Sunday, December 14, 2003

Clark Wants Openness in Trial of Saddam

On his way The Hague to testify in the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark called for a transparent trial of Saddam Hussein, who on Saturday was captured by U.S. forces in Iraq while literally hiding in a hole.

"[Retired-Gen. Clark] was to appear in closed session before the U.N. tribunal Monday and Tuesday, but at the insistence of the U.S. government publication of his testimony was being delayed until Friday to allow it to be reviewed and edited of comments deemed compromising to U.S. national security. As the former supreme commander of NATO, Clark led a 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 aimed at expelling Milosevic's Yugoslav forces involved in a bloody crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.”

That Clark bothered to say anything seems interesting. But perhaps he knows more about Saddam than most of us. Clark may have more than an inkling of knowledge about what secrets Iraq's fallen dictator has in his head that would be embarrassing to the USA, were he to reveal them. After all, at one time he was an ally who received all sorts of weapons, and such, from Republican presidents in the past.

Clark may also be remembering another dictator, who was in a similar position in 1989, during the first Bush administration. Not much has been heard from Panama’s former strongman Manuel Noriega since his capture and extremely low profile trial. Isn’t he in jail, somewhere in Florida? Who knows?

Read the AP article.

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