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. aIje £IEIApU &ul 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com 0 0 Illegal workers have mixed impact on nations economy DoNN M. FREsARD Editor in Chief fresard@michigandaily.com 647-3336 Sun.-Thurs. 5 p.m. - 2 a.m. JONATHAN DOBBERSTEIN Business Manager business@michigandaity.com 764-0558 Mon-Fri. 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. I 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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