MOSCOW: Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein cut a deal with the United States before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov said in an interview published on Thursday.

"There was an understanding with the Americans, as paradoxical as it may seem," Primakov told the Russian daily Gazeta in a lengthy interview.

"Why weren't the bridges of the Tigris blown up when the American tanks approached Baghdad? Why weren't Iraqi aviation and tanks used, and where are they now?" asked Primakov, a former head of the Russian secret service and a specialist in Arab affairs who was formerly on good terms with Saddam. Daily Times

A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated.

Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh, of Lebanese descent, was quoted in the Saudi daily al-Medina Wednesday as saying Saddam was actually captured Friday, Dec. 12, 2003, and not the day after, as announced by the U.S. Army.

"I was among the 20-man unit, including eight of Arab descent, who searched for Saddam for three days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced," Abou Rabeh said.

"We captured him after fierce resistance during which a Marine of Sudanese origin was killed," he said.

He said Saddam himself fired at them with a gun from the window of a room on the second floor. "Then they shouted at him in Arabic: You have to surrender. ... There is no point in resisting."

"Later on, a military production team fabricated the film of Saddam's capture in a hole, which was in fact a deserted well," Abou Rabeh said.

Abou Rabeh was interviewed in Lebanon. Big News Network.com - Thursday 10th March, 2005 (UPI)

Sanjay Suri [exerpt]

A report prepared by the top CIA official handling the matter says Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the massacre, and indicates that it was the work of Iranians. Further, the Scott inquiry on the role of the British government has gathered evidence that following the massacre the United States in fact armed Saddam Hussein to counter the Iranians chemicals for chemicals.

Few believe that a CIA man would attend a court hearing in Baghdad in defence of Saddam. But in this case the CIA boss has gone public with his evidence, and this evidence has been in the public domain for more than a year.

The CIA officer Stephen C. Pelletiere was the agency's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. As professor at the Army War College from 1988 to 2000, he says he was privy to much of the classified material that flowed through Washington having to do with the Persian Gulf.

In addition, he says he headed a 1991 Army investigation into how the Iraqis would fight a war against the United States, and the classified version of the report went into great detail on the Halabja affair.

Pelletiere went public with his information on no less a platform than The New York Times in an article on January 31 last year titled 'A War Crime or an Act of War?' The article which challenged the case for war quoted U.S. President George W. Bush as saying: The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured.

Pelletiere says the United States Defence Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report following the Halabja gassing, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need- to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas, he wrote in The New York Times.

The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja, he said. The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been killed with a blood agent -- that is, a cyanide-based gas -- which Iran was known to use. The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time.

Pelletiere writes that these facts have long been in the public domain but, extraordinarily, as often as the Halabja affair is cited, they are rarely mentioned.

more at the Source

June 6, 2005 - BAGHDAD: Saddam Hussein's morale has plummeted due to the gravity of the war crimes charges he faces, said the chief investigating judge trying him.

Raid Juhi, head of the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try the ousted president, said he and some of the 11 other detained former regime figures face 12 cases carrying punishment from life in jail to the death penalty.

"Saddam has suffered a collapse in his morale because he understands the extent of the charges against him and because he's certain that he will stand trial before an impartial court," Juhi said.

Saddam, held in a US-run facility, was captured in 2003. Charges include killing rival politicians during his 30-year rule, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait and suppressing Kurdish and Shi'ite uprisings in 1991. - daily telegraph

Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is depressed and has begged the Iraqi government for mercy, Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said in an interview published on Monday.

'He is distraught and depressed,' Allawi said of Saddam

The portrait painted by Allawi differed sharply from that in a New York Times account published over the weekend, based on interviews with U.S. and Iraqi officials who have visited the former dictator in his air-conditioned 10-by-13-foot cell on the grounds of one of his former palaces.

'Distraught' Saddam begging for mercy, Iraqi PM says

Task Force 121 to Use Saddam's Spies and Israeli Commandos in Assassination 'Manhunts'

"The cutting edge troops are Special Forces, Delta Force and SEALs. Support is provided by SOCOMs own fleet of specialized aircraft, plus intelligence and other personnel. Perhaps the most potent aspect of operations like Task Force 121 is their ability to work closely with the CIA, FBI, DIA and other intelligence agencies. The CIA, in particular, has long been eager to work with SOCOM troops."

Playing Chess in the Dark With Task Force 121 by James Dunnigan

Task Force 121 Disinfopedia

Counter terror and Hostage rescue

more on Carrol

By Michael Georgy and Mariam Karouny - BAGHDAD, Oct 20 (Reuters) - A lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was kidnapped on Thursday, a day after his client sat in the dock next to the former president on the opening day of their trial for crimes against humanity.

Saadoun Janabi is defence counsel for former judge Jawad al-Bander, a senior legal source involved in the trial said.

"(He) was kidnapped this evening around 8:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) from his office, which is also his home, in the Shaab district by eight armed men," the source said.

Police and Interior Ministry sources confirmed the kidnapping. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Eight men arrived in two cars and forced Janabi from his upper-storey office at gunpoint, the police sources said. Bander is a former top judge under Saddam who is charged, along with the ousted leader and six others, over the killings and executions of Shi'ite men from the village of Dujail after Saddam escaped an assassination attempt there in 1982.

As Janabi was being taken, Irish journalist Rory Carroll was freed, a day after he was seized while reporting on a Baghdad Shi'ite family watching the televised start of Saddam's trial.

