[1] Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) defending Saddam Hussein; [2] CPP Praising North Korea's "Nuclear Breakthrough"; [3] CPP & NDFP Greeting North Korea's Dictator Kim Jong Il on His Birthday; [4] CPP-NDFP Chiefs rubbing shoulders with Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN)

(1) US puppet court's sham trial of Saddam Hussein serves Bush interests not Iraqi people's--CPP

PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
November 6, 2006

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today denounced the sham trial and yesterday's sentencing to death of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, saying it does not serve the Iraqi people's aspirations for justice but only serves US ultra-Rightist interests and, in particular, the narrow political agenda of US President George Bush and his Republican party.

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said in sentencing Saddam Hussein to death, the Special Tribunal formed in 2004 by the US colonial authority in Iraq "is a mockery of justice." Rosal scored the manipulation of the trial by the Bush government which dictated the verdict and pushed for the sentencing of Saddam days ahead of the previous schedule in order to precede tomorrow's mid-term elections in the US with the hope of influencing its outcome in favor of the increasingly isolated Bush-led Republican Party.

"Saddam was tried not by a real and independent Iraqi court by a US puppet court. It was formed under conditions of occupation and has proven itself incapable of being providing the accused a fair trial and guarantee of his right to defend himself," Rosal said. "The puppet court was manipulated all the way by the US to ensure a guilty verdict in order to provide justification for the US invasion and its continued occupation of Iraq."

Rosal said that the Republicans desperately needed a rushed guilty verdict to drown the widespread criticism of the US war on Iraq, further inflamed by revelations that refuted the Bush regime's justification of the invasion by claiming that Saddam was hiding weapons for mass destruction and ties with the al Qaida.

"The American public has become more and more highly critical of the US war against Iraq not only because of the justifications have all been proven to be lies, but also because it has brought nothing but hardship, suffering and oppression to the Iraqi people, as well as pains due to a mounting death toll and pangs of an unwelcome occupier's guilt to the American people," added Rosal.

"It is the American people, not Bush, his cronies amassing wealth for contracts in Iraq and his fellow neoconservative diehards in the Republican Party, who are being made to shoulder the human and financial costs of the war against Iraq," said Rosal. Around 50,000 Iraqi civilians and 3,000 American troops have been killed in Iraq since 2003.

Rosal said "The trial of Saddam Hussein was far from fair and was directed not at achieving justice. It sought only to damn Saddam Hussein as a criminal, and thus hope to justify to the world and to the American people that it was just for the US to invade and continue to occupy and exercise hegemony over Iraq."

Rosal noted that Saddam was denied legal counsel and a fair trial for one year after he was detained by US occupation forces in 2003. Three of Saddam's defense lawyers were assassinated during the course of the trial prompting him to go on a hunger strike. Three judges who did not conform exactly to US dictates were also replaced one after another. "The trial was such a mockery that Saddam's defense, including the presentation of defense witnesses, was aborted in order to rush the guilty verdict."

"The Iraqi people will not be able to achieve justice as long as the US remains a colonial force and exercises hegemony over Iraq," said Rosal.

The CPP spokesperson said further that "The Bush government desperately hopes that the guilty verdict will demoralize and weaken the patriotic forces of resistance in Iraq. But, it is the opposite that will happen—all the more will the Iraqi people be enraged and all the more will the resistance rise against the US occupation and dictation over their country."

Rosal urged international community as well as the American people to condemn the sham trial of Saddam and call for the formation of a truly independent tribunal. He reiterated the CPP's call for the respect of the Iraqi people's right to national self-determination and worldwide support for the immediate and complete withdrawal of all US occupation forces from Iraq.

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/

RELATED WEBSITES:

http://kilusan.net

http://www.ilps-news.com/reg-sec/south-central-asia/philippines/

http://www.geocities.com/ilps2000/

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(2) CPP congratulates DPR-Korea for nuke breakthrough

by CPP Information Bureau

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today congratulated the people and government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for successfully and safely carrying out its first-ever nuclear test and hailed the successful test as a “militant assertion of national sovereignty and the right of an independent country to develop its own powerful self-reliant defense capability amidst constant efforts by the US to impose its imperialist hegemony over the world, maintain its monopoly of nuclear weapons along with a few other powerful countries, and subvert the sovereign will of the DPRK.