Saddam Hussein

Have you wondered what's happened to Saddam since he was arrested on Dec 13th, 2003? Naturally he's being held in an undisclosed location, held by US forces, and being interrogated. After the all the information that has come out on the interrogation and torture practices of the US in Afghanistan and Iraq one wonders how he is being treated. But what is to be his fate? He's been in detention for over six months now. I finally found some information on the subject. Its been reported that "the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq's interim government on June 30 will include control of prisons and could lead to the handover of Saddam Hussein for trials by Iraqis. 'Saddam Hussein should be handed over to the Iraqis for trial by Iraqis', [said British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry]. Several UN Security Council members have expressed concern that prisoners are not mentioned in the US-British draft resolution on the transfer of soverignty currently being debated."(Scotsman, 4 Jun).
A Iraqi War Crimes Tribunal has been established. Its head is Salem Chalabi, nephew of Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) who provided a false perspective on Iraq's WMD capability and how Iraqis would recieve US troops was the Pentagon's pet being groomed for the presidency. Ahmed Chalabi mislead the US, was part of the interim government, but recently became at odds with the Pentagon and CIA. But that is another story.

Salem Chalabi established the Iraq International Law Group (IILG), which describes itself as "your professional gateway to the new Iraq." Assisting Salem in setting up the IILG was a partner Marc Zell (the IILG's website has been registered in Zell's name). Zell is an Israeli settler of the Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) stripe. Here the plot thickens.
Zell had for many years been [US Undersecretary of Defense Douglas] Feith's partner in their Washington-Tel Aviv law firm, Feith and Zell (FANDZ). FANDZ had been set up when Feith left government to pursue the work of a "foreign agent" representing Turkey and some Israeli interests. Following the Baghdad opening of the IILG, Zell soon opened, in the US, an office for Zell, Goldberg& Co., which promises to assist "American companies in their relations with the US government in connection with Iraq's reconstruction projects." It is interesting to note that Zell, Goldberg still uses the website FANDZ, the site of the old Feith and Zell firm. So when Zell boasts his connections to government, businesses know exactly what is meant. In the relatively short period of time since the fall of the Baath Party regime, IILG and Zell, Goldberg have facilitated contracts in the tens, possibly hundreds of millions of dollars. (Arab News, June 2nd)

But there is some disagreement as to whether/when prisoners, particularly Saddam, will be handed over to the Iraqi War Crimes Tribunal. "The head of Iraq's war-crimes tribunal said [May/11] that the United States has pledged to hand over Saddam Hussein and about 100 other suspects to Iraqi authorities before July 1 if Iraq is ready to take them into custody. U.S. officials denied any decision had been reached." (Associated Press) Other star prisoners include Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as `Chemical Ali', and Tariq Aziz, Saddam's former deputy prime minister. In any case, Salem Chalabi has said no trial would start before 2005.