A British government source said he believed Carroll was released after two Iraqi prisoners were freed in southern Iraq. "I don't know who took me," Carroll told Reuters. "I'm fine. I was treated reasonably well," he said, adding he wanted to go on reporting on Iraq, though his immediate plans were unclear. "I spent the last 36 hours in the dark," he said.

Iraq's powerful Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi was present when he was released, Carroll added.

Saddam and the seven others went on trial on Wednesday but swiftly won an adjournment to Nov. 28 to hone their defence after they pleaded not guilty; they all face the death penalty.

SECURITY COMPLAINTS

Defence lawyers want to bring in leading foreign attorneys to help them in a trial that has gripped Iraq and the world; Iraq's government and its U.S. sponsors say the process will be fair, helping Iraqis put their troubled past behind them and demonstrating that its new democracy can work.

It was not clear if the kidnapping would deter foreign lawyers from coming or lead to further calls for adjournment.

It may add to complaints that confrontation verging on civil war between Saddam's once dominant Sunni Arab minority and the Shi'ite-led government is not compatible with a fair trial.

Kidnapping for political motives or money is rampant; Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias are both accused of killings. Bander, in a plain white traditional robe, sat at Saddam's right hand in court on Wednesday, loudly demanding and then donning a checkered Arab headscarf as proceedings got under way.

He is accused for overseeing the trials of dozens of Dujail men who were sentenced to death in the wake of the incident. His defence is expected to argue he was simply upholding the law. In three hours of televised courtroom exchanges, the ousted Iraqi president harangued the Kurdish judge and tussled with his guards. Thursday's newspapers were filled with coverage. "The people are victorious over a tyrant," read one banner headline.

The judge, who has risked revenge attacks by appearing on television to try Saddam, told Reuters the court also needed time to persuade witnesses who were "scared" to testify. One who will definitely give evidence shortly is a former intelligence officer in Dujail who is dying of cancer. The presiding judge, Rizgar Amin, told Reuters he would soon testify in hospital in case he died or was too ill to appear in court.

"Wadah al-Sheikh is one of the main witnesses; we are going to get his testimony, maybe next week," the judge said. "He is in hospital and very sick with cancer so we have to go to him."

Iraqi security forces said on Thursday they arrested one of Saddam's nephews on suspicion of financing insurgents. Yasser Sabawi was captured in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit on Wednesday as residents protested to mark the beginning of Saddam's trial.

ARAB LEAGUE

Earlier on Thursday, Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who has said Iraq is on the verge of civil war, met Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and other Iraqi leaders. "We spoke about the new Iraq and the specific mission of the head of the Arab League ... in the framework of a national dialogue and national Iraqi reconciliation," Moussa said.

Iraq's Shi'ite leaders have been at odds with the Sunni governments of the rest of the Arab world, prompting fears that conflict within Iraq could spread across the region. Shi'ite political leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim criticised the Arab League during a news conference with Moussa. "We reproach the Arab League and Arab states because of their position towards Iraq and Iraqis," he said, complaining that the 22-member League "did not condemn terrorist groups".

Other Arab leaders are wary of Baghdad's close ties to Washington and to non-Arab fellow Shi'ites in Iran. An Oct. 15 referendum on a constitution opposed by Sunnis as a recipe for division expected to pass, raising fears of an intensified campaign by the rebels once results are announced.

The Electoral Commission, which says it may issue results in a day or two, said it had received about 80 complaints, most of them relatively minor; some Sunni leaders have alleged fraud. (Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad, Faris Mehdawi in Baquba, Aref Mohammed in Kirkuk and Khaled Yacoub Oweis) - alertnet.org

Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer Found Dead

By THOMAS WAGNER BAGHDAD, Iraq Oct 21, 2005 - A defense lawyer in Saddam Hussein's mass murder trial has been found dead, his body dumped near a Baghdad mosque with two gunshots to the head, police and a top lawyers union official said Friday.

Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi was abducted from his office Thursday evening, a day after he attended the first session of the trial, acting as the lawyer of one Saddam's seven co-defendants.

His body was found hours later on a sidewalk near Fardous Mosque in the eastern neighborhood of Ur, near the site of his office, said police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi. His identity was confirmed Friday, al-Mohammedawi said.

Diaa al-Saadi, a senior official in the lawyers syndicate, said al-Janabi's family confirmed to him al-Janabi was dead. "This will have grave repercussions. This will hinder lawyers from defending those held for political reasons," al-Saadi warned.

The killing was the first setback for a tribunal that has been held under tight security.

Heavy protection was provided for prosecutors and judges in the Saddam trial, on the theory that they were likely targets of pro-Saddam insurgents seeking revenge. Their names have not been revealed and their faces were not shown in the broadcast of Wednesday's opening session with the exception of the presiding judge and the top prosecutor, whose identities were revealed for the first time just before the trial.

But security measures do not appear to have been extended to the defense lawyers for Saddam and his seven co-defendants. - more ABC News

from the same story:

On Thursday, Rory Carroll, 33, the Baghdad correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian was released unharmed in Sadr City, a day after being kidnapped there by unidentified gunmen. A group of Sadr City residents reportedly raided the area where he was being held by criminals and freed him.

By Michael Georgy BAGHDAD, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A lawyer involved in the Saddam Hussein trial who was found dead was abducted by armed men in suits and ties who identified themselves as Interior Ministry employees, witnesses said on Friday.

