In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-giving.
"And among the Believers are men who are true to that which they pledged
to
God. Some of them have fulfilled their pledge by death and some of them
still are waiting and they have not altered in the least. That God may
reward the true men for their truth and punish the hypocrites if He will,
or
relent towards them, for God is forgiving, merciful. And God repulsed the
infidels for their wrath. They gained no good. God averted their attack
from
the Believers. God is strong, mighty." [Qur'an 33:23-25].
To the American people:
Peace upon those who believe in peace and desire it, and the mercy of God
and His blessings.
I address you in this letter from the place of my confinement, as my
attempt
on the basis of my moral, human, and constitutional responsibility so that
no one among you might say that no one came to us with a message of peace
after the war began, refuting the arguments for it and desiring peace for
you and for our upright, loyal, heroic people. And as I say this, I do no
know whether my brothers and comrades who are leading the Resistance
outside
the prison have come to you with a letter before or not. That is because
the
"democracy" of your leaders has prevented me since my arrest and until now
from getting newspapers and magazines or hearing radio and television and
has isolated me from the world and has isolated the world from me so that
I
might not hear or see anything from outside my place of confinement.
Is this the true face of democracy and human rights that they advocate
outside America!? Or have your rulers lied about it? This includes the
killing of people in prisons and jails, some of them by means of the
pistols
of the American investigators. Or has all of this along with other details
that would turn an attentive person's hair white been concealed from you
by
your officials such that you do not know the truth!?
Anyway, I address you with this letter of mine in the hope that it will
reach you and that you will hear it or read it. And on the basis of my
responsibility to bring the facts before people, whatever their color or
nationality, for that is our duty to them, just as they have a duty to us
not to accept evil.
I address you today as my attorney the eminent lawyer and Professor Ramsey
Clark has asked that I write this letter of mine to you. Professor Ramsey
has presented an excellent example of a humanitarian in his person and in
his colleague Professor Curtis Dobler, both of whom left a positive
personal
impression on me. On this occasion I wish to salute their courage as they
have volunteered for the task although they know the dangers that surround
them in carrying out their duty, in particular after criminals have killed
four of the defense attorneys.
People of America, it still seems to me that the officials in your
government are still lying to you and are not giving you true explanations
of the reasons that led them to embark on their aggression against Iraq.
In
what they have said about the reasons they have deceived, from the
starting
point, not only the international community, and in particular the
European
Community but also the peoples of America themselves, knowing beforehand
that the facts were contrary to what they were declaring. Untrue is what
they said, after their lies were exposed, about having been deceived by
their intelligence agencies and by the stooges that they brought along to
serve as their puppets in Iraq, just as old imperialism and the old
empires
of the 19th and 20th centuries used to do. What we are saying is based on
many facts, the major ones being as follows:
1. The inspection teams - that came to Iraq in the name of the United
Nations and carried out searches even of some private houses as well as
government departments, presidential palaces and government do***ents -
those teams knew that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction because most
of the leading members in those teams were Americans and British and in
addition they had spies and volunteers of other nationalities. Those teams
searched Iraq piece by piece from one end to the other and never found any
information contrary to what they and others were told by Iraqi government
representatives. The inspections lasted for more than seven years. And in
addition to the teams that traveled by car and on foot, they used spy
planes, helicopters, and satellites in space. The American and English
officials thought that this was their historic chance to strike Iraq and
destroy its legitimate aspirations and the lofty cultural and scientific
achievements made in the course of 35 years, making use of the information
gathered by their spies in the inspection teams and making use of the
so-called war on terror after the 11 September incident that struck
America.
They shuffled the cards to bring up the goals that they had already
decided
upon earlier, and these were not the goals that they publicly announced at
the starting line.
It was their *****sment that the unjust embargo had not destroyed Iraq's
will nor halted its legitimate aspirations to develop economically,
culturally, scientifically, and as a civilization in the conditions of a
new
independence. They believed that Iraq had come close at that time to
breaking the economic embargo as the result of the cooperation of those
who
cooperated with Iraq on the basis of mutual benefit and fraternal national
feelings as far as the Arabs were concerned. The officials in your country
thought that this was their chance to impose their will on the world by
means of their control of the Middle East's oil and its production and
marketing in new ways and for new goals - those about which we spoke in
and
before the year 2003 - in addition to attaining one of their Zionist goals
and winning sup****t in the election. Iran and its lackeys played a dirty
role in making aggression appear attractive and in facilitating its
implementation.
