by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
There are a limited number of people on the planet who can truthfully say they were at deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s trial. There are even fewer Americans who can say they were there and had contact with the convicted dictator. FBI agent Chris Bonner can say that and Monday he told the Meninak Club even more about his two stints in Iraq, what’s going on today and what Americans can expect in the future.
“I have been involved in all kinds of criminal investigations and many, many trials,” said Bonner. “This was the ultimate trial. It was like putting Adolph Hitler on trial.”
Bonner covered a litany of topics ranging from Hussein’s and his family’s crimes against the Iraqi people to the atmosphere in Baghdad — a once beautiful city that is now ravaged by war and daily bombings — to his role during both assignments.
Hussein could have been tried for a laundry list of crimes but was eventually put on trial for crimes committed in Ad-Dujayl, a rural village about 35 miles north of Baghdad. According to Bonner, on July 8, 1982 there was an assassination attempt on Hussein in Ad-Dujayl. As a form of retribution, Hussein ordered the execution of all 142 men and boys in the village.
“He actually bulldozed the entire city,” said Bonner, who is the supervisory senior resident agent for the Daytona FBI office. “This was a test case. This was not his biggest crime. He was convicted Nov. 5 (2006) and ultimately executed for it. It was not, though, the most heinous crime he committed.”
Bonner, a 25-year FBI veteran who is set to retire in a year-and-a-half, first went to Iraq in 2005 to train Iraqi troops. In early 2006, he went back to oversee the agents in charge of Hussein’s trial, which he said resembled nothing like the American justice system.
“Their system is different. There is a panel of judges and there is no jury,” he said. “There is dialogue between the judges and the defendant. I was present for the verdict on Nov. 5, 2006 and for the appeals process.”
Bonner said during the trial Hussein was argumentative, disruptive and theatrical. Back in his cell, Hussein was different.
“He would tell jokes and talk to us,” said Bonner. “He didn’t speak English in court, but he did speak English.
“It was fascinating the first time to walk in the courtroom and see Saddam Hussein. To me, he’s one of the most heinous criminals in all of mankind.”
After the trial and after learning his fate, Bonner saw a different Hussein. Knowing the Iraqi system of justice was swift and unmerciful, his last 30 days on Earth were quiet and reflective.
“He knew what was coming. He was preparing to meet his maker,” said Bonner, adding that the day of the execution, gunfire filled the air of Baghdad all day long. “What goes up must come down, so we stayed inside that day.”
Other Hussein atrocities include:
• Anfal, where chemical weapons were used from February-September of 1988 on the local Kurdish population. There were over 180,000 people killed, 3,800 towns and villages destroyed and mass graves were found. “That trial was three weeks old when Saddam was hung,” said Bonner. “His co-conspirators were found guilty.”
• The Shi’a Infitada of 1991 after the first Gulf War during which chemical weapons were used against civilians and revolting Iraqi soldiers. Over 10,000 were killed by hanging, execution or poisoned.
• The 1990 invasion of Kuwait. “Saddam always thought Kuwait belonged to Iraq,” said Bonner. “Saddam thought Kuwait was drilling diagonally into Iraq to extract the oil. Kuwait and Iraq don’t like each other, never have and never will.”
• The Marsh Arabs. This incident involved the Hussein-ordered drainage of the world’s largest marsh between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. “This was a horrible, horrible environmental disaster and you could not live there,” said Bonner. “It was a way to eradicate the citizens. There was also torture, mass arrests, executions and evidence people were buried alive.”
According to Bonner, today Baghdad is home to the “world’s most dangerous highway” — a stretch of road from Baghdad International Airport to downtown Baghdad. It’s also home to four-hours-a-day electricity, an enormously high unemployment rate (those that aren’t in the Iraqi army either don’t work at all or own small businesses in markets where barter is the system of commerce) and monuments that have been either destroyed by bombings or Iraqi citizens.
It’s internal strife is based on geography: the Kurds to the north, the Sunni to the west and the Shi’ites in the south and east.
“People have said the country should be broken up into three distinct republics,” said Bonner. “That’s up to them.”
Other facts Bonner presented:
• A thermometer with a reading of 139.9 degrees Fahrenheit.
• A picture of him hitting golf balls on Christmas day.
• A picture of “the most ignored sign in Baghdad” — No Drinking While Armed.