Their accounts could not be independently checked. The Interior Ministry has repeatedly denied allegations from minority groups that it sanctions hit squads run by Shi'ite militiamen.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said he had no information on the gunmen who kidnapped the lawyer Saadoun Janabi, whom Baghdad lawyers said was an old friend of Saddam himself. Janabi was representing one of Saddam's co-defendants, former top judge Awad al-Bander.

"We tried to help him but the gunmen told us to get away. They said they were from the Interior Ministry," said Mohammed Ibrahim, who works in the area.

Several witnesses said more than a dozen armed men entered Janabi's office around 8 p.m. on Thursday and dragged him into an SUV vehicle in the rundown Shaab district of Baghdad.

"They hit him over the head with their rifle butts," said Qusay Kamel, another witness, who works in a furniture shop near Janabi's office. "He didn't say anything."

Police said Janabi's bullet-riddled body was found about an hour later.

The Shi'ite-led government and its interior minister have consistently denied condoning attacks on the once dominant Sunni Arab minority and former figures in Saddam's Baath party. The government spokesman and senior diplomats in Baghdad have conceded, however, that there have been problems with armed, pro-government groups acting as vigilantes against minorities. (Editing by Stephen Weeks) - alertnet

11:34 AM EDT Oct 24 THOMAS WAGNER BAGHDAD (AP) - A suicide car bomber killed two Iraqis and wounded five on Monday in an attack on a police patrol in an area of Baghdad where insurgents had kidnapped and murdered a defence lawyer in Saddam Hussein's trial last week, police said.

The bomb exploded at 6:30 a.m. in the northeastern neighbourhood of Shaab, killing two policemen and wounding three policemen and two civilians, said police Lt. Malik Sultan.

In Kirkuk, 290 kilometres north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded at 8:30 a.m. near a car carrying Ibrahim Zangana, a senior member of Iraq's Kurdish Democratic party, seriously wounding him, killing one of his bodyguards and injuring another one, said Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir, the commander of Kirkuk's police force.

On Sunday, more than 33 Iraqis died in a swell of violence in Iraq, including 12 labourers, five of them brothers, who were gunned down by insurgents at a construction site outside the city of Hillah, about 95 kilometres south of Baghdad, police said.

The toll among American service members in the Iraq war also was approaching 2,000 dead. But the U.S. military said it has hampered insurgents' ability to unleash highly deadly suicide bombings with a series of offensives in western towns that disrupted militant operations.

"We have interrupted the flow of the suicide missions into the large urban areas. Certainly, we have had success denying free movement of car bombs into Baghdad," Brig. Gen. Donald Alston told reporters in the capital.

"It is also a function of Iraqi citizens who have come forward and with their support we have found car bomb factories. We have found a series of large weapon caches," he said.

Last Thursday, 10 gunmen wearing police and military uniforms kidnapped Sunni Arab Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, one of the defence lawyers in the trial of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and seven former officials from his Sunni-dominated regime.

Al-Janabi, the lawyer for Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former head of Saddam's Revolutionary Court, was taken from his office in the Shaab area, and hours later his tortured and bullet-ridden body was found on a sidewalk by the Fardous Mosque in the nearby Ur neighbourhood.

The 12 remaining Saddam trial defence lawyers have since rejected an offer from the Interior Ministry for better security, demanding protection from American officials instead.

Also Sunday, investigative judges took testimony from the first witness in the Saddam mass murder trial regarding the 1982 massacre of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail.

The judges went to a military hospital to take the deposition from Wadah Ismail al-Sheik, a cancer patient who was director of the investigation department at Saddam's feared Mukhabarat intelligence agency at the time of the Dujail massacre.

Al-Sheik is too sick to appear in court, and officials did not want to wait until the trial resumes Nov. 28 to get his testimony.

In another development, the U.S. military on Sunday confirmed that four American contract workers were killed and two wounded in Iraq last month when their convoy got lost.

The attack occurred on Sept. 20 when the convoy, which included U.S. military guards riding in Humvees, made a wrong turn into the mostly Sunni Arab town of Duluiyah, 70 kilometres north of Baghdad. - cbc.ca

Big News Network.com Sunday 30th October, 2005

Saddam Hussein agreed to go into exile long before the Iraq invasion, UAE officials have confirmed.

A proposal by the United Arab Emirates late president, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, at an emergency Arab summit held in Egypt in February 2003 that Saddam agree to go into exile, and that elections be held in Iraq within six months, was agreed to by Hussein. The news became public when Al-Arabiya television aired a documentary this week quoting the son of the late UAE president, Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The program was broadcast to con-incide with the first anniversary of the late president's death.

Another unidentified high-ranking official in the UAE government confirmed the arrangement on Saturday. He said Saddam agreed to the proposal to avoid the invasion. He also agreed to elections within a six month period.

"We had the final acceptance of the various parties, the main players in the world and the concerned person, Saddam Hussein," the late UAE president's son, Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said during the Al-Arabiya TV program.

The proposal included safe passage for the Iraqi dictator and his family, and indemnity from prosecution, while Hussein agreed to UN and Arab League control in advance of elections within six months.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was quoted in the Al-Arabiya program as saying the U.S. was aware of the proposal. "To avoid a war, I would be personally, would recommend that some provision be made so that the senior leadership in that country and their families could be provided haven in some other country," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told ABC's This Week in mid-January 2003.

Earlier, on October 1 2002, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, was dodging questions on a similar subject:

Question: If I could follow on that, would the White House like to see Saddam Hussein dead?

