Rumsfeld-Hussein Ties Missing From Coverage Of Sentencing

[Gold9472]

Rumsfeld-Hussein Ties Missing From Coverage of Sentencing

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/ea..._id=1003353395

Published: November 07, 2006 2:00 PM ET

NEW YORK With Saddam Hussein now sentenced to death, columnist Norman Solomon notes that there's little mainstream media mention of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's ties with the former Iraq dictator.

In an election-day piece, the Creators Syndicate writer noted that Hussein was sentenced "for crimes he committed more than a year before Donald Rumsfeld shook his hand in Baghdad."

Solomon went on to recount specific examples of the Reagan administration's 1980s relations with Hussein.

"Rumsfeld had served as Reagan's point man for warming relations with Saddam," wrote the columnist. "In 1984, the administration engineered the sale to Baghdad of 45 ostensibly civilian-use Bell 214ST helicopters. Saddam's military found them quite useful for attacking Kurdish civilians with poison gas in 1988, according to U.S. intelligence sources. 'In response to the gassing,' journalist Jeremy Scahill has pointed out, 'sweeping sanctions were unanimously passed by the U.S. Senate that would have denied Iraq access to most U.S. technology. The measure was killed by the White House.'"

[beltman713]

I think it may come up now.

[PhilosophyGenius]

I remember on the night of the war all the channels were showing a speech given by Saddam, and as soon as he mentioned the 80's he was cut off out of no where.