Jacques Verges told Reuters in a telephone interview he had received a letter from Ali Barzan al-Tikriti, whose father Barzan al-Tikriti is Saddam’s half-brother, asking him to defend the former Iraqi dictator, captured by U.S. forces in December.
“We know very well that the Anglo-Americans armed Saddam Hussein, that the chemical weapons were sold by the allies,” Verges said in a telephone interview.
Sights on Rumsfeld
Washington helped Saddam obtain intelligence and military equipment and, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control document in the Senate record, Iraq also obtained from the United States biological agents that could have been turned into weapons. The United States was at the time supporting Iraq in its war against the old U.S. foe Iran, at a time when Saddam used chemical weapons against Iranian forces and Iraqi Kurds. Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the former Soviet Union also supplied Iraq with equipment, expertise and funding over the years. The West’s close military and commercial relationship with Saddam ended when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Verges singled out U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a key advocate of last year’s U.S.-led war to oust Saddam, for his role 20 years ago as a special envoy of then-President Ronald Reagan.
He said that if a trial of Saddam took place, Rumsfeld would have to “take a seat next to the leader.” Verges decried U.S. treatment of Saddam since his capture and said he feared the former dictator could be killed before he had a chance to stand trial.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4614259/