Where he famously pleaded that the defendants should be found innocent because the trial was a circus. After onetime United States Attorney General Randy Clark, the defendants, and the defense lawyers, had, actually, turned the trial into a circus.
Will Sadaam Out Manson Manson?
He has already greatly outdone Charles Manson in terms of mass murder. And he is a much larger physical presence in the courtroom. And has the enormous acquired gravitas of a much longer and much more efficacious dictatorship over many more people.
Shades of the Great American Show Trials of the Youth Insurrection!
From a Yahoo! AP article, Saddam's Comments Highlight Unruly Session :
Saddam's Comments Highlight Unruly Session By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
Saddam Hussein railed at the judge Monday, and the former president's lawyers briefly walked out of court before the first witness testified that Saddam's agents carried out random arrests, torture and killings in an Iraqi village.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who is helping represent Saddam, told the judge he needed only two minutes to present his argument.
But Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin at first said only Saddam's chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, could speak. Amin said the defense should submit its motion in writing and warned that if the defense walked out then the court would appoint replacement lawyers.
After the defense lawyers left, Saddam, shaking his right hand, told the judge: "You are imposing lawyers on us. They are imposed lawyers. The court is imposed by itself. We reject that."
Saddam and his half brother Barazan Ibrahim then chanted "Long live Iraq, long live the Arab state."
Ibrahim stood up and shouted: "Why don't you just execute us and get rid of all of this!"
When the judge explained that he was ruling in accordance with the law, Saddam replied: "This is a law made by America and does not reflect Iraqi sovereignty."
It was the third court session in the trial of Saddam and seven co-defendants — accused in the 1982 killing of more than 140 Shiites after an assassination attempt against the president in Dujail — where Saddam at times appeared to be in control of the court as much as the presiding judge.
After the lawyers spoke, the first witness to take the stand, Ahmed Hassan Mohammed, began his emotional but often rambling testimony. He said that after an assassination attempt on Saddam, security agencies took people of all ages from age 14 to over age 70. They were tortured for 70 days at the intelligence headquarters in Baghdad before being moved to Abu Ghraib prison where the abuse continued, he said.
[…] "Reconciliation is essential," Clark told the court. "This trial can divide or heal. Unless [this trial] is seen as absolutely fair, and fair in fact, it will divide rather than reconcile Iraq."
Clark then said all parties were entitled to protection, and the measures offered to protect the defense and their families were "absurd." Clark said that without such protection, the judicial system would collapse.
Al-Nueimi then spoke about the legitimacy issue, arguing that court is not independent and was in fact set up under the U.S.-led occupation rather than by a legal Iraqi government. He said the language of the statute was unchanged from that promulgated by the former top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and was therefore "illegitimate."
The first witness earlier exchanged insults with Saddam's half brother, telling him "you killed a 14-year-old boy." [/] "To ####," the half brother, Ibrahim, replied. [/] "You and your children go to ####," the witness replied. [/] The judge then asked them to avoid such exchanges.
As the testimony continued, Saddam's lawyers objected that someone in the visitors' gallery was making threatening gestures and should be removed. Ibrahim leapt to his feet, spat in the direction of the gallery, and shouted, "These are criminals." [/] The judge ordered the person removed from the gallery and questioned.
[…] At the start of Monday's session, Saddam walked into the court with a smile, carrying a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, and greeted everyone there. [/] Most of the defendants and several of the defense lawyers, including Clark, al-Dulaimi and al-Nueimi, stood up out of respect when Saddam walked in. [My ellipses and emphasis]
The trial is being broadcast live to the Iraqi people and their neighbors, I believe.
This is a blessing rarely available in our country. Except for Judge Judy and, possibly, that epitome of American jurisprudence, the murder trial of O. J. Simpson.
With some dozen or so Sadaam trials being planned and with the current delaying and rowdiness tactics of the defense, this apt to be the longest running and most popular real reality television presentation of all time.
Sadly, Sadaam will probably die of old age before the ratings drop.
