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Posted on 07/01/2004 7:32:35 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
Jul 1, 9:08 AM (ET) "I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq," he told a hearing where he was read seven charges, according to pool reporters in the courtroom at Camp Victory, a sprawling U.S. base that was previously a lavish hunting estate with a man-made lake. "This is all theater. The real criminal is (U.S. President George W.) Bush," he said. In television pictures broadcast around the world on Thursday shortly after the proceedings, Saddam looking haggard with a neatly trimmed beard that had mostly turned grey. He was wearing a dark gray jacket over a white shirt, with no tie. It was the first footage shown of the ousted Iraqi leader since photographs and videotape taken after his capture in December. Saddam, 67, was shown gesticulating toward the judge, and at times wagging his finger angrily. He was thinner than when he was captured hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit in December and he had bags under his eyes. Saddam also declared that the country's occupiers could not strip him of his title of president. The judge told him that, under the Geneva Conventions, they could. Saddam refused to concede that the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was a crime, denouncing the Kuwaitis. "They were trying to turn Iraqi women into prostitutes for just $10," he said. "How could you defend those dogs?" The judge warned him not to use such language. Saddam also refused to sign a statement acknowledging that he had been charged and read his rights. The hearing followed the end of his prisoner of war status and his transfer from U.S. to Iraqi legal custody on Wednesday. Hearing the charge that he ordered the killing of thousands of Kurds in a poison gas attack at Halabja in 1988, Saddam seemed to imply he had nothing to do with it. "Yes, I heard about that," he said. Two burly Iraqi guards escorted him into the courthouse. His chains were removed before he reached the courtroom and the handcuffs were taken off inside the room. The courtroom is close to the palace in the middle of an artificial lake stocked with fish on the southwest fringe of Baghdad. Members of Saddam's inner circle used to go hunting in the grounds, and soldiers say Saddam's playboy son Uday used one of the palace buildings for his assignations. The small sandstone-colored court building is next to a blue-domed mosque, and was formerly the imam's residence. It has been used for several courts martial, and for last week's hearing for Specialist Sabrina Harman, one of the seven American soldiers charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib jail -- where thousands of Iraqis were imprisoned and tortured under Saddam. Told by the judge at the hearing that legal counsel would be provided for him if he needed it, Saddam said: "But everyone says, the Americans say, I have millions of dollars stashed away in Geneva. Why shouldn't I afford a lawyer?"
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - He arrived handcuffed and in chains at a courtroom in a complex that was once one of his palaces. But although Saddam Hussein has been overthrown and captured, he had not lost his defiance.
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Sounds like Saddam is a poster on DU.
Here is one of their posts this morning:
skjpm (683 posts) Thu Jul-01-04 10:05 AM
Original message
I'm going to consider Saddam innocent until proven guilty
I don't know what his crimes are. I don't know whether he did things alone or with US or international backing. I don't know which acts of torture he OK'd and which were done by "bad apples" in his army. I would like to know if he hurt his own people, and whether his reasons were similar to the reasons we killed innocent Iraqis. I don't see any reason to want him convicted until I know he's guilty.
And another thing that comes across in his testimony--if planes had hit buildings in Bagdad, he wouldn't have sat there reading a book for seven minutes.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1901420
Maybe he will get off with a insanity plea?
Next thing you know, the AP will reveal the judge's name.
The idiocy of the left is the only perpetual motion machine I've ever encountered...
Saddam is starting to sound like a serious candidate for the Democrat VP slot...
Great cartoon; that pretty much sums up the religious left.
Perhaps AP is trying to get him killed? It WOULD make a heckuva story.
So, the rats are going to hang their hat on the fact that you can't punish a sovereign leader.
So, Allawi can execute Saddam without question.
And, the implications on the rat strategy in the US don't go so well for the rats.
Saddam is playing to the Western media, to the left. Before this is over, the media would have you believe that it's Reagan and Rumsfeld and Bush on trial.
Every chance they get, the court should refer to him as the "deposed ex-president of Iraq". Rub it in.
The protocol was set up by the new interim government and our military. The secrecy of the judge's name, and the location of the trial proceedings is to protect everyone involved, including Saddam Hussein from being killed by some nutcase with a bomb, or Saddam loyalists that still lurk among the populace in Iraq.
Words fail me to see the Bush hatred on the left. I am glad that the server here blocks DU. I can't stand to read their trash. At least this one doesn't use the F word.
I can't stand these celebs - Saddam today said that he hates GW Bush AND THAT HE IS THE REAL CRIM - hmmm...it's the same thing these rich movie stars say also.
Have you noticed...the terrorists want Kerry to be elected and the rich left wing Hollywood stars want Kerry to be elected also!
Islamofascists and leftist stars share the same goals! Nice. How times have changed from WW2!
Saddam is a DUer!
This traitor gives Saddam Hussein more benefit of doubt than President George W. Bush! The scumbag gasses his own people and this person is willing to defend him by saying maybe it was done by "bad apples"??? This DU idiot compares what Saddam did to his own people & Kuwait to our liberation of Iraq? This is one of the enemies within our own borders. Amazing!!!!!
Straight out of the Michael Moore playbook.
"The real criminal is (U.S. President George W.) Bush," Sadman said.
OMG, he's been given an ACLU lawyer, and he's been talking to Katie Couric and Mikey Moore....
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