UK insists it will boycott trial if Saddam faces death penalty

Britain's near-total support for the United States' policy in Iraq is about to break down over the question of whether Saddam Hussein and other senior members of the Baath party should face execution. Last week, the Foreign Office slipped out a warning that the UK will boycott the upcoming trial of Saddam if there is any risk of the former dictator being put to death.

The Government's legal advisers are also grappling with the intractable legal dilemma of what to do with former high-ranking officials now held in British-run jails.

This is one of many unresolved problems about the handover to an Iraqi administration which is causing friction between London and Washington. In private, Foreign Office officials have been driven to despair by the failure of the Americans to plan for the 30 June handover.

Their fears were voiced yesterday by Sir Christopher Meyer, a former ambassador to Washington. He told BBC Radio 4's The Week in Westminster: "Having not been able ... to get our views into the administration ... on how you handled Iraq after Saddam Hussein, we need to be ... certain that that doesn't happen now when we come to this crucial date of 30 June.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=524014

Did Blair and company figure that gw* had the answers? Knew what he was doing? Did they think all they had to do was just tag along?

Hi CShine, This topic is already an earlier thread on the next page over.

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Duplicate, please continue discussion in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x576031