Fleischer: The policy is regime change. And that remains -- and that remains the American position. Clearly, in the event that there is any type of military operation, command and control would, of course, be issues that would come up.

Question: Is the hope, though, that he ends up dead in all this?

Fleischer: Regime change is the policy, in whatever form it takes.

Question: I just want to re-ask again then, the question I've been asking for several weeks. Is the administration about to rescind the executive order prohibiting assassination of foreign leaders, and claim that he's an international terrorist, and in fact, put out a hit on him?

Fleischer: No. The policy remains in place, per the law.

Question: Why is there no consideration to rescinding that executive order?

Fleischer: It's just -- because it's not come up as matter that I've heard discussed, Connie. And so I can't tell you why something doesn't get discussed.

Question: Could you ask?

Fleischer: I don't really think it's an issue. The policy remains regime change, as expressed by the Congress.

On March 17 2003, in an address to the Amereican people, President Bush said, "Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing."

Two days later the president announced the start of a "shock and awe" bombing campaign which commenced the biggest bombardment since World War II, and which led to the death of more than 2,000 U.S. troops, 8,000 Iraqi soldiers, several hundred coalition soldiers, UN, Red Cross, and other NGO personnel; and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Damage to the country has been estimated at more than one hundred billion dollars.

Saddam Hussein, who accepted the offer of exile, remains in prison in Iraq awaiting continuation of his trial.

It is not known why the offer to Saddam did not proceed. The Arab League, where Sheik Zayed initiated the offer, refused to comment on the matter. An independent source says the League scuttled the proposal. - bignewsnetwork

By Lutfi Abu Oun and Waleed Ibrahim BAGHDAD, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot two lawyers defending Saddam Hussein's co-defendants in a trial for crimes against humanity on Tuesday, killing one and slightly wounding the other, police and defence team sources said.

The attack followed the murder of another defence lawyer who was shot the day after the trial started in Baghdad on Oct. 19 and was certain to stoke controversy over whether the former president can get a fair trial amid Iraq's daily violence.

The defence team had already threatened not to turn up for the next hearing on Nov. 28 unless measures are taken to protect them. Police and defence team sources said Adil al-Zubeidi was killed when the two lawyers' car came under fire in the western Baghdad district of Hay al-Adil, while Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie was wounded. Both men were on a team defending Saddam's brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, legal sources said. Khuzaie was among the lawyers who appeared in the televised trial sitting at the same front bench as Janabi, lawyers who know both men said.

In last month's attack, Saadoun al-Janabi, representing another of the eight defendants, was kidnapped from his office and shot by armed men who local people said identified themselves as employees of the Interior Ministry on Oct. 20, the day after his court appearance at the start of the trial. The government has denied involvement in Janabi's death but the killing renewed accusations of sectarian violence involving government forces and pro-government Shi'ite militias ranged against Saddam's fellow minority Sunni Arabs.

IRAQI FORCES HIT

The latest high profile assassination came as bomb attacks aimed at Iraqi security forces killed at least nine people the day after a suicide car bombing claimed the lives of four U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi translator. As U.S. and Iraqi troops pushed ahead with an anti-insurgent operation near the Syrian border, violence continued unabated just over five weeks before Dec. 15 elections Washington hopes will set Iraq more firmly on the road to peace and democracy.

In one of the worst of Tuesday's attacks, four Iraqi soldiers were killed and a fifth critically wounded when a bomb blew up near their patrol car in the small town of Dali Abbas, northeast of Baghdad, police said. Another bomb targeted a police patrol in Daquq, near Kirkuk, killing two policemen and wounding three more, police said. Another policeman was killed in Baquba, north of Baghdad, and a security force colonel and his brother were killed by a bomb in Basra in the south.

On Monday four U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi translator were killed by a suicide car bomber who attacked their checkpoint near Baghdad.

It was one of the highest U.S. tolls from a single attack in recent weeks and a rare instance of suicide bombers hitting a difficult target like a checkpoint rather than a soft civilian target such as a market.

Iraqi security forces come under frequent attack from roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and casualties are often higher than among U.S. troops because the Iraqis do not have the same level of protective clothing and armoured vehicles.

In western Iraq near the Syrian border, Operation Steel Curtain entered its fourth day with Marines and Iraqi troops pushing through the dusty town of Qusayba in search of al Qaeda insurgents. The U.S. says it has killed 36 insurgents so far in the operation, and one U.S. marine was shot dead.

Operation Steel Curtain is the latest in a series of offensives aimed at securing western Iraq against Sunni Arab insurgents and foreign fighters before the Dec. 15 election.

Sectarian tensions are dominating campaigning for the poll, where the 20 percent minority Sunni Arabs are expected to vote in large numbers for the first time since the fall of fellow Sunni Saddam Hussein in 2003. (Additional reporting by Aref Mohammed in Kirkuk, Faris al- Mehdawi in Baquba, Paul Tait and Mussab Al-Khairalla, Mariam Karouny, Claudia Parsons in Baghdad and Abdel-Razzak Hameed in Basra) - reuters

17/11/2005 - Iraqi court officials today denied reports that two court employees attacked Saddam Hussein and punched him several times after he cursed two Shiite Islam saints.

Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mousawi said "no one in the court attacked Saddam or punished him and we will never allow anyone in the court to harm any of the defendants, whether it is Saddam or someone else."

"I never heard that Saddam Hussein insulted Imam Hussein or Imam Abbas during the investigation," he added.

