Americans censor Saddam trial

[questionnaire]

Television stations throughout the world were astonished yesterday when the first tapes of Saddam's trial arrived without sound and have still not been informed that the Americans censored the material. "What can we do when an American official tells us the judge doesn't want sound--and then we find out that they lied and the judge does want the sound?" an American camera operator asked.



Video showed the face--and audiotape revealed the voice--of Judge Raid Juhi, whose name was widely reported in the Arab press yesterday. According to the camera crews, Judge Juhi wanted the world to hear Saddam's voice. Nevertheless the Americans erased the entire audiotape of the hearings of the 11 former Saddam ministers, including that of Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, and "Chemical" Ali, Saddam's cousin accused of gassing the Kurds at Halabja. The US Department of Defence tape of their hearings has been taken by the US authorities so there is now no technical record of the words of these 11 men, save for the notebooks of "pool" reporters--four Americans and two Iraqis--who were present.



Judge Juhi said not long ago that "I have no secrets--a judge must not be ashamed of the decisions he takes."



The Americans apparently think differently.