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Saddam - the can of worms
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17 December 2003
Saddam - the can of worms Although the capture of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has provided a welcome political boost for the Bush administration, few intelligence professionals believe that the fallen president had been playing an active role in directing continuing attacks against Coalition troops and foreign diplomats in Iraq. Then there is the prospect of a public trial during which the USA's past policies in the region may come under unwelcome scrutiny. JID assesses whether this particular prize was worth taking alive.
Although he may have been captured 'like a rat in a hole', the more appropriate analogy for Saddam's capture is that of the proverbial 'can of worms'. At first glance, the capture of the fugitive former president was a great moment for the US-led Coalition. While lesser henchmen had been detained or handed themselves in in the months following the invasion, the number-one target had managed to elude capture for so long - despite Washington's offer of an enormous bounty - that senior members of the US military had started falling back on such clichés as the hunt was "like looking for a needle in a haystack". The fact that this particular needle was worth a cool US$25m made the Coalition's failure to get their man all the more embarrassing.
However, despite the carefully choreographed announcement by US civilian administrator Paul Bremer of the fallen dictator's discovery in a concealed cellar close to his home town of Tikrit, there are some leading figures within the Bush administration who would have preferred Saddam to have gone down fighting to the death in the same way as his sons Uday and Qusay did in late July. A dead dictator would have dispensed with the need for a public trial - the prospect of which is deeply troubling for some within the Bush administration.
Few are naïve enough to believe that international politics is anything but a dirty business that may require co-operation with repressive and sordid regimes. However, putting Saddam on trial for crimes committed throughout his long term of office is likely to invite the defence to raise a whole raft of awkward questions about the West's role - and particularly that of the USA - in bringing Saddam to power in the Iraqi coup d'etat of 1968 and in sustaining him, often covertly, during the Iran-Iraq war of 1981-1988.
As the ongoing trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is demonstrating, judicial proceedings in the full glare of international publicity can prove extremely taxing for Western politicians and generals who have had past dealings with fallen regimes. And the Milosevic circus is very far from being concluded.
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