Efforts to contact Saddam's attorneys were unsuccessful. Last night Iraqiya television quoted "sources close to investigative judges" when reporting that Saddam had been assaulted. Iraqi TV reported that Saddam had insulted Imam Hussein and his brother Imam Abbas, two Shiite saints, provoking two of the court's clerks. Saddam's lawyers said in July that their client was attacked during an interrogation session. The chief investigative judge of the special court dealing with Saddam denied the claims at the time. Al-Mousawi said the only incident he was aware of involved court guards.

"Some two months ago, when the investigative judge ended his work, Saddam remained sitting on his chair then started using the place as a podium for political statements. This happened when he saw a camera shooting him," he said.

The judge told Saddam that this comments had nothing to do with the questioning and "at that point two policemen held him, took him from the chair and took him outside the room." - IOL

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is refusing to enter court to attend his trial over the 1982 killing of 148 Shias in Dujail, court officials say. He is complaining about the conditions in which he is being held and how the trial is being conducted. On Tuesday he told his judges to "go to hell", vowing that he would not return to an "unjust" court.

Meanwhile the eight-year-old son of a guard at the trial was abducted from outside his Baghdad home on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if the kidnapping was related to the trial. Thousands of Iraqis, including many children, have been abducted for money since the Iraqi leader was ousted in 2003.

In overnight violence, a man arrested on suspicion of plotting the kill the top trial investigator in the Saddam Hussein trial was freed by gunmen from a hospital in Kirkuk.

Media war

Saddam Hussein and seven former aides deny the murder charges against them and could face the death penalty if convicted. The resumption of the trial was delayed as the deposed Iraqi leader refused to be present in court for Wednesday's session. Negotiations were under way on how the trial can proceed, with the defence team holding talks with the chief judge.

Under Iraqi law the trial can continue without the defendant present in the court room. Arrangements may be made for the former president to watch the trial on a closed circuit TV link, with the right to intervene at certain points, possibly via a microphone, BBC foreign editor John Simpson says.

However, our correspondent, one of the few international journalists attending the trial, says he finds it unlikely that Saddam Hussein would eschew the media attention he receives at each court appearance in favour of sitting in the wings.

Until now, many observers have felt that Saddam has used his appearances in court to great effect, calling on his followers to continue their fight against the American presence in Iraq and condemning the 2003 invasion again and again.

'Go to hell!'

The hearings have been marked by frequent violent outbursts from the former Iraqi leader, who has complained constantly that the trial is unjust. At the end of Tuesday's hearing, the former leader shouted at the judge: "I will not return, I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell!"

This was after the judge ruled that the court would reconvene on the next day to hear two more witnesses, overruling Saddam's lawyers' request for a longer break. On Monday there was confusion as defence lawyers staged a walkout after the judge refused to hear their concerns over the legitimacy of the court and calls for extra security after two defence lawyers were murdered in recent weeks.

The defence team has long challenged the legitimacy of the process - which is being conducted by an Iraqi court set up under a mixture of Iraqi and international statutes. On Monday two men appeared in open court to give harrowing accounts of torture and imprisonment. On Tuesday another man and two female witnesses, testifying from behind a curtain, their voices electronically distorted to avoid identification, described being beaten and given electric shocks by Iraqi intelligence agents. - bbc.co.uk

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press - 21 /12 /2005 - Saddam Hussein sat quietly in his defendant's chair at the resumption of his trial Wednesday, two weeks after he refused to attend the last session in a court he called "unjust." Saddam and seven co-defendants are on trial in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims following a 1982 assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad. The deposed president, who was wearing a dark suit but no tie on Wednesday, refused to attend the previous session on Dec. 7.

"I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell!" he said in an outburst in court the day before.

But on Wednesday his behavior was calm as the proceedings got under way. After greeting the court with a traditional "peace be upon you," he sat quietly in the defendants' area and appeared to pay close attention, writing frequently on a notepad in his lap. It was Saddam's first court appearance following last week's election, when Iraqis swarmed to the polls to vote for the country's first full-term parliament since his downfall.

During previous sessions, Saddam has been defiant and combative at times, often trying to dominate the courtroom. He and his half brother_ Barazan Ibrahim, who was head of the Iraqi intelligence during the Dujail incident_ have used the procedures to protest their own conditions in detention.

The chief prosecutor in the case, Jaafar al-Mousawi told The Associated Press by telephone on Tuesday that five prosecution witnesses were ready to take the stand on Wednesday. It would be up to the court to decided whether to hear all of them, he said. It was unclear how many more prosecution witnesses, if any, would follow.

"We are very prepared for the resumption of the trial," al-Mousawi said. "There is evidence and there are documents with Saddam's signature on them," he told the AP. "When it's time for the prosecution to make its case, there will be a surprise."

He did not elaborate or provide any further details.

The court - which held its first session Oct. 19 - has so far heard nine witnesses, who often gave emotional testimonies of random arrests, hunger and beatings while in custody and torture in detention. Khamis al-Ubeidi, a lawyer on Saddam's defense team, argued that the "witnesses have no legal value. Their testimonies are based on coaching and unjustified narrative." He said the defense team had security concerns that it wanted to tell the court about. "The court has to provide the lawyers and the defense witnesses with security," he told the AP on Tuesday. "How can a lawyer work if he cannot move freely because of the security situation?"

