2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 5, 2006
NATION/WORLD
Iraq charges
Saddam with
genocide
NEWS IN~ BRIEF
GAZA CITY~ Gaza Strip
Israeli force fires on Abbas's compound
Israeli warplanes fired three missiles into the Gaza compound of Palestinian Presi-
dent Mahmoud Abbas yesterday in response to Palestinian rocket fire - the first
such Israeli attack since the violent Islamic group Hamas took power last week.
Abbas condemned the attack, saying it had nothing to do with Hamas and was
aimed at disrupting the daily lives of Palestinians.
The site was largely abandoned, and the army gave no explanation for hitting the
security compound of the moderate leader, who was in the West Bank at the time.
The missile strikes dug deep craters and wounded two police officers.
Since Hamas took control of the Cabinet, Israeli officials said they would shun the
Palestinian Authority but would continue to work with Abbas, leader of the defeated
Fatah Party. The attack yesterday did not appear aimed at the Palestinian president,
either directly or indirectly.
PARIS
Violence mars protests over French job law
Former Iraqi president
could undergo a second
trial for Kurdish militia
deaths
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi authorities
charged Saddam Hussein with genocide
yesterday, accusing him of trying to exter-
minate the Kurds in a 1980s campaign
that killed an estimated 100,000 - the
first move to prosecute him for the major
human rights violations which the U.S.
cited to help justify its invasion.
The former Iraqi president returns to
court today in his current 6-month-old
trial, facing a possible death sentence if
convicted in the killings of more than 140
Shiites. Defense lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi
said Saddam plans to make a statement to
"These people were subjected to
forced displacement and illegal deten-
tion involving thousands of civilians,"
Juhi said. "They were placed in dif-
ferent detention centers. The villages
were destroyed and burned. Homes
and houses of worshippers and build-
ings of civilians were leveled without
reason or a military requirement."
The operations against the Kurds
included the March 1988 gas attack on the
village of Halabja in which 5,000 people,
including women and children, died.
However, Juhi told The Associated Press
that the Halabja attack would be prosecut-
ed separately and was not considered part
of the charges filed yesterday.
Others accused in the Anfal case
include Saddam's cousin, Ali Has-
san Majid, or "Chemical Ali"; former
Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad;
former intelligence chief Saber Abdul
Aziz al-Douri;
former Republi-
were can Guard com-
mander Hussein
ffcbudigysrdynCatoHi nWshgt.Rep. Tom Delay (R -Texas) walks from his office in the Cannon House
office building yesterday on Capitol Hill in Washington.
On te way out
DeLay leaves
troublfing legacy
the court.
But that
case involves a
relatively small
number of vic-
tims, and the
scope of the
allegation pales
in comparison
to the crack-
down against
the Kurds or the
suppression of
the Shiite upris-
ing in south Iraq
in 1991.
Investigative
judge Raid Juhi
told reporters
he submitted
the new case
"The villages,
destroyed and burned.
Homes and houses
of worshippers and
buildings of civilians
were leveled without
reason or a military
requirement.,
al-Tikriti; former
Nineveh provin-
cial Gov. Taher
Tafwiqal-Ani;and
former top mili-
tary commander
Farhan Mutlaq al-
Jubouri.
Saddam and
seven others
have been on
trial since Oct.
against Saddam and six co-defendants
to the Iraqi High Tribunal - a legal
step that is the equivalent of an indict-
ment under Iraqi law.
His move paves the way for a sec-
ond trial, which could begin any time
after 45 days. Juhi said charges also
include crimes against humanity.
Legal experts said the decision to
accuse Saddam of genocide is contro-
versial because the charge is difficult
to prove. An international convention
following the Nazi Holocaust of World
War II defined genocide as an effort "to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial or religious group."
The latest charges involve Saddam's
alleged role in Operation Anfal, the
1988 military campaign launched in
the final months of the war with Iran
to crush independence-minded Kurd-
ish militias and clear Kurds from the
sensitive Iranian border area of north-
ern Iraq.
Saddam had accused Kurdish
militias of ties to Iran. Thousands
of Kurdish villages were razed and
their inhabitants either killed or dis-
placed.
