◆ SpookStack

1631 -HQ-1462938 Forces (IAF) initiated a series of military offensives in Northern Iraq against the Iraqi government. On March 4, 1987, the IAF, with the assistance of Kurdish guerrilla fighters known as Peshmergas from both PUK and KDP, launched its most alarming offensive of the series. Code named Karbala 7, the IAF penetrated eight miles into Iraqi territory east of Rawanduz. Indeed, SADDAM HUSSEIN and his officers in the Iraqi regime regularly referred to MULLAH BARZANI, his sons, and the KDP as the "offsprings of treason," and to TALABANT and the PUK as “Iranian agents.” During Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), hundreds of Iragi documents detailing HUSSEIN and his regime's offensive and retaliatory actions against the Kurds were recovered, and relevant documents are summarized in this report. This report also relies upon Iraqi documents Kurdish Rebel Parties had seized from various Iraqi government offices during the 1991 Uprising had given to the Human Rights Watch (HRW). HRW has published those documents in their reports, most notably in “Bureaucracy of Repression, the Iraq Government in its Own Words,” February 1994. The charging proposal detailed in this report also relies upon relevant statements and admissions made by various high-level Iraqi government officials, including SADDAM HUSSEIN. These statements were made to United States investigators while in United States custody in Iraq. All interviews were voluntary in compliance with Geneva Conventions. Iraq’s Governmental Structure According to the Iragi Constitution in effect prior to HUSSEIN assuming the Presidency in 1979, the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) was the supreme law-making body in Irag and was Iraq's highest authoritative body and was superior to the Cabinet. RCC decrees held the full force and effect of national law. Prior to OIF, the RCC was comprised of the following high level Ba’ath Party officials: SADDAM HUSSEIN, Chairman; IZZAT IBRAHIM AL-DURI (hereinafter AL-DURI), Vice-Chairman; TARIQ AZIZ (hereinafter AZIZ); TAHA YASIN RAMADAN (hereinafter RAMADAN) ; ALI HASAN AL-MAJID (hereinafter AL-MAJID); TAHA MUHYI AL-DIN MARUF (hereinafter MARUF); and MIZBAN KHADR HADI (hereinafter HADI). Immediately upon his assumption of the Presidency, HUSSEIN successfully eliminated the RCC's power and consolidated