Iraqi children come and go; Iran curious

Information Clearing House has a link to a Der Spiegel report
“More Than 100 Children Imprisoned, Report Of Abuse By U.S. Soldiers.”

When I first tried the link, it didn’t work, so I did a search on “100 children imprisoned.”
It kicked out a story from April 8, 2003, “Iraqi child prisoners freed” and associated
crowing and peacenik-bashing .

Meanwhile, Iran wants to know why, when Saddam faced the judge, no mention was
made of the 1980-1988 war, why the list of charges filed doesn’t include Iraq’s use of
chemical weapons in that war.

An obvious answer was provided by one of the ex-Iraqi generals interviewed by
Newsweek in March, 2002:

“One general interviewed by NEWSWEEK made no bones about his use of
chemical weapons. General al-Shamari commanded nine divisions in the
Iran-Iraq War before he defected in 1986. (Now 56, he runs a small
restaurant in northern Virginia.) He says he carried out Saddam’s
orders to gas the Iranians, firing chemical weapons from howitzers.
The impact was devastating. ‘It created a state of chaos,’ said
al-Shamari. Given that he was miles from the target, how did he know
that? From U.S. intelligence. ‘We got information from American
satellites,’ said al-Shamari. (A former CIA official confirmed that
the United States, which was backing Iraq against Iran, provided
intelligence to the Iraqis. ‘Included in that, I’m sure, would have
been some feedback, intended or unintended, to the Iraqis on their
use of chemical warfare,’ said the official.)