Some Iraqi government officials have said they hope the trial of Saddam will help heal the wounds of his regime's victims and bring Iraqis closer together. But the trial has also highlighted divisions between Iraq's various ethnic and sectarian groups, with many Sunni Arabs expressing sympathy with the former president and even nostalgia for his era. By contrast, many Shiites and Kurds gloated over seeing the once powerful Saddam reduced to a defendant. - news.yahoo.com

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq - 22/12/2005 An investigative judge said Thursday that officials never saw evidence that Saddam Hussein was beaten in U.S. custody, contradicting the ousted Iraqi leader's claims that he was abused and "the marks are still there." U.S. officials strongly denied Saddam's allegations as "completely unfounded." Saddam, in turn, denounced those denials as "lies."

In a theatrical exchange becoming increasingly common at the trial, an assistant prosecutor asked to resign and the defense team threatened to walk out. Saddam also mocked President Bush's claims that Iraq had chemical weapons. When the court gave the former leader an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses, Saddam instead used the time to expand on earlier assertions he had been abused in custody. He claimed that the wounds he suffered from the alleged beatings had been documented by at least two American teams.

On Wednesday, Saddam told the court he'd been beaten "everywhere" on his body, insisting "the marks are still there." He did not display any marks and did not elaborate on the alleged beatings except to say some wounds took eight months to heal.

On Thursday, Saddam said American denials that he was beaten could not be believed, noting that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq despite Bush's prewar claims that Saddam was harboring such weapons.

"The White House lied when it said Iraq had chemical weapons," Saddam said. "I reported all the wounds I got to three medical committees. ... We are not lying, the White House is lying."

But Investigative Judge Raid al-Juhi, who prepared the case against Saddam and forwarded it to the trial court in July, told reporters that neither the defendants nor their lawyers had ever complained about beatings. Officials never saw signs of beatings, he said. "The defendants receive complete and very good health care by the authorities in charge of the detention. No ordinary Iraqi receives this kind of care," he said.

Saddam and seven co-defendants are on trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites after a 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad. The first witness to testify Thursday spoke from behind a curtain and had his voice disguised. He said he was 8 during the killings in Dujail. He said his grandmother, father and uncles had been arrested and tortured, and he never saw his male relatives again, implying they had been killed. Saddam said the court should not depend on the testimony of witnesses who were children at the time of the alleged crime, and one of his defense attorneys got the witness to admit he had not been arrested and did not see any dead bodies.

Saddam's half brother and co-defendant - Barazan Ibrahim, who was head of the Iraqi intelligence services during the Dujail killings - had a heated exchange with prosecutors, accusing them of belonging to the Baath Party, Saddam's former party, in an effort to discredit them in the eyes of Iraqis. One assistant prosecutor threatened to resign over Ibrahim's allegations, but the judge would not allow it.

"The biggest insult I've gotten in my life was being accused of being a member of this bloody Baath Party," the prosecutor said.

The judge at one point told Ibrahim to speed up his answer, and Ibrahim responded: "Don't oppress me. I passed through this experience in the past. During the interrogation I used to be asked questions that need one hour to answer and they wanted a 'yes' or 'no' answer. When I used to answer he used to slap me in the face while my hands were tied from behind."

Defense attorneys said one of the court guards then made threatening gestures toward Ibrahim and said they would walk out if the guard did not leave. The judge had the guard removed. Witnesses on Wednesday graphically described how their captors administered electric shocks and used molten plastic to rip the skin off prisoners in a crackdown following an assassination attempt against Saddam.

Saddam then grabbed center stage with claims that Americans beat and "tortured" him and other defendants while in detention.

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad called Saddam's allegations "completely unfounded" but said "we are prepared to investigate." "Beyond that, we have no interest in being a part of what are clearly courtroom antics aimed at disrupting the legal process," Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said.

The trial's chief prosecutor, Jaafar al-Mousawi, said if authorities found evidence of abuse Saddam could be transferred to the physical custody of Iraqi troops.

Saddam on Wednesday also interrupted witness testimony to ask the judge if the court could take a break for prayer. The judge ordered the trial to continue. About 10 minutes later, Saddam swung to the left, closed his eyes and repeatedly bowed his head in prayer, the first time he has done that in court. Muslims are required to pray five times a day at specific times. In the 1980's, Iraq under Saddam was one of the most secular Arab states in the Middle East and Baghdad had some of the most vibrant nightlife in the region. Following Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and as U.N.-imposed sanctions ground down the Iraqi economy, Saddam outwardly became more pious. He was seen praying and launching campaigns to reinforce the faith. Bars were restricted and nightlife became more muted. Critics said his praying in court was a further effort to reach out to increasingly conservative Iraqis. - news.yahoo.com

24/12/2005 - Gunmen tried to assassinate an investigative judge on the Iraqi Special Tribunal that is investigating Saddam Hussein and members of his regime, a spokesman for the court said today.

The attempt against Judge Munir Hadad took place on Friday as he was being escorted by a security convoy through Baghdad's western neighbourhood of Ghazaliya, said the official.

No one was injured in the attack and some of the vehicles were damaged, he added.

Hadad's exact role on the tribunal was unclear.

There are about 20 investigative judges and up to 20 prosecutors on the tribunal.

He is not taking part in the trial against Saddam that adjourned on Thursday until January 24.

Saddam and his co-defendants are charged with the murder of more than 140 people who were killed in the town of Ducal in 1982 after an attempt on the former leader's life.

