More gripes from former Baath Party officials about man’s inhumanity to man. They are quite outraged about this now that they are (allegedly) on the receiving end. On Wednesday, one of Saddam’s co-defendants, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, complained that the United States did not give him any cigarettes for the first four months he was in jail. And when the smokes were provided, he said, "they were of the worst quality in the world." (He did not identify the brand.)
If we ever signed a treaty guaranteeing high-quality tobacco products to former dictators and their henchmen, I’m not aware of it. Actually, Reuters described Barzan not as a "henchman," but rather "one of [Saddam’s] most feared sidekicks." Robin was a "sidekick." Saddam Hussein’s former intelligence chief and master torturer should not be described as a "sidekick."
Barzan charged that the U.S. had failed to give him cigarettes despite the fact that it is "one of the wealthiest countries in the world." You know what, Barzan? Nobody thinks we weren’t giving you cigarettes because we couldn’t afford it.
This article also adds to what we know about Saddam’s consistent bitching. It says that he complained earlier in the trial about having to walk up several flights of stairs to the courtroom because of a broken elevator. It does make tears shoot out of your eyes when you hear that a mass-murderer was forced to take the stairs. Oh, the humanity.