Tariq Aziz on Trial
Friday, May 2nd, 2008Editorial: 1/5/08
Tariq Aziz, whose trial began yesterday in Baghdad was always the acceptable face of Saddam’s dictatorship. As Iraq’s long-serving foreign minister and former deputy premier, he moved easily through Western capitals, first securing covert US backing for Saddam’s disastrous war on Iran and later seeking to fend off George Bush’s determination to avenge his father’s post-First Gulf War humiliation and destroy Saddam once and for all. Aziz is a man who knows many secrets, some of them extremely awkward for the Americans. Maybe he will use his trial for the murder of 40 Baghdadi merchants to reveal them. In his own way, Aziz has proved himself a man of some principles. In the wake of Saddam’s capture, the US offered him a pardon if he would testify against his old chief. He refused repeatedly. It could be argued that he is therefore now being tried as much for that loyalty as for the crimes of which he is accused.