If convicted, the accused could be condemned to death. - IOL

13 - 1 - 2006 - By Twana Osman SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - The chief judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein plans to step down, a source close to the judge told Reuters on Friday, in a development that could throw an already turbulent process into further disarray.

"He wants to withdraw," the source said of Kurdish judge Rizgar Amin, who is due to preside over the next sitting of the court on January 24. "He will oversee the next sitting and then announce his reasons for withdrawing," the source said.

The source declined to explain why the judge, based in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, wanted to pull out of a trial which has made his face one of the best known in Iraq after several days of live television coverage.

All he would say was: "It is too difficult."

The killings of two defense lawyers for some of Saddam's seven co-accused in the trial for crimes against humanity had already highlighted the difficulties of a legal process in a country mired in a virtual civil war. Another of the panel of five judges pulled out earlier in the trial, which opened on October 19 in a heavily fortified courtroom in Baghdad. He withdrew because he discovered he was related to an alleged victim of one defendant and was replaced.

Initially only Amin, whose dry wit marked the early days of the trial, was seen on camera, although one of the other five judges has since been identified. Critics have questioned, however, why Amin has allowed the former president and other defendants to speak at great length. - reuters

By HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA , 01.24.2006

Judges in the trial of Saddam Hussein tried to remove a newly appointed chief judge Tuesday, a dispute that forced an abrupt postponement of the proceedings and deepened the turmoil in what was supposed to be a landmark in Iraq's political progress.

Saddam's lawyers were quick to capitalize on the disarray, saying the confusion provided fresh evidence the former leader could not get a fair trial in Iraq. Former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, a member of the defense team, said the trial should be abandoned.

Since its Oct. 19 start, the trial has been defined by delays, chaotic outbursts by Saddam, the assassination of two defense lawyers and a judge's decision last month to step down after learning that one of the defendants may have been responsible for his brother's execution.

After the trial's last session on Dec. 22, the confusion worsened.

The chief judge resigned, complaining about criticism by politicians that he was not doing enough to rein in Saddam. Saeed al-Hammash, the member of the five-judge panel initially named to replace him, was suddenly removed, and a new chief judge, Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman, was brought in.

After a nearly five-hour delay Tuesday, court official Raid Juhi told reporters the hearing had been put off until Sunday because several witnesses and complainants were performing the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and could not appear in court.

The annual Muslim ritual ended nearly two weeks ago, and Tuesday's session had been scheduled more than a month ago. Juhi refused to take questions.

But two judges involved in the case told The Associated Press the real reason for the delay was disagreement over who should replace chief judge Rizqar Mohammed Amin, a Kurd who had shown patience and composure in dealing with repeated attempts by Saddam and others to delay the proceedings.

According to one judge, some judges wanted al-Hammash reinstated while others supported Abdel-Rahman's appointment.

The second judge appeared to complain about outside interference with the court. When asked what the problem was, he replied: "Matters are not in our hands," - a possible reference to the influence of U.S. officials providing legal and logistical support to the Iraqi High Tribunal set up to try crimes committed by Saddam and officials of his 23-year regime.

The two judges were members of the tribunal, though not necessarily sitting on the panel hearing the current case. They spoke on condition of anonymity since court rules bar most judges from being named or speaking to the media.

"There's too much violence in the country, there's too much division and too much pressure on the court," Clark told CNN after Tuesday's postponement. "The project ought to be abandoned. It was a creature of the United States in the first place."

He said political pressures on the court "make it impossible for fairness" and warned failure to hold a fair trial will "lead to more war, no possibility of reconciliation."

Saddam, his half brother Barzan Ibrahim and six other defendants are on trial in the killing of more than 140 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in the town of Dujail. They could face death by hanging if convicted.

U.S. and Iraqi officials had hoped the trial would mark a political turning point for the violence-torn country, helping it deal with its past and look forward to a new political system.

Instead, it has heightened divisions. Sunni Arabs sympathetic to the former leader, their patron, were heartened by Saddam's outbursts during the hearings, which are televised nationwide.

But Shiites and Kurds, who make up about 80 percent of Iraq's estimated 27 million people and bore the brunt of Saddam's oppression, found the relative freedom he has had in the courtroom an affront.

"This doesn't serve the people, it serves the dictator Saddam," said school teacher Abdul-Waheed Shawkat, a 28-year-old Shiite from the northern city of Mosul.

"It's a political game," said Khaled Khalil Mohammed, a Sunni Arab construction worker from Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

"This trial is a farce... Its final verdict already has been made and it's in the hands of the Americans," said Aqeel Omar Mohammed, a retired Sunni Arab lecturer from Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.

The Dujail case is one of several being prepared against Saddam and members of his regime. They include the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the suppression of Kurdish and Shiite revolts in 1991 and the alleged 1988 gas attack by Saddam's army against the Kurdish town of Halabja. Some 5,000 people died in that attack, including several relatives of the Halabja-born Abdel-Rahman, the judge named to take over from Amin.

The Dujail case, chosen expressly because officials believed it would be quick to try, has not been the best of starts.

More than a dozen witnesses have been heard, recounting torture at the hands of Saddam's security forces. But Saddam and his half brother have frequently interrupted the court with speeches and complaints. And Saddam refused to attend one session. - Forbes

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press 29th Jan - 2006 - BAGHDAD, Iraq -

Saddam Hussein's trial collapsed into chaos shortly after resuming Sunday, with one defendant dragged out of court and the defense team walking out in protest. The former Iraqi leader was then escorted out after he shouted "down with traitors" and refused his new court-appointed lawyers.