A memo released by the tribunal said
the Anfal campaign included "savage mil-
itary attacks on civilians," including "the
use of mustard gas and nerve agents ... to
kill and maim rural villagers and to drive
them out of their homes."
- Raid Juhi 19 for the deaths
of Shiite Mus-
Investigative judge lims following a
1982 assassina-
tion attempt against him in the town
of Dujail.
None of Saddam's co-defendants in
the Dujail case is included in the latest
charges. Iraqi authorities chose to try
Saddam separately for various alleged
crimes rather than lump all the cases
together.
The Dujail trial was the first of
what Iraqi authorities say could be
up to a dozen proceedings. Saddam
could face death by hanging if con-
victed in the Dujail case. But Presi-
dent Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said he
doubted any sentence would be car-
ried out until all trials were complete
- a process likely to take years.
Michael Scharf, director of the Fred-
erick K. Cox International Law Center
at Case Western Reserve University,
said he believed genocide may be hard
to prove because Kurds who left their
villages were spared and because the
area where the operation occurred was
"reportedly used as a base of anti-gov-
ernment operations by insurgents allied
with Iran."
"Thus Saddam may have desired to
clear it for strategic rather than geno-
cidal reasons," Scharf said in an e-
mail.
U.N. tribunals for the former Yugo-
slavia and Rwanda have accused at
least 49 people of genocide, convict-
ing 24 but acquitting 10.
Corruption and
scandal may hurt
Republican hopes for
Congressional control
WASHINGTON (AP) - Tom
DeLay leaves a troubling legacy for
Republicans as they face re-election.
The Texan, once one of the most
powerful and feared leaders of Con-
gress, joined Newt Gingrich in helping
to lead Republicans to power in 1994.
But he became a symbol of the widen-
ing ethics scandal that now clouds GOP
prospects for continued control.
Republicans face voters weary of
corruption allegations and the heavy-
handed tactics DeLay came to person-
ify. At the same time, GOP candidates
are further weighed down by President
Bush's low approval ratings and the
unpopularity of the war in Iraq.
"It's hard to believe that in just 12
years, Republicans could end up in the
same situation that it took Democrats
40 years to get in," said Republican
strategist Frank Luntz.
Luntz, who was once Gingrich's
pollster and who helped orchestrate the
1994 "Contract With America," a set of
unifying GOP policy initiatives, said
the GOP majority now seems "tired"
and those speaking out for change
and innovation "are just not being
noticed."
Republicans hold 231 of the 435
House seats. Democrats have 201. There
is one independent and two vacancies.
DeLay said yesterday he would
resign from Congress rather than seek
a 12th term so as not to hurt Republi-
can chances. He acknowledged his re-
election prospects were threatened.
The voters of his Houston-area dis-
trict "deserve a campaign about the
vital national issues that they care most
about and that affect their lives every
day, and not a campaign focused solely
as a referendum on me," DeLay said.
He had stepped aside as House major-
ity leader last fall after a grand jury in
Texas indicted him, accusing him of
funneling illegal corporate contribu-
tions into state legislative races. In Janu-
ary, he decided against trying to get the
leadership post back amid a spreading
election-year corruption scandal.
Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, once
a key DeLay ally, and two of DeLay's
former aides have pleaded guilty in a
Justice Department corruption probe
and are cooperating with prosecutors.
DeLay's resignation "marks the end
of a 12-year reign of unquestioned
Republican dominance and casts a
shadow on the chances of Republicans
in the fall elections," said Ross Baker, a
political scientist at Rutgers University
who specializes in Congress.
Under DeLay's sometimes iron-
fisted rule, House Republicans
marched pretty much in lockstep
during Bush's first term, delivering
one legislative victory after another.
"Republicans, however loyal they
may have been in the past, are now
taking an every-man-for-himself atti-
tude," Baker said.
Rioting youths swarmed across a downtown Paris plaza, ripping up street
signs and park benches and hurling stones and chunks of pavement at police
at the end of the largest of massive but mostly peaceful protests yesterday
across France against a new jobs law. 1
Riot police fired tear gas and rubber pellets and made repeated charg-
es into the crowds of several hundred youths at Place d'Italie on the Left
Bank, carrying away those they arrested.
