Will someone please explain why this MFer isn't in Coalition custody?
Iraq's Ex-U.N. Envoy: U.S. Sowing Chaos
AJMAN, United Arab Emirates - Saddam Hussein's former U.N. envoy accused the United States of deliberately sowing chaos in Iraq to prevent democracy from taking hold.In interviews with The Associated Press on Saturday and Monday, former Iraqi U.N. envoy Mohammed al-Douri denounced a U.S. plan to create an appointed legislative body in Iraq and demanded free, direct elections instead.
He accused the United States of creating chaos in occupied Iraq as an excuse to avoid direct elections of a new government because that vote could lead to the United States losing control of Iraq's oil wealth and strategic location.
Free elections should be held now, he said, "because the Iraqi people are really thirsty for democracy."
Such words may seem unusual coming from al-Douri, whose role as U.N. ambassador required that he defend Iraqi policies to the world. Saddam's government never held free elections and killed at least 300,000 Iraqis believed to oppose its rule.
But al-Douri was not a hard-core member of Saddam's Baath Party and is not wanted by U.S. authorities. He repeatedly describes himself as an academic.
Al-Douri was an international law professor for 30 years before Saddam appointed him to his first diplomatic post in 1999, and he said he never considered himself a politician.
He said he strived to defend his country, not his president, as Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations in New York from 2001 until the regime was overthrown in April.
As a law professor Al-Douri can't claim ignorance that the regime he served flouted international law. This sort of BS didn't fly at Nuremberg and shouldn't now.
Posted by feste at January 20, 2004 10:39 AM | TrackBack