U.S.
Army Identified 500 Alleged Iraqi War Criminals in 1992,
Report Released under FOIA is a Precursor to 2003 War Crimes
Proceedings
Washington, D.C., March 20, 2003 - U.S. Army lawyers
identified more than 500 Iraqis allegedly guilty of war
crimes during the Gulf War period, according to a November
1992 Defense Department report posted today on the
Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington
University.
Obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the U.S.
Army Judge Advocate General summary [with a November 19,
1992 Defense Department cover memo titled, "Report
on Iraqi War Crimes (Desert Shield/ Desert Storm)"
signed by John H. McNeill, Deputy General Counsel for International
Affairs & Intelligence] details the Iraqi war crimes
evidence that may be used in the near future to prosecute
Iraqi officials brought before U.S. military tribunals and
discloses the procedures by which the U.S. Army collects
evidence and processes war crimes.
The Iraqis responsible for 1991 war crimes never directly
came under Coalition control in 1991 and therefore were
never brought to trial. There remains, however, no statute
of limitations on these charges and the Army Judge Advocate
General will almost certainly try captured individuals in
2003 for alleged war crimes committed in 1991. Saddam Hussein
is unmistakably one of the individuals targeted for a war
crimes trial in 2003, as the 1992 report outlines that there
"are war crimes for which Saddam Husayn, officials
of the Ba'ath Party, and his subordinates bear responsibility.
However, the principal responsibility rests with Saddam
Husayn." On March 15, 2003, the Bush administration
identified nine Iraqi officials, including Saddam Hussein
and his two sons, who if captured during an American-commanded
attack on Iraq, will be tried for war crimes or crimes against
humanity. ("U.S. Names Iraqis Who Would Face War Crimes
Trial," The New York Times, March 16, 2003,
p.A1)
The fourteen-page McNeill report distinctively outlines
the relevant law of war treaties and U.N. Security Council
resolutions violated by the Iraqi regime in 1991 and provides
details of the JAG's war crimes findings. Also included
as fact in the November 1992 report is the controversial
story of 120 Kuwaiti infants left to die after being removed
from their incubators by Iraqi soldiers. Amnesty International
expressed its doubts regarding the validity of this story
in January 1992, after it was discovered that the public
relations firm, Hill and Knowlton Co., representing Citizens
for a Free Kuwait, had supplied the main witness, and after
Amnesty researchers investigating the claim, ''found no
reliable evidence that Iraqi forces had caused the deaths
of babies by removing them, or ordering their removal, from
incubators.'' ("Testimony of Kuwaiti Envoy's Child
Assailed," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January
8, 1992, p.1C)
The 1992 report concludes: "The national command authorities
of Iraq, as well as individual Iraqi officials, perpetrated
numerous war crimes against both military and civilian personnel
of the United States and Kuwait. The War Crimes Documentation
Center has assembled the evidence to prove it."
For other declassified documents on Iraq and U.S. policy
see:
Iraq
and Weapons of Mass Destruction -- National Security
Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 80, Edited by Jeffrey
Richelson. December 20, 2002, Updated - February 26, 2003
Shaking
Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984
-- National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No.
82. Edited by Joyce Battle. February 25, 2003
