Saddam's Capture Unlikely to End Iraqi Insurgent Resistance to U.S. Occupation

Interview with Greg Palast, BBC-TV investigative reporter, conducted by Scott Harris

The U.S. capture of Saddam Hussein, found in an underground hiding place near his hometown of Tikrit, was met with jubilation in Washington and celebratory gunfire on many streets in Iraq, owing to the long list of crimes committed by the deposed dictator. The apprehension of the man who ruled Iraq for 25 years, ends a nine-month American effort to kill or capture Saddam that began shortly after President Bush launched the U.S.-led war last March.

Bush, very much aware of the controversy surrounding his premature declaration of a U.S. victory in Iraq last May, was more cautious about the affect Saddam Hussein's capture would have on insurgents attacking U.S. occupation forces. In the hours immediately after American troops took Hussein prisoner, guerrilla fighters launched three suicide bomb attacks, killing 24 Iraqi police officers working with the U.S. occupation.

The White House signaled that Saddam Hussein would likely face the death penalty in a war crimes trial organized by their hand-picked Governing Council in Iraq, rather than a United Nations-run tribunal. Critics expressed concern that such a proceeding could be viewed as a "show trial" with little legitimacy and would likely ignore questions about U.S. support for Saddam Hussein before the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Between the Lines' Scott Harris spoke with BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast, who discusses the history of America's relationship with Hussein and the political repercussions of his capture both for Iraq and the U.S.

Greg Palast is author of the book "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." Read Greg Palast's columns online at www.gregpalast.com

Related links:

"You Got Him? Get Out!" by James Ridgeway, The Village Voice, Dec. 15, 2003

"During Trial, Hussein May Try to Implicate Western Leaders," by Mark Matthews, Baltimore Sun, Dec. 17, 2003

"2 Car Bombers Attack Iraqi Police, as Insurgency Continues," by Ian Fisher, The New York Times, Dec. 15, 2003

"Saddam capture stuns Arab world," by Roger Hardy, BBC Middle East analyst, Dec. 15, 2003

"Spider's Web: How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq," book by Alan Friedman, New York: Bantam Books, 1993

"Saddam Hussein: Made in the USA," by Mike Burke, www.thirdworldtraveler.com, Feb. 14, 2003 The Iraq Crisis, a Global Policy Forum, U.N. Security Council section which looks at many aspects of the crisis, including the 13 years of sanctions and other background of the war, the humanitarian situation, the importance of Iraq's huge oil resources, and disputes over a post-war government and reconstruction plan.

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