Saddam says victory at hand against U.S. occupation

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Saddam says victory at hand against U.S. occupation

Reuters
October 15, 2006

In an open letter, Saddam Hussein told Iraqis "victory was at hand" and urged insurgents to show magnanimity to opponents, saying he himself forgave Iraqis who aided the killers of his two sons.

In the letter dictated to his chief lawyer Khalil Dulaimi during a four-hour meeting on Saturday in his prison, the former Iraqi leader also said Iraqis should put aside differences and set only one goal - to drive U.S. troops out of Iraq.

"Victory is at hand but don't forget that your near-term goal is confined to liberating your country from the forces of occupation," Saddam said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Sunday.

Dulaimi said the letter was written days before the court trying Saddam over the killing of 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail in the 1980s is due to meet on Monday to review witness testimony.

Saddam urged his Sunni minority community, the backbone of the insurgency, to even forgive Iraqi informants who helped U.S. troops track down and kill his two sons, Uday and Qusay, in a gunbattle at a house in Mosul in 2003.

"When you achieve victory and it is close.. remember you are God's soldiers which means you should show genuine forgiveness and put aside revenge over the spilled blood of the sons of Saddam Hussein," Saddam wrote.

"I call on you to apply justice in your Jihad (holy war) and not be drawn to recklessness and urge you to be forgiving rather than tough with those who have lost the path," he added.

The former leader said he resorted to an open letter for the first time since his trial began in October 2005 on charges of crimes against humanity to give his message without censorship.


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Bush tells Iraqi leader U.S. setting no deadlines

Reuters
October 16, 2006

President George W. Bush assured Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday that the United States had not set any deadline for his government to get control of sectarian violence, the White House said.

Maliki raised his concerns about a timeline, saying rumors could undercut confidence in the Iraqi government, during a 15-minute telephone call initiated by Bush, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

"The president underscored his commitment to a democratically elected government of Iraq, encouraging the prime minister to ignore rumors that the United States government was seeking to impose a timeline on the Maliki government," Snow said.

In the weeks before November 7 congressional elections, some top Republicans have begun to express dissatisfaction with the direction in Iraq, where sectarian violence has raised fears that the country is sinking into an all-out civil war.

The Iraq war, in which about 2,750 American troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, has dragged down Bush's popularity before the elections in which his Republican Party is fighting to keep control of Congress.

It was unclear where the rumors were generated, but Maliki may have been referring to comments by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, a Virginia Republican, who said the United States might have to consider a change of course if the Iraqi government fails to restore order within two or three months.

Another senior Republican, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, on Sunday said he agreed with Warner's assessment. "Our options are limited. The American people are not going to continue to support, sustain a policy that puts American troops in the middle of a civil war," Hagel said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Democrats, who have long called for a change of direction in Iraq, have stepped up criticism of the Bush administration's conduct of the war.


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The Iraq war, in which about 2,750 American troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, has dragged down Bush's popularity before the elections in which his Republican Party is fighting to keep control of Congress.

That figure falls much short if we are to believe the report by The Lancet: "The survey relied on face to face questions carried out by Iraqi researchers with members of 2,000 Iraqi families, geographically distributed to best reflect Iraq\'s demographics. The authors extrapolated from this number that the mortality rate per 1,000 Iraqis was 5.5 in the years immediately before the invasion, and has averaged 13.3 since. That yielded the number of 601,000 murdered and an additional 54,000 who have died of natural causes, likely due to the declining quality of healthcare."

The Lancet is a medical publication of high prestige.