Mick Hartley

From the Scotsman:

A dissident’s baby is shoved into a sack with a vicious cat; undercover agents throw a man to his death from the roof of a building; men tied to poles are shot in the head one by one.

Al-Iraqiya state television is reviving images of life under Saddam Hussein as a court prepares to announce the date for the start of his trial for crimes against humanity.

“I wish they were here to see the day when Saddam is finished,” a tearful woman who lost her relatives under the dictator told the station, which broadcast footage of abuses filmed by the same former security forces who committed them.

Grainy footage of senior officials, including Ali Hassan al-Majid – nicknamed Chemical Ali because his men allegedly gassed 5,000 Kurds in 1988 – shows them questioning Shi’ites after a failed rebellion in 1991.

In one chilling scene, Saddam’s men pump bullets into the heads of men tied to poles. “That one is still breathing,” says an officer in the footage. Another bullet is fired.