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[igotthisguitar]

Saddam defense team walks out
Monday, December 5, 2005 Posted: 0919 GMT (1719 HKT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein's defense team walked out of court on Monday after a heated exchange over the legitimacy of the tribunal.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and two other attorneys for Hussein left the courtroom after Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin refused to hear their complaints immediately.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsey_Clark

At one point Hussein stood up, shook his fist and shouted, "Long live Iraq."

Clark had sought to address the court on the issue of its legitimacy and the security of defense lawyers. But Amin said only Hussein's chief lawyer could address the court.

Amin told defense lawyers to submit their arguments in writing and warned that if they walked out the court would appoint replacement lawyers.

"We reject the appointment of court employees to defend us," Hussein said.

He and his half brother Barazan Ibrahim then chanted "Long live Iraq, Long live the Arab state."

When the judge said he was ruling in accordance with Iraqi law, Hussein said, "This is a law made by America and does not reflect Iraqi sovereignty."

After the defense team walked out, Amin called a recess.

The intense drama came within the first 20 minutes of Monday's court session, which resumed after a week's adjournment.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/05/saddam.hussein.trial/index.html

[Hater Depot]

Weren't you the one posting that it's not even Saddam on trial?

[deessell]

[igotthisguitar]

[deessell]

I want to know why his head hair is black but his beard is white...is that odd? Shoudn't his hair be grey as well??

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Wangja]

[khyber]

everything i've seen coming outta that classroom seems to indicate that saddam seems to be walking over these judges and mocking these procedures.

Sounds like a man with a SOLID defence strategy...

claim the court is imposing itself on you.
yeeeesh :lol:

[deessell]

[igotthisguitar]

Saddam Hussein, trial, RICO
Move Saddam's trial to Manhattan
By David Hawkins & Judi McLeod
Thursday, December 8, 2005

A change of venue could be all that��s needed to halt the histrionics of Saddam Hussein in court. And what better place than New York, where Saddam and Company could be indicted along with their investment banker and stockbroker affiliates under U.S. RICO status?

Saddam Hussein in court is proving to be almost as good an actor as he is a tyrant.

As drama queen, he��s good enough to compete in the country he hates for an Academy Award.

A no show, Saddam refused to enter court on Wednesday. How as a shackled prisoner he can refuse anything is as mysterious as is his habit of conferring with the sand jinn.

Even without his physical presence, his dramatic flair was still there in the conspicuously empty black leather chair in the Baghdad courtroom.

Just the night before, the former president told the court to "go to hell" and got his way in boycotting the fifth session of his trial, by spending most of the day in talks with lawyers.

The Butcher of Baghdad made big bones about his not having a fresh change of underwear and a shirt for weeks.

Whining must run in the family as his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, a former intelligence chief, complained of his treatment in jail, saying he had been denied tea and coffee for a year, dropped 40 pounds in weight–and was offered only "inferior" brand cigarettes.

Speculation remains rife that the stall will continue when the court reconvenes on December 21.

Arguing that their trial is a sham, Saddam and his co-defendants have repeatedly disrupted it, openly berating Kurdish Judge Rizar Mohammed Amin and the chief prosecutor and loudly branding obviously fearful witnesses as liars.

Props have been abundant for the defendants in light of alleged abuse scandals in Iraqi jails and secret bunkers. The UN��s human rights chief in Iraq says the trial has little chance of meeting international standards.

International observers and many Iraqis feel the verdict of this trial is a foregone conclusion–Saddam will be hanged.

By killing them without grilling them, we my lose access to information about who the really big fish were in the Oil-for-food scandal.

Why not try the dramatic duo in New York by RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization) standards?

There��s plenty of evidence of the Ba��ath Party RICO-style activities, Barzan was responsible for the attempted assassination of President George Bush Senior in Kuwait and the Ramzi Yusef bombing of New York��s World Trade Center in 1993.

Al-Tikriti managed Saddam��s personal investments in Geneva and regime finances and assassinations abroad. He worked with Yeslam bin Laden, Osama��s half brother and Saddam��s preferred French arms suppliers.

Ba��ath Party leaders and UN insiders collected, spent and laundered about $100-billion of Oil-for-Food money through Groupe Axa affiliates, BNP and Paribas in Manhattan.

Could New York��s legal eagles determine if just before 9/11 Barzan��s bankers shorted Enron, Dynergy, Qwest, Tyco and WorldCom stock on the New York Stock Exchange? American stocks, after all lost $1.2-trillion in the next four trading days, creating huge profits for the ��shorts��.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/cover120805h.htm

[canuckistan]

While Saddam's hystronics are no surprise, it certainly is high entertainment value to watch him huffing and puffing.

