Saddam Hussein-era officials face new trial

Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as "Chemical Ali," and another close aide to the dictator who represented him abroad appeared in court Sunday accused of orchestrating the bloody repression of Shiite riots after the 1999 assassination of the father of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

It was the fifth trial of top Saddam-era figures and the second to include Tariq Aziz, who became internationally known as the dictator's defender and a fierce American critic after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent 1991 Gulf War.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, one of the most powerful Shiite clerics in Iraq in the 1990s, was killed with two of his sons in an ambush on Feb. 20, 1999, in the holy city of Najaf. His followers said Saddam's agents were to blame.

The next day, angry loyalists rioted near a mosque in Baghdad's main Shiite district — then called Saddam City but later renamed Sadr City after the elder cleric — blockading roads and ordering shop owners to shutter up in mourning. Iraqi policemen trying to break up the protest were beaten and police cars destroyed.

Saddam's paramilitary Fedayeen militia opened fire on the protesters and a curfew was imposed while the whole district was sealed off until the next day. More crap