Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has confessed to crimes in meetings with investigators for the special tribunal that will try him later this year, President Jalal Talabani said in a televised interview late Tuesday night.Speaking on state-run Iraqiya network, Talabani said investigators have told him the ‘‘good news’’ that Saddam had confessed to ordering the Anfal massacre against the Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988 and to other execution orders. ‘‘He confessed about the Anfal executions, and the orders issued in his name,’’ Talabani said. ‘‘Saddam should be executed 20 times.’’It was unclear whether Talabani was saying that Saddam had acknowledged that his actions were criminal or that he had merely admitted ordering killings he believed were proper. In the past, he has not denied that he ordered people killed.After the broadcast, Abdel Haz Alani, a lawyer for Saddam’s family, called Talabani’s remarks a ‘‘fabrication’’, and said that the claims of a confession came ‘‘as a surprise, a big surprise’’. He said Saddam had made no mention of a confession during a Monday meeting with his lawyer. —nyt
