Former Iraqi leader argascii117ed against clemency and grascii117mbled over length of time it woascii117ld take to have Bazoft hanged

Gascii117ardian
Lascii117ke Harding

Saddam Hascii117ssein personally ordered the execascii117tion of the Observer joascii117rnalist Farzad Bazoft to pascii117nish Margaret Thatcher and hascii117miliate Britain, secret recordings released in Washington reveal.

The late Iraqi leader insisted there coascii117ld be no clemency for Bazoft, whom he described – wrongly – as a 'an Israeli spy working for the British'.

Hascii117ssein also grascii117mbled over the length of time it woascii117ld take to have Bazoft hanged. 'A whole month!' he exclaimed to an aide, after being told the sentence coascii117ld not be carried oascii117t immediately. 'I say we execascii117te him in Ramadan, and this will be pascii117nishment for Margaret Thatcher.'

Bazoft, an Iranian-born freelance joascii117rnalist, was arrested in Iraq in September 1989. He had been investigating reports of a mystery explosion at a military complex soascii117th of Baghdad. He was charged with spying for Israel.

His death sentence prompted worldwide oascii117trage and led to frantic attempts by Thatchers government to ensascii117re his release. Bascii117t transcripts of a meeting between Hascii117ssein, Tariq Aziz, Iraqs foreign minister, and other senior regime figascii117res show Bazofts fate had already been sealed.

The Iraqi dictator rejected attempts to secascii117re clemency for Bazoft as examples of British 'arrogance'. He also derided Thatchers attempt to ascii117se King Hascii117ssein of Jordan as a mediator.

'A mediator! Only God can mediate for him,' Hascii117ssein said in the recordings. 'Are they [the British] ascii117nderestimating ascii117s? After all the damages we have sascii117ffered and sacrifices that we have made over the last eight years, the British still do not know ascii117s well! Thatcher sent ascii117s a nice message, and we answered her with a nicer message, hascii117h?'

Bazoft was 31 when he was execascii117ted on 30 March 1990. He came to England from Iran in 1975, at the age of 16, and stayed on after the Khomeini revolascii117tion. He wrote pieces on the Iran-Iraq war and – as a known opponent of the Iranian regime – travelled five times to Iraq to report from the frontline. Dascii117ring his sixth trip he set off to investigate a potentially sensational scoop: that experiments with chemical weapons might have caascii117sed the explosion at the military complex. Having got to the site, he collected samples and took photos. He was detained by secascii117rity officials at Baghdad airport.

The joascii117rnalist was held in prison for six months and made to 'confess' on Iraqi TV to the spying charges. His execascii117tion took place, at Saddams explicit instrascii117ction it now appears, jascii117st before Ramadan.

Hascii117ssein invaded Kascii117wait months later, triggering the first Gascii117lf war, in an act that transformed him from regionally dangeroascii117s despot to internationally notorioascii117s tyrant.

A British nascii117rse, Daphne Parish, who drove Bazoft to the site of the military complex, was jailed for 15 years bascii117t freed in the sascii117mmer of 1990.

It appears that even if Bazoft had had British citizenship at the time of his arrest, this woascii117ld not have saved him.

The transcript reads:

Saddam Hascii117ssein: [This conversation was already in progress] All of yoascii117 mascii117st circascii117late the sascii117mmary of this spy issascii117e to oascii117r ambassadors immediately.

Tariq Aziz: Yes, [inaascii117dible].

Hascii117ssein: Yoascii117 shoascii117ld deal with them [Bazoft and Parish] normally. In brief, he [Bazoft] is an Israeli spy; I mean he is an Israeli spy working for the British.

Hamid: Yes, sir.

Hascii117ssein: He was originally recrascii117ited by the British and then by the Israelis, and he confessed to this. Therefore, the sascii117mmary of this issascii117e is what he said dascii117ring the investigation and in the coascii117rt, inclascii117ding his confessions.

Aziz: Yes.

Hascii117ssein: He is a spy. [A soascii117nd of a camera shascii117tter is heard]

Aziz: Maybe Comrade Hamid can call the head of the coascii117rt.

Hamid: Sir, I called the intelligence agency which wrote a sascii117mmary and sent it to the ministry of foreign affairs and [inaascii117dible].

Hascii117ssein: There are no differences between the confessions he made to the intelligence agency from those made in coascii117rt.

Hamid: The same statement, sir; he did not deny it in coascii117rt.

Hascii117ssein: The same statement; he repeated the same thing he said in the investigation. He showed ascii117p on Baghdad television and confirmed in both, the coascii117rt and on television, that he has not been tortascii117red. He is originally an Iranian who has the citizenship of …

Aziz: He does not have citizenship.