2. The American officials did not withdraw from Iraq after they became
hard
pressed, but declared that the facts were contrary to what they had
claimed
before the invasion that took place in March and April of the year 2003.
If
they had been truthful when they claimed that they had been deceived as a
result of the information they had been given and which they used as the
cover for their invasion, and which they declared at the time was
sufficient
justification for the invasion - declaring at the time that it involved
things that they said affected the security of the United States - then
they
would have withdrawn from Iraq after discovering that that information had
been false. They would have apologized to the heroic Iraqi people, to the
American people and to the people of the world for what they had done.
None of the Americans asked their government before the war how Iraq, a
country that had still not emerged from backwardness, could threaten the
security of a country like America across the Atlantic. And for that
matter
why would Iraq want to threaten America, which at that time had not
violated
the territory of Iraq. If the American officials wanted to promote the
claim
that Iraq's threat was precisely involved in the opposing stances taken by
Iraq and America over the Zionist occupation of the land of Palestine and
other Arab land, it could be said that Iraq is not the only state that
takes
an opposing stance to that of America in regards to the issue, whether
that
be Arab states or other states in the world. Furthermore, who has
authorized
America to make the countries of the world tailor their policies to
America's
measurements, and if they don't oblige, then war should be waged against
them? How can one understand America's call for democracy if it does not
permit a difference of opinion even in issues of a regional character, to
say nothing of international ones?
Another lie was the claim of American officials that Iraq had links to
what
they called terrorism, although British Prime Minister Blair declared that
Iraq does not have any ties to so-called terrorism and had no
internationally prohibited weapons, forcing Bush to declare the same
thing.
Despite that, none of the im****tant American personalities asked President
Bush on what sort of rational analysis or what sort of realistic
information
this claim rested. Do you know, esteemed ladies and gentlemen, why they
didn't
ask? Because some of your prominent personalities are directed in what
they
do by hidden forces that distorted the image you received of Iraq's
positions. They had been laying the groundwork for years to facilitate
aggression from the start. Therefore no one asked the American officials,
for example, why no Iraqi took part in the events of 11 September!? And if
the participation of individuals in the attack on American targets isn't
to
be taken as proof of the involvement of any country in those events, then
how do you accuse a state like Iraq, the features of whose political
system
are known, of so-called relations with terror? How can you consider this
charge to be one of only two on the basis of which aggression was launched
against the people of Iraq, destroying their property and achievements and
bringing their lives under daily and direct threat?
Do you know, esteemed ladies and gentlemen, that I asked one of the
American
officials who talked with me perhaps two weeks after my arrest, just what
was it that you based those false charges on? He said that as far as the
weapons of mass destruction were concerned, "we didn't have anything to
confirm what you were saying." And as for the links to terrorism, he said,
because you, Saddam Hussein, did not send a letter of condolence to
President Bush after the incident [of 11 September].
I smiled bitterly and told him: as regards your claim that you didn't have
confirmation of our statements, it seems that your officials lie and
imagine
that officials in countries around the world do not tell the truth, or
that
many of those who have relations with you in fact do not tell you the
truth,
neither when they oppose your policies nor when they agree with them. This
is a dangerous matter, not only for the countries of the world but because
they then pose a danger for America as well, if nobody in the world will
tell America: 'this is a mistake' and 'this is unacceptable'! And at that
time when American planes were striking targets in Iraq and destroying
public and private property, killing Iraqi citizens including women and
children for no reason and imposing on Iraq their unjust embargo,
prohibiting Iraq from im****ting even pencils for children to use in
primary
schools, what exactly is it that should obligate Saddam Hussein to send a
telegram of condolences to the president of the state whose officials have
committed all those crimes, unless it be out of hypocrisy and weakness?
But
because I am neither a hypocrite nor a weakling I didn't send Bush a
telegram of condolence. But I did agree on the telegram sent containing
condolences in the name of the government of Iraq and sent by Comrade
Tariq
Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister, to our friend Ramsey Clark and through
him
to the stricken families.
Are the great states so deluded as to imagine that whoever does not send a
letter of condolence deserves that war should be waged against him, his
country, and his people!? Here you see how the American officials used
even
your own blood to promote their reckless, aggressive policy. Is this the
kind of morality that people should have? Or men? Or officials? There is
nothing graver than for disasters to ravage people who have been stricken
by
delusions, committed wrongs, and wantonly despised the roles of others.
The
worst disease of the American officials who involved the Americans in war
against Iraq is this.