[igotthisguitar]

[igotthisguitar]

Echoing the opinion that others have put forward, rather than instant karma, for all those years of faithful service Saddam clearly warrants a big fat CIA pension

Iraqi Govt Silent On Saddam Hanging
By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Former president Saddam Hussein faced hanging within 30 days on Wednesday, but Iraq's government maintained silence about the conduct of the execution, seeking to contain political tensions his death might unleash.



Speculation on the streets ranged from a swift execution within days, conducted in secret and announced only after the fact, to a public execution broadcast on television -- though few believed the latter was likely.

The Iraqi High Tribunal appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam's death sentence imposed for crimes against humanity during his 24-year rule.

"Our job is done and now it is in the hand of the executive authority. They (the government) have the right to choose the date starting from tomorrow up to 30 days," the head of the court, Aref Abdul-Razzaq al-Shahin, said on Tuesday.

But the government refused repeated requests for comment and declined to give any indication on when and how it was going to execute Saddam, overthrown by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

An Iraqi Web site published on Wednesday a farewell letter from Saddam in which he urged Iraqis to preserve unity and be a model for "coexistence, tolerance and forgiveness," saying he was ready to sacrifice himself for Iraq.

Saddam's lawyer said the letter was written in November after the lower court issued the death sentence against him.

"I offer myself as a sacrifice ... Oh great people of Iraq, I call on you to preserve the values that enabled you to be worthy of carrying out the faith and to be the light of civilization ...," said the letter dated December 26.

Political professor Hazim al-Naimi said he expected the government would keep quiet for a while over Saddam's execution and that it wanted to dampen down media coverage to avoid damaging efforts to encourage national reconciliation.

"They have had reconciliation conferences and there are others lined up for the coming months so they are playing a clever game by not commenting and letting it cool down," Naimi told Reuters.

OUT OF PRESIDENT'S HANDS

Washington and the Iraqi government have accused former members of the once ruling Baath party of funding and supporting Sunni Arab-led insurgency. But now the government is trying to bring in former members of Saddam's Baath party as part of efforts to isolate Sunni Arab insurgent groups like al-Qaeda.

"The reconciliation is very important for the government and for the Americans now as part of efforts trying to solve the problems in Iraq," Naimi said.

Shahin said nobody could reduce or overturn the sentence.

"No side could reduce or exempt the sentence, not even the president himself," he said.

President Jalal Talabani has said repeatedly he would never sign a death sentence including Saddam's. According to the constitution, he can delegate one of his deputies to sign.

There have been a number of executions in Iraq in recent months.

Saddam is still on trial with six others for genocide against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s. Shahin said the trial would continue without Saddam if he is executed. Saddam is scheduled to appear in court again on January 8.

Human rights group Amnesty International said the Appeal Court ruling came at the end of a flawed trial that had lacked independence from political interference

"Amnesty International is very disappointed about this decision," a spokeswoman for the human rights organization said.

"We are against the death penalty as a matter of principle but particularly in this case because it comes after a 'flawed' trial."

The nine-judge appellate court also upheld death sentences against Saddam's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, and former judge Awad al-Bander, for their part in the incident.

The court recommended toughening the sentence on former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, who had been sentenced to life in prison over Dujail, saying he should also be executed.

(Additional reporting by Sami Aboudi)


Saddam Offers Self As Sacrifice, Calls On Iraqis To Unite

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has said in a letter that he would go to the gallows as a "sacrifice" and called on his former Iraqi subjects to unite against their enemies.

Saddam, in a letter written to the Iraqi people from his cell before his appeal against a death sentence failed, said Wednesday: "I sacrifice myself. If God wills it, he will place me among the true men and martyrs."

Defence counsel Khalil Dulaimi told AFP in Jordan that Saddam had written the letter in November when he was first sentenced to death and that it had been released to the public after the news that his appeal had failed.

"It's release was delayed by the length of the procedures imposed by the Americans," Dulaimi said, by way of explanation.

On Tuesday, a panel of appeals court judges confirmed Saddam's conviction for crimes against humanity and ordered that he be hanged within 30 days.

In what might therefore be his final message, Saddam blamed his old enemies the United States and Iran for the bloodshed engulfing Iraq, which is in the grip of a sectarian war between Sunni and Shiite factions.

"The enemies of your country, the invaders and the Persians have found your unity a barrier between you and those who are now ruling you. Therefore, they drove their hated wedge among you," he declared.

"O faithful people, I bid you farewell as my soul goes to God the compassionate," he wrote. "Long live Iraq. Long Live Iraq. Long live Palestine. Long live jihad and the mujahideen. God is great."