letter to the editor, sydney morning herald: US should be in the dock alongside its old pal Saddam; July 3, 2004

Many of the charges to be faced by the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein before a tribunal set up by the new interim government could also be levelled at his once staunchest ally: the United States.

The US military supplied Saddam with no less than 14 different strains of the deadly anthrax virus in 1988 to help hasten the end of the Iran-Iraq war. The US was also largely responsible for supplying Saddam with chemical weapons to suppress the Kurdish uprising in Halabja. In a UN Security Council resolution condemning the attack, the US was the only member to vote against the resolution.

And when Saddam had informed the then US ambassador to Iraq, April Gillespie, of his plans to invade Kuwait, she raised no objections. Her equivocation was interpreted by Saddam as a green light from the US to go ahead. Saddam's trial has already been dubbed the trial of the century. But because he did not act without the implicit support of the US, they should both be put on trial for committing these crimes against humanity.

The Reverend Dr Vincent Zankin, Rivett (ACT), July 2.