3. After I was arrested they made vain attempts to use intimidation and
threats against me. One of their generals conveyed that intimidation and
host threats and tried to bargain with me, promising to let me live if I
agreed to read in my own voice and sign a prepared announcement that was
shown to me. That stupid announcement called on the people of Iraq and the
courageous Resistance to lay down arms. They said that if I refused, my
fate
would be that I would be shot just like Mussolini, as my interlocutor put
it. But, as you know me and would expect of me, I disdainfully refused,
not
even touching that dirty do***ent with my hand and sullying myself with
it.
I told them if I were given the chance to address my people, I would call
them to more resistance.
Seven days later, to reinforce themselves, they sent a group to talk with
me. They said they were from an American University and that they wanted
to
engage me in a broad discussion. I agreed and I confirmed to them that
Iraq
didn't have any of the things the American officials claimed and I advised
them [the US] to leave Iraq quickly and apologize to the people, warning
them that they were going to get what they now are facing and what they
are
now embroiled in - in fact, the fate I expect for them is worse than what
they are facing now - and they will never have an adequate chance to pull
their arms and equipment out of Iraq if the two halves of Iraq engulf
them,
and they will engulf them, God willing, because our people are deeply
rooted
and conscious. They know that our liberation can be clean and complete
only
with their unity, and that tolerance must be the basis for the
orientations
of our people within their ranks, and that wounds must be bound up, not
ripped open.
I say, I told them all that at that time but they didn't change their
methods; they didn't replace the keys of falsehood, and they are still
knocking on the doors of wrong, failing to try the door of legitimacy,
even
though they now know. In this connection, attached to this letter are some
verses from a long ode; a selection of 56 verses. [Not translated here.]
4. It is neither reasonable nor convincing that a country like America to
which the doors of the intelligence agencies in the east and most of the
countries of the west have been opened did not know the truth and could
not
know the truth. Although I am convinced and believe that many countries in
the world have an interest in war or wars, she [the United States] does
not
have an interest in war even though she might believe she does. The
contrary, in fact, is the case.
America is a big country on the other side of the Atlantic. It has
developed
a unique unparalleled power such that I think some people there imagine
that
it is on its way to attaining the crown of the world all for itself as a
world empire. Have they not learned a lesson from their war in Viet Nam?
The
west used to promote the idea that world Communism and the Soviet bloc
threatened their interests and also the security of the entire west. But
despite that promotion, this was nothing but a flimsy cover. Nevertheless,
America used it and wrapped itself in it until the heroic Vietnamese
people
expelled them by force.
As to their invasion of Iraq, it came in a situation that made the first
step easy from the standpoint of the reaction of the international
community
because of the international balance of forces. But it came in a situation
that might make it more costly that its war in Viet Nam. That is because
when America was expelled from Viet Nam it did not lose its standing, or
we
might say it only lost a small part of its standing. But when it is
expelled
and routed from Iraq, which has no great power to sup****t it directly, it
will lose the fundamental basis of its standing.
In fact it has now already lost the foundation for that standing and its
reputation has begun to decay. It is no longer able to wield the big stick
that it formerly threatened to use. It used to accomplish more by
threatening to use force than by really using force. I will go further and
say that after its war in Iraq, that stick no longer frightens many people
and America has come to need the silence of the smallest and simplest
countries and tries to please them in order to get them to stay quiet
about
America's crimes and reckless, deviant policies.
Before, many of the world's countries used to court the United States and
most countries in the world, all except a few, used to fear her threats or
parried them with defensive arguments. But now Mao Zedong of fond memory
is
laughing in his grave because his prediction has been fulfilled and
America
is a paper tiger. This is by the will of the Living Eternal God, and by
His
agents on earth, the heroic Mujahideen in glorious, virtuous, militant,
jihadist Iraq. So God bless the heroic people of Iraq and God bless the
jihad and the mujahideen.
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen of the peoples of America, the time has come
to an end in which greatest and best-equipped armies could scatter the
organized formations of the opposing army and thereby bring a war to a
close. Now you see our courageous army, our heroic people, and our
Mujahideen replacing the system of organized formations with a new kind of
warfare. And when the Americans on the ground become targets in the
vicinity
of the guns of the revolutionaries, who attack them as deadly human bombs
with nothing more than their bodies filled with faith in God, American
superiority is worn down over time. In fact in the near future that
superiority will become a burden whose equipment will be difficult to
withdraw. So, will America trust the voice of rationality and logic that
calls for the preservation of what still remains, or will Satan the
deceiver
and the hate-filled sup****ters of Zionism keep pu****ng the Americans until
the waves swallow them and they sink to the depths of the raging sea?