The clashes came as more than 1 million people poured into the streets
across the country, including 84,000 in Paris, according to police. Union
organizers put the figure in the capital at 700,000 - and 3 million nation-
wide.
WASHINGTON
Labor leaders boo McCain on immigration
Sen. John McCain threatened yesterday to cut short a speech to union
leaders who booed his immigration views and later challenged his state-
ments on organized labor and the Iraq war.
"If you like, I will leave," McCain told the AFL-CIO's Building and Con-
struction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He returned
to the microphone after the crowd quieted.
"OK, then please give me the courtesy I would give you."
It was a contentious session that tested McCain's commitment to the
straight-talking image he honed during his failed 2000 presidential bid.
An underdog six years ago, the Arizona Republican is expected to seek the
2008 GOP nomination as a front-runner.
ATLANTA
Delta pilots overwhelmingly vote for strike
Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots, angered by management's effort to throw out their
contract and impose deep pay cuts, voted by a wide margin to authorize a strike,
union leaders said yesterday.
The 94.7 percent vote in favor of authorizing a strike gives union leaders the
authority to set a strike date. They didn't set a date immediately and gave no
indication when they might act.
The results were announced in a memo to pilots from the chairman of the union's
executive committee, Lee Moak, and first reported by The Associated Press.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports
CORRECTIONS
A caption on yesterday's front page misidentified the figure dressed as Uncle Sam
as LSA freshman Peri Weisberg. Weisberg was holding the poster. The figure in the
costume was Social Work student Joseph Kuilema.
Due to an editing error, an article in the March 16 edition of the Daily (Student
film breaks barriers) incorrectly implied that the family of LSA senior Sultan Sharrief
funded the film "The Spiral Project." The film was actually funded primarily through
contributions from the family of the film's writer/director, LSA junior Jarrett Slavin.
Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@nichigandaily.com.
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0
Illegal workers have
mixed impact on
nations economy
DoNN M. FREsARD
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Bush's push to change
immigration policy
highlights complex
economic relationship
WASHINGTON (AP) - They pick
fruit and vegetables and clip hedges.
They hang drywall and clean houses,
hotels and office buildings.
The millions of illegal workers in the
United States have come under a fresh
spotlight as Congress and President Bush
grapple with revamping the nation's
immigration policies.
Illegal workers' relationship to the
economy is intricate.
They are willing to work for lower
wages than legal workers, helping to keep
down prices. But illegals also can depress
wages for unskilled, legal workers and
strain local hospitals and schools.
"There is not a simple economic case
here. It is complex. It is interwoven, and
it is very hard to extract;' said Terry Con-
nelly, dean of the Ageno School of Busi-
ness at Golden Gate University in San
Francisco. "It is like pulling some sort of
piece of thread out of a fabric. If you pull
that thread out, you don't know to what
degree you have weakened the fabric."
There are an estimated 11 million
to 12 million illegal immigrants in the
United States. Some 7.2 million of them
are employed - about 5 percent of the
U.S. labor force - according to the Pew
Hispanic Center, a research organization.
The illegal workers are mostly men and
are heavily concentrated in construc-
tion, agriculture and cleaning jobs, Pew
says. Those jobs tend to be low skill or
unskilled manual labor, economists said.
"From lawn services to meat pack-
ing. You name it. The primary benefit to
consumers from illegal workers is lower
prices;' said Nariman Behravesh, chief
economist at Global Insight.
For businesses, cheap labor can trans-
late into fatter profits. If owners use
those profits to expand their businesses,
it would boost economic activity.
While consumers and businesses may
benefit from such cheap labor, the U.S.
born-worker could be hurt by it, accord-
ing to some research.
Between 1980 and 2000, legal and
illegal immigration reduced the average
annual earnings of U.S.-born men by an
estimated $1,700 or roughly 4 percent,
according to research done in 2004 by
George Borjas, economics professor at
the John F. Kennedy School of Govern-
ment at Harvard University.
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