because of continued Iraqi obfuscation and concealment, very few cases have been resolved since the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein denies having any knowledge of the others and claims that any relevant records were lost in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

In a December 2001 report to the UN Security Council, the UN Secretary-General criticized the Iraqi Government's refusal to cooperate with the U.N. on the issue of the missing POWs/MIAs citizens. Iran reports that the Iraqi Government still has not accounted for 5,000 Iranian POW's missing since the Iran-Iraq War.

"Secretary General reiterates little progress on the issue of repatriation or return of all Kuwaiti and third country nationals or their remains, as Iraq refused to cooperate with the Tripartite Commission."

In August 2001, Amnesty International reported that Saddam Hussein has the world's worst record for numbers of persons who have disappeared and remain unaccounted for.

The Iraqi Government continued to ignore the more than 16,000 cases conveyed to it in 1994 and 1995 by the UN, as well as requests from the Governments of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to account for the whereabouts of those who had disappeared during Iraq's 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait, and from Iran regarding the whereabouts of prisoners of war that Iraq captured in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.

"Security Council regrets that no progress made on return of Kuwaiti national archives, reiterate need for Iraq to immediately fulfill all requirements under the relevant resolutions, including repatriation or return of all Kuwaiti and third country nationals or their remains."
Saddam Hussein has several wives including Samira Shahbandar, whom he married in 1986 after forcing her husband to divorce her, and Nidal al-Hamdani, the general manager of the Solar Energy Research Center in the Council of Scientific Research, whose husband apparently was also persuaded to divorce his wife.

Abu Nidal lived in Bagdad for before he "committed suicide" in 2002. Nidal was a terrorist suspected of having killed or injured 900 people in attacks in 20 countries since 1974. He was wanted in the United States, Britain and Italy. Italy found him guilty in absentia, for organizing Rome airport attack on Dec. 27, 1985, in which 16 people died. A parallel attack in Vienna the same day left four dead and 47 wounded.

Two Iraqi Military defectors, an unnamed former Lt. General and a Captain Sabah Khodada recently gave details of an Iraqi school at Salman Pak which includes training for the hijacking of passenger airliners and other modes of transportation. The former Iraqi General said that there was a old Boeing 707 resting next to rail tracks on edge of Salman Pak being used in terrorist training, the existence of this aircraft has been confirmed by UN. Inspectors.

See the following links for more information on this:

http://bbs.clubplanet.com/showthread/t-159233.html

http://www.tupbiosystems.com/articles/sudan_bin_laden.html

Do not doubt that Saddam Hussein was an evil man and a threat to world peace. The bottom line is that if John Kerry becomes President he will continue the abortion holocaust and also endanger our national security.

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