Who, after all, appointed the American government to be the world
policeman,
to form the world in the mold that it likes, giving national orders to the
countries of the world?
Saddam Hussein, ladies and gentlemen, is an honorable patriot and an
honest
man. He is a statesman resolute in implementing the law, just, but
benevolent. He loves his people and his nation. He is straightforward,
doesn't
double-cross or deceive. He speaks the truth even against himself. Do
tyrants like Bush like such characteristics? If he were a person like De
Gaulle or even like Reagan, perhaps he would understand them, or at least
would not abhor them. But I must say to you that your country will
discover
more, esteemed ladies and gentlemen. It has lost his reputation and his
standing. Indeed the American who used to travel around the world
respected
and safe and welcomed wherever he went, is now no longer able to step
outside America without a mine detector. And the State Department issues
warnings for you constantly about what world regions are dangerous to
American lives
It was American officials and their polices themselves that have created
an
atmosphere of anti-American hatred in the world by means of their arrogant
behavior, their haughty aggressive attitude, their lack of respect for
international law and the security of the world - including the security
of
my Arab Nation through their sup****t for the Zionist entity in Palestine -
and other world and human issues.
Today you are in a bad predicament with the world and nobody can rescue
you
but yourselves. If you reform, you will open for the world and for
yourselves a new op****tunity. But if you are heedless, that is your
decision. What you need is free and fair competition and peace in order to
have security.
The years that followed the 18th century had long gone when they came as
invaders to the Middle East to bring back memories of things that awaken
and
arouse. The Middle East, and the Arab homeland in particular, was the
cradle
of prophets and messengers from God. Is the cradle of the prophets, where
the prophets are buried in their tombs, also the home of devils and their
mirror images - the malicious invaders?
We have believed, and our faith was suited to us,
Then came the Zionists with a devil for a guide.
They stormed in on us as invaders, unjust.
The did not stop their advance nor sit still,
Their diabolical patron has prepared their dilemma.
But as for us, we have the Merciful God as Patron.
People of America, despite the crimes your government inflicted on our
people, our Arab Nation and humanity, the people of Iraq - and I mean by
that the Iraqis, not those with split loyalties who prefer to serve
foreigners rather than their own people - I say the free people of Iraq
even
in their present cir***stances are not thinking about their destiny alone
but about the destiny of others wherever it's possible to create a
solution
that treats a painful problem.
On this basis I said to some Americans when I was in my prison, why don't
you come to an agreement with the Resistance to designate a country with a
charter and power to which the Resistance can hand over those American
soldiers whom they capture, rather than executing them as currently is
said
to be taking place. In fact the extent to which the Resistance is
responsible for this is unknown, but people who are equitable know that
America has not abided by international law in any of its activities in
Iraq, including the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners and detainees.
The Resistance has no secure place in Iraq where prisoners can be kept. So
whether the Resistance is at all responsible, or whether the
responsibility
lies with some other parties that have no connection to the Resistance,
the
justification for it is that there is no secure place for prisoners to be
kept.
Therefore in order to fulfill humanitarian needs and to eliminate the
justification [for killing prisoners] I make this proposal to you and to
the
national Resistance and to anyone concerned, and I make this with the best
of intentions. If you accept it and respect the Geneva Conventions then
the
argument of those who kill rather than detain prisoners will have
vanished.
But if your government does not accept it, then it will bear the
responsibility for refusing and for whatever befalls our people and the
heroic Resistance as a result of your government's violation of
international law. This will be particularly true if the number of
American
prisoners increases in the future, and we think that it will increase. Or
is
it that your government can't see anything until it feels it?
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for your government to
look
at all people as equals before international law regardless of the size of
the countries to which they belong. Whoever violates international law in
his policies and the behavior of his army, he alone must bear the
consequences for that policy. And if his policies are not in accordance
with
the letter of international law, he has no right to call others to protect
his rights in accordance with that law.
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, whoever missed his or her chance to take
action to try to prevent the war still has a chance to act to end it and
bring back peace and freedom to Iraq in accordance with the choice of its
people without foreign interference by anyone whoever that may be.
