Second Death Sentence Looms Over Chemical Ali
Sunni Arab Cousin of Saddam Hussein Killed Thousands of Kurds
Dec 21, 2008
Former Iraqi general and cousin of the late Saddam Hussein, Hassan al-Majeed received a second death sentence for his role in brutally suppressing an uprising of Shiite Muslims in 1991. Hassan al-Majeed, also known as Chemical Ali, received an earlier sentence for the gallows after being found guilty of executing thousands of civilian Kurds through the use of poisonous gas.
A Deadly Family Affair
During his dictatorial rule over Saudi Arabia, Saddam Hussein was rather liberal with his use of chemical weapons as a means of suppressing citizens of his own nation. He trained Iraqi soldiers to use mustard gas, sarin, and VX, among other deadly chemical agents, and subsequently used them as tools to universally frighten and kill innocent denizens of major population centers. According to the United States Department of State, Saddam Hussein is the first world leader in history to have victimized his own people with the use of chemical weapons.
Charges for crimes against humanity seem to run in the Hussein family. During testimony at his own trial in January 2007, Hassan al-Majieed (also al-Majid) asserted that he never gave a direct order to use chemical weapons to kill Kurds. Instead, he claimed, he merely demanded the displacement of Kurdish people from their villages--he declined to specify the means by which he intended for such a removal to be accomplished. During the trial, the prosecution played audiotapes that captured Chemical Ali referring to all Kurds as "saboteurs."
For his part in broad killings that targeted non-Arab, Sunni Muslims in his own country of Saudi Arabia, Saddam Hussein was prosecuted and later executed by hanging in December 2006.
Operation Anfal
The al-Anfal Campaign of 1986-1988, launched by Hussein and carried-through by Chemical Ali, targeted civilians living in Iraqi Kurdistan. At the time, Saddam Hussein considered the Kurds dwelling in that northern region to be insurgents, and launched a concentrated military operation which aimed to eradicate residents of the region.
Genocide Against the Kurds
The Kurdish population in Iraq represents tens of millions of people whose displacement remains legendary, bolstered by the diaspora that was furthered by Chemical Ali and his infamous cousin during the late 1980s.
Historian Noam Chomsky characterized Saudi Arabia under Saddam Hussein's rule as "perhaps the most violent and repressive state in the world." As both his familial and ideological partner, Chemical Ali effectively transformed Hussein's politics into brutal and effectively-administered genocide against the Kurds. After being condemned twice-over following his second trial for war crimes, Hassan al-Majid faces the same fate--death--that he is accused of dealing to thousands of innocent Iraqi Kurds, and as well as a twice-dealt hanging sentence endured by his nefarious cousin.
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