posted on March 27, 2004 12:55:24 PM new
Saturday, March 27, 2004 10:03 a.m. ET
PARIS (Reuters) - The French lawyer known for defending Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and guerrilla Carlos the Jackal said Saturday that Saddam Hussein's nephew had chosen him to represent the deposed Iraqi president.
Jacques Verges told Reuters in a telephone interview he had received a letter from Ali Barzan al-Tikriti, whose father Barzan al-Tikriti is Saddam's half-brother, asking him to defend the former Iraqi dictator, captured by U.S. forces in December.
Verges, who is also defending former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, said he had accepted the job of defending Saddam and suggested his strategy would focus on the role played by the United States and other countries in supporting the Iraqi leader in the 1980s.
Verges singled out Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a key advocate of last year's U.S.-led war to oust Saddam, for his role 20 years ago as a special envoy of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
He said that if a trial of Saddam took place, Rumsfeld would have to "take a seat next to the leader."
The United States and Britain cited Iraqi chemical and biological arms as their justification for invading the country last March. No such weapons have come to light since they toppled Saddam, despite intensive searches.
posted on March 27, 2004 03:15:27 PM new
Kraft, wouldn't that look kind of suspicious if he just died? Maybe they could blame it on a high cholesteral diet or stress though.
posted on March 27, 2004 09:27:16 PM new
Why not a military tribunal? I thought the man was a terrorist, as well as a bloodthirsty despot. Why does he get a trial and all those enemy combatants in Cuba not?
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posted on March 28, 2004 07:40:26 AM new
Although he is considered a POW now, they did reserve the option to change his "status". Maybe before the trial, they will do a flip flop and call him an enemy combatant.
posted on March 29, 2004 03:17:35 PM newU.S. Officials Say Saddam's Not Talking
By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - He doesn't have a lawyer in the room, but Saddam Hussein apparently is practicing what most attorneys would advise: Don't talk. Diplomatic and military officials say the former Iraqi leader has provided little useful information in interrogations so far — and may even be having fun.
The questioning of Saddam — initially handled by the CIA — is now a joint CIA-FBI operation, a sign that the aim is changing from finding intelligence to gathering evidence for any eventual trials. The people who are asking the questions at the moment are from the FBI, said a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has indicated in interviews that interrogators aren't learning much from the former president of Iraq.
In a recent interview, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he occasionally sees the interrogation briefing reports. "He's a pretty wily guy, and he's not giving much information that I've seen. But he seems to be enjoying the debate," Armitage told WPHT-AM radio in Philadelphia.
When Saddam was captured, haggard in an underground room in December, officials hoped the interrogation would yield details about the Iraqi insurgency, Saddam's weapons programs, human rights violations and corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Instead, House Intelligence Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., now calls the questioning a "patience project."
"He is very good at denial and deception. I am not sure he even knows what the truth is anymore," Goss said. "I think he's been surrounded by yes-men and syncophants."
It will be quite awhile before there is a trial (some predict up to two years) and then I have a feeling it will be a long and drawn out process. What has Saddam really got to lose now? He can play along all he wants to and I don't think there's anything much they can do with him or to him, is there?