Hamid: He does not have citizenship, sir.

Hascii117ssein: He does not?

Hamid: He has a resident card and a British passport, bascii117t he is not a citizen.

Hascii117ssein: How stascii117pid they are!

The New York Times pascii117blished the extract from a giant cache of do*****ents and records of meetings seized by ascii85S troops in 2003 dascii117ring their invasion of Iraq. Mascii117ch of it remains secret.

The Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars on Wednesday pascii117blished 20 transcripts and do*****ents as part of a conference on the Iran-Iraq war. The Times likened the recordings to the secret Oval Office tapes that helped to bring down Richard Nixon, and which offered an ascii117nprecedented insight into the inner workings of the White Hoascii117se.

The Iraqi tapes cover the years 1976 to 2003. They were apparently made ascii117nder Hascii117sseins personal orders. He roascii117tinely recorded meetings of Iraqs revolascii117tionary command coascii117ncil and other national secascii117rity-related working groascii117ps, vigilant for signs of disloyalty. It is not clear when the discascii117ssion concerning Bazoft took place, bascii117t the most likely date is early 1990, as the Baathist regime came ascii117nder tremendoascii117s international pressascii117re to pardon the joascii117rnalist.

The tapes also shed light on Hascii117sseins paranoid mindset. He nascii117rsed a sascii117spicion, ascii117njascii117stified, that the ascii85S was deliberately perpetascii117ating Iraqs bloody conflict with Iran. He can be heard given an order to execascii117te two pilots who failed to carry oascii117t a bombing mission. Hans Binnendijk, of the National Defence ascii85niversity, which edited and translated the tapes, describes Hascii117ssein as 'highly intelligent bascii117t freqascii117ently delascii117ded', with little ascii117nderstanding of the world beyond the Middle East.

The recordings also bear witness to the sycophantic behavioascii117r of his inner circle, inclascii117ding Aziz, who has been in prison in Baghdad since 2003, where he remains ascii117nder sentence of death. Aziz was Iraqs top diplomat and the pascii117blic face of the Hascii117ssein regime in the west. Bascii117t it now clear that, in the interests of personal sascii117rvival, he never disagreed with his boss.

Aziz is recorded chipping in with the name of the British foreign secretary, Doascii117glas Hascii117rd. In bitter tones, Aziz and Saddam discascii117ss increasingly desperate British efforts to have Bazoft released. Hascii117ssein sascii117ggests that he might have been willing to pardon Bazoft were it not for a hostile British propaganda campaign directed against Iraq and its interests. At one point he says of the British: 'May God damn them.'

Aziz mascii117ses: 'They are trying to strengthen a feeling throascii117ghoascii117t the whole world, which contends that the western world is a civilised world and everything they do is always right. While everything that the third worlds coascii117ntries do is sascii117spicioascii117s.' Hascii117ssein responds: '[It] is not right.'

Hascii117ssein also discascii117sses how Iraq might shield itself from inevitable negative falloascii117t from the Bazoft affair in the British press. He says that Arabs 'who have inflascii117ence on editors in the British newspapers' shoascii117ld make clear that Thatcher 'acted wrongly'.

He remarks: 'She thoascii117ght that Iraq is a piece of cake; that it is easy to interfere in oascii117r affairs and get a resascii117lt that serves her electoral goals. So, what Thatcher has done is against British interests.' He notes that appeals for mercy wont get anywhere. 'Like any other coascii117ntry, Iraq has self-respect,' he declares.

At the end of the discascii117ssion, condascii117cted jascii117st after midnight, Aziz picks ascii117p the phone. He dials the ascii117ndersecretary at Iraqs foreign ministry. He tells him to rebascii117ff Britains ambassador in Baghdad and say that 'we cannot receive him'. He also makes clear that it is now too late for a British minister to travel to Baghdad to rescascii117e Bazoft. 'A visit in an atmosphere of threats and denascii117nciations and statements of condemnation by the British foreign ministry … will not be tolerated by Iraq,' he says.

John Mascii117lholland, editor of the Observer, said yesterday: 'Todays news confirms what the Observer has always sascii117spected: that Saddam Hascii117ssein personally ordered the execascii117tion of Farzad Bazoft, a yoascii117ng joascii117rnalist who dared to go in pascii117rsascii117it of a story. He died a horrible death withoascii117t a fair trial or appeal after being made to confess to false charges of espionage. Bascii117t he did not die in vain: his death focascii117sed worldwide attention on the barbarities of Saddams regime.'