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Green Party on Saddam execution
Source Ken Hanly
Date 07/01/03/22:30

Saddam's Execution Brings No Hope or Justice for Iraq
Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org

Monday, January 1, 2007

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders responded to
news of the execution of Saddam Hussein with a warning
that his hanging brings neither hope for the Iraqi
people nor justification for the U.S. invasion of
Iraq.

"The Green Party opposed the execution of Saddam
Hussein, because we categorically oppose the death
penalty and reject it as an instrument of justice,"
said Jill Bussiere, 2006 Green candidate for the
Wisconsin State Senate (District 1)
. "Greens
look forward to the fall of all governments that abuse
their power, but we support international laws that
forbid the invasion of one country by another and the
U.S. Constitution, which mandates that our armed
forces exist solely for defense of U.S. borders."

"The Bush Administration initially justified the
invasion of Iraq by claims about WMDs, collusion with
Al-Qaeda, and the need for preemption;' and later by
propaganda about liberating the Iraqi people and
bestowing democracy. All of these have been proven
fraudulent. The reason that President Bush acted to
remove Saddam Hussein was to assert U.S. political
domination over the Middle East and control over oil
resources," Ms. Bussiere added.

Greens noted that the current situation in Iraq
suggests that the next government will -- like the
Saddam Hussein regime -- be an autocracy that
disregards law and the rights of its citizens and is
sustained with U.S. support. The outcome of the Iraqi
civil war that followed the U.S. invasion is likely to
be a new autocratic regime (or regimes, if Iraq
divides into two or three nations), possibly a
repressive, misogynistic theocracy similar to Saudi
Arabia and Iran.

Saddam Hussein's quick and extra-legal execution, said
Greens, also makes it unlikely that the world will see
the investigation and prosecution of U.S. leaders who
supported his regime in the 1980s, when most of his
atrocities took place, and U.S. corporations that
provided the means, including biological and chemical
weapons, for Saddam to commit crimes against humanity.

Saddam was noticeably not tried for crimes in which he
used American made weapons, said Greens, in order to
protect U.S. leaders (especially Reagan Administration
officials and former Bush Administration Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld) and firms that were complicit
in his crimes by providing aide, intelligence, and
chemical and biological arms. (See "How the West armed
Saddam, fed him intelligence on his 'enemies',
equipped him for atrocities - and then made sure he
wouldn't squeal" by Robert Fisk, The Independent,
December 31, 2006.)

"The invasion of Iraq was an international crime for
which the current White House must be held accountable
through impeachment and criminal prosecution" said
Starlene Rankin, Lavender Caucus delegate to the Green
Party's national committee. "Saddam Hussein's
execution brings neither peaceful resolution, justice,
or democracy for the people of Iraq. Saddam Hussein
was convicted, but George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and
Donald Rumsfeld are still at large.

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