Saddam Victim of 'Sectarian Persecution,' Says Ramsey Clark
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
May 10, 2006 6:13AM EST

By Monisha Bansal
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
May 10, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - Just days before Saddam Hussein's trial defense is scheduled to begin, one of Saddam's lawyers - anti-war activist Ramsey Clark -- has called for the abolition of the Iraqi Special Tribunal that is hearing the case. Clark, who also served as U.S. attorney general in the 1960s, on Tuesday said the tribunal was guilty of "sectarian persecution."

Decades after he served as Democratic President Lyndon Johnson's top law enforcement officer, Clark now heads up the anti-war group, International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism). He has also been a strong advocate for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

Clark's recent client list includes former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, in addition to the former Iraqi dictator who was ousted when the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in 2003.

Saddam and seven other Sunni Muslim members of his regime are charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, stemming from incidents in Halabja and Dujail.

Halabja was the site of an alleged poison gas attack in 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war, in which thousands of Kurds in Northern Iraq were killed.

In 1982, Saddam ordered the execution of 148 individuals in Dujail after surviving an assassination attempt. The deposed Iraqi dictator has admitted to ordering the executions, but Clark called Saddam's orders "necessary for the security of the country and of the president." Clark also referred to Dujail as the "center of Dawa Party (a Shia Arab political party) activity in 1982."

The current Iraqi prime minister is from the Dawa party, Clark said, and members of the Iraqi Special Tribunal are all Shia Arab or Kurdish, which he said makes it impossible for Saddam to receive a fair trial.

"This alone creates the appearance of prejudice and causes sectarian hostility," said Clark, during an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Tuesday.

The tribunal is "trying to show Dawa Party people that they will have vengeance, almost in their name," Clark said. The defendants, he added, are "victims" of the U.S.-led invasion.

"The U.S. is using the Iraqi Special Tribunal to vindicate its invasion and validate its occupation," said Clark. "The trial is clearly the planned continuation of the essentially unilateral war of aggression waged by the Bush administration against Iraq.

"The trial of President Saddam Hussein and other officials of his administration and political party by the Iraq Special Tribunal is a direct threat to international law, the United Nations, universal human rights and world peace," Clark added.

But James Taranto, editor of OpinionJournal.com for the Wall Street Journal, told Cybercast News Service that Clark's defense of Saddam amounts to a war of his own.

"For Ramsey Clark, this trial represents a continuation of his ideological war. There is nary an anti-American dictator Clark has not championed, from Kim Jong Il to Slobodan Milosevic," said Taranto.

"If I were Saddam Hussein, I would find a new lawyer -- one interested in defending me rather than bashing America," he added. "Of course, there is the possibility that Saddam's agenda is the same as Clark's."

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