Did Saddam Hussein gas his own people?

[Poiuyt]

That is generally accepted as fact here in the US. I have heard questions about it because during the Iran-Iraq war, both sides were using gas and it was difficult to tell who was killed by whom. I read this article that stated that there really is no evidence that Saddam gassed his own people. Thoughts?

http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/11-18-98.html

snip -

Having looked at all of the evidence that was available to us, we find it impossible to confirm the State Department’s claim that gas was used in this instance. To begin with there were never any victims produced. International relief organizations who examined the Kurds -- in Turkey where they had gone for asylum -- failed to discover any. Nor were there ever any found inside Iraq. The claim rests solely on testimony of the Kurds who had crossed the border into Turkey, where they were interviewed by staffers of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

more-

[walldude]

1. It's true.. and he did it with weapons

we sold him to use on the Iranians...

[applegrove]

2. No doubt about it. Saddam was an asshole. "Rumour" at the time had

it as a possible Iranian gassing of Kurds. It was saddam. He is a monster in so many ways.

[EST]

3. Most of the research I have read has it that the gas that

was used was the same that Iran was using at the time, and the dead were most likely "collateral damage" from the exchange.

[freethought]

4. No doubt. He did!

As the other posters have said, Saddam used the gas on the Kurds. And this was back in the eighties. the effects of that gassing are still being felt by the surviving population in that area of Iraq. The chemicals used was acutally a cocktail of agents and its effects, aside from the immediate victims, are almost radiological in nature. Persistent and long lasting.

[texpatriot2004]

5. I read on one of the DU Karen Huges blunder threads it was 5000

not 100,000 or "upwards of 200,000" or "over 300,000" as Karen is going around saying nor as most Americans believe.

[sandnsea]

7. That's just one village

There were 40 documented attacks, many villages over a period of a few years. And the figure is a low of 5,000 and high of 24,000, in the one village. If the US did that, even accidentally, the same left who are defending Saddam's attacks would be in complete hysterics, and rightfully so.

[texpatriot2004]

9. Absolutely. I wasn't saying it was only 5,000 but it wasn't what

Karen Hughes claims or what most Americans believe.

[sandnsea]

6. mustard gas, nerve agent, or cyanide

He definitely used mustard gas and nerve agents. The question is who caused the deaths in Halabjah, Iraq or Iran. It doesn't particularly matter because there were many, many attacks and Iraq has already admitted to using mustard gas. That they were in the middle of a war is a bit of a lame excuse too. Our military has been lamblasted for the chemicals we've used that have hurt and killed Iraqi civilians. The "we're in the middle of a war" excuse doesn't wash with the left when it's the US doing the maiming and killing. I don't know why people feel the need to defend Saddam.

[Poiuyt]

8. I certainly wasn't defending him. I had heard different stories and I

wanted to know the truth.