People of America, I address you not from weakness nor as a supplicant. I,
my people, my brothers, comrades, and my nation - we address you on the
basis of our moral and human responsibility. I tell you that officials
whom
you know, and first among them your President, lied to you and deceived
you
and tricked you using the media that ****trayed Iraq to you as
incorrigible,
and Saddam Hussein as a hateful dictator, and that his people hate him and
that his people are just waiting for their chance to get at him. Some of
them just wallowed in lying falsehood to the point that they openly
declared
that the Iraqis would meet the invading armies with roses and celebration.
I know that lots of people don't do a lot of analysis; they don't have the
time or the ability or the desire to do careful *****sments when presented
with falsified news so as to uncover the truth. The American peoples had
no
chance to inquire, for example: why, if the people of Iraq hate Saddam
Hussein, how he managed to defeat the Iran of Khomeini after eight years
in
the aggressive war that Iran sought to impose on us under the slogan of
ex****ting the revolution beginning with Iraq? People of America, the
victory
over Khomeini's Iran was not due to the short length of the war, but came
only after eight years of grinding warfare in which tens of thousands fell
and hundreds of thousands on the Iranian side.
Then if Saddam Hussein were a dictator, why did he establish a parliament
with elections for the first time in the year 1980 during wartime, when
there had been no parliament in Iraq since 1958? If he and his government
were dictators, how could he visit schools, universities, towns, and
villages and spend the night with the people wherever the sun went down?
How
could he travel around and lead at the battle front at night and during
the
day even in the trenches in the front lines on the battlefield among the
Muslim soldiers!?
Yes, esteemed ladies and gentlemen, your government deceived you, and you,
or rather most of you, had no chance to inquire of themselves or of others
in order to discover the truth because the Zionists in the lobby who
advocated the war together with some of the centers of power were
deceiving
you and tricking you, hiding from your eyes the real truth, exchanging the
facts for falsified and slanted information. Last but not least in this
regard, if Saddam Hussein were a dictator hated and despised by his
people,
how is it that his people endured him and why was he chosen President by
referendum?
People of America, the misfortunes that have afflicted you and afflicted
our
Arab Nation and within it our heroic Iraqi people - including the
breakdown
of America's standing and reputation - were only caused by the reckless
behavior of your government and by pressure from Zionism and power centers
that influenced the government to commit those crimes and scandalous
actions
for specific ends that have nothing to do with the interest of the
American
peoples. The massacres and blood that now flows in the streets and
countryside of Iraq in torrents - the responsibility for that falls on
America before all others. You know, or rather you have now come to learn,
that neither the stooges whom the American forces brought in on board
their
aircraft or as shamefaced presents aboard their tanks, nor Iran, which
pushed and still pushes forward those who sup****t it and whom they
sup****t,
would be able to cause the bloodshed, or the destruction of the honor, and
property of our people and our state had not America undertaken the
aggression and invasion and issued the orders. It is still issuing orders
in
the Green Zone. Therefore America bears the burden of all those crimes and
outrages. So, will you put an end to what is going on by using the methods
of direct truth without evasion and digression? Or will you invite the
machine of death to continue to eat away at the flesh of Iraqis and the
flesh of Americans without doing anything to resolve this?
It is your historical responsibility, esteemed ladies and gentlemen. If
you
reform, you could save what remains of the standing and reputation of
America and its legitimate interests. If you do nothing, you will be
keeping
silent over something evil. "God grant us patient perseverance and let us
die as Muslims." [Qur'an, 7:126]
People of America, the wars that your government promotes in the world -
one
of them being the war in Iraq - with input from certain centers of power -
which you know better than we - are not in the interests of the American
people. You know better than many how you paid in blood so that you might
liberate yourselves from British colonialism and after that how the United
States of America was unified and what rivers of blood were shed in order
for that to come about. So, esteemed ladies and gentlemen, how do you
accept
this interference that abases America before it abases Iraq? How can you
accept not only the invasion but becoming mired in the internal affairs of
Iraq? You know that Iraq is a land of prophets, messengers, and righteous
figures. You know that Baghdad is the fourth holiest city in the Arab
homeland - after Mecca, al-Madinah, and Jerusalem - in the sight of all of
the Islamic world and all of our Arab Nation. How can one imagine that
Iraq
could reconcile itself to colonial rule, even if it comes, this time,
under
another name and with other slogans? Save your country, esteemed ladies
and
gentlemen, and leave Iraq.
Peace.
God is greatest. God is greatest.
[signed]
Saddam Hussein,
President of the Republic of Iraq and Commander in Chief of the Mujahid
Armed Forces.
7 July 2006.
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