Defendant Says Iraq Engineered Plot to Kill Bush
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KUWAIT CITY — An Iraqi nurse testified Saturday that Saddam Hussein’s agents ordered him to bring a jeep packed with explosives into Kuwait on a mission to assassinate former President George Bush.
And if the car bombing failed, he was told to strap himself with explosives for a suicide bombing. His payment: about $1,300 at the black market rate.
“They told me to kill Bush,” Wali Ghazali, 36, told the three-judge court overseeing the no-jury trial.
Ghazali and another Iraqi, Raad Assadi, pleaded guilty Saturday to charges that carry the death penalty. Twelve other Iraqi and Kuwaiti defendants pleaded innocent in the plot to kill Bush during his visit.
Bush visited the emirate April 14-16, receiving a hero’s welcome. Kuwaitis revere the former President for leading the coalition that expelled Iraq from Kuwait in February, 1991.
Human rights activists have criticized the trial.
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