The new chief judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, pressed ahead with the proceedings even after the opening drama, hearing a prosecution witness, as he sought to assert tight control over the court. Abdel-Rahman was installed as chief judge after his predecessor resigned amid complaints he was not doing enough to rein in Saddam's frequent courtroom outbursts.

The stormy session was sure to increase doubts over the trial's fairness - a vital concern in a nation that is trying to reconcile its Sunni Arab minority, which dominated Iraq under Saddam, and the Shiite Muslim majority that now controls the government. Sunday's proceedings, the first in over a month, disintegrated almost immediately into shouting and insults.

First, co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim was pulled out by guards after he stood and called the court "the daughter of a whore," while Saddam shouted "down with traitors" and "down with the Americans."

Then Abdel-Rahman, a Kurd, threw out a defense attorneys for arguing with him. The rest of the defense team stormed out in protest as the judge shouted after them, "Any lawyer who walks out will not be allowed back into this courtroom."

Abdel-Rahman appointed four new defense lawyers. But Saddam stood and rejected them. Holding a copy of the Quran and other papers under his arm, he said he wanted to leave. After an argument with the judge - during which guards pushed Saddam back into his chair - guards escorted the former Iraqi leader out of the room. Two other defendants also rejected their new lawyers and were allowed to leave.

The proceedings then resumed with only four of the eight defendants present, and none of their original lawyers.

The court began hearing an anonymous female prosecution witness, who testified for about an hour from behind a beige curtain, as several earlier witnesses have done to protect them from reprisals. The new defense lawyers declined the opportunity to cross-examine the witness.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants are charged in the deaths of about 140 Shiite Muslims following an assassination attempt against the former Iraqi leader in the Shiite town of Dujail in 1982. The defendants could face death by hanging if convicted. The delayed television feed of the proceedings - which is controlled by the judges and broadcast throughout Iraq and the Arab world - was cut off right after Ibrahim's initial outburst. It resumed some time later, cutting out the removal of Ibrahim and the subsequent fight with the lawyers but showing the judge's arguments with Saddam.

Abdel-Rahman obviously came into the session aiming to impose control on a trial that has been plagued by delays and frequent outbursts by Saddam and Ibrahim, who is Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief. He began the proceedings with a show of authority, shouting at one defense lawyer for interrupting him and stressing in an opening statement that "political speeches" were not allowed and "if any defendant crosses the lines, he will be taken out of the room and his trial will be carried out with his absence."

Ibrahim stood up, demanded to be allowed to speak and said, "Circumstances have forced us to deal with each other here, in spite of my belief that this tribunal is illegitimate, the daughter of a whore."

The judge ordered him to sit down, shouting, "One more word and I'm throwing you out." When Ibrahim refused to sit, two burly guards grabbed him by the arms and dragged him out of the court. As they scuffled, Saddam stood and shouted, "Down with the traitors. Down with America." Defense lawyers began shouting as well. "Is this a street demonstration, are you lawyers?" Abdel-Rahman barked at them.

The judge turned to defense lawyer, Salih al-Armouti, a Jordanian who recently joined the team, and asked if courts in his country would allow such behavior. "My country gives me my rights," al-Armouti replied.

Abdel-Rahman ordered guards to take al-Armouti out of the court, saying, "You have incited your clients and we will start criminal proceedings against you." The rest of the defense team followed al-Armouti out in protest.

The chief judge appointed new defense lawyers, but Saddam rejected them and told the judge he had a right to leave if he does not accept his attorneys. "You do not leave, I allow you to leave when I want to," Abdel-Rahman said. "For 35 years, I administered your rights," Saddam replied, referring to his time in power. "I am the judge and you are the defendant," Abdel-Rahman said. Two guards pushed Saddam by his shoulders back into his chair, before they were ordered to lead the ousted ruler out of the room.

Saddam's trial has been troubled since it started on Oct. 19, with the killing of two defense lawyers and another judge's decision last month to step down. Heading into Sunday's session, Saddam's defense team said they would file motions questioning the court's independence and legitimacy because of the shake-up among the judges. Former chief judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin resigned in mid-January after politicians complained about the slow pace of the proceedings.

The trial had been due to resume on Tuesday, but that day's session was abruptly called off after some members of the five-judge panel opposed Abdel-Rahman's appointment over Amin's deputy, Saeed al-Hammash, who was removed the case amid accusations he once belonged to Saddam's Baath Party. Al-Hammash - a Shiite - denied the claims.

After the outbursts, the witness told the court she was arrested several days after the 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam. She said her interrogators removed her Islamic headscarf and gave her electric shocks to her head. "I thought my eyes would pop out," she said. Sixteen other members of her family also were arrested, and seven of them were killed in detention - including her husband, who she said was tortured to death. She said two of the defendants who remained in the court - Ali Dayih Ali and Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid - were among those who came to her home to arrest her. The two defendants denied the accusation.

The court-appointed defense lawyers declined to cross-examine the witness and the court adjourned for a lunch break. Amin, the former chief judge and a Kurd, watched the trial from home in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah and questioned whether his critics could run the tribunal any better than he did.

"I am happy that I am no longer part of this trial. I am happy to watch it on television while sitting in my house," he told The Associated Press. "I wish the trial were run by a Shiite judge because I want to know how they are going to manage it" - news.yahoo.com