Saddam speaks out!...And even goes bonkers every once in awhile! :) - U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum Archives

Frank · #1 (**permalink**) 12-06-2005, 02:30 PM

Saddam has put on quite a show so far! You have to give him credit for one thing, he sure does not seem to be afraid of those who have put him on trial! NOTE: If possible can we limit this thread to posts about Saddams rantings? Feel free to post articles on his latest tirades! This could be entertaining.

Pantless Saddam's cage rage

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17489667-2,00.html

Quote:

SADDAM Hussein has told the judges hearing his trial to "go to hell" during a furious outburst in court in which he complained of having no clean underwear.

The former dictator, on trial for war crimes, let fly with an extraordinary outburst overnight, accusing the court of "terrorism" after it heard more chilling witness testimony about alleged brutality during Saddam's Baath Party rule.

Saddam told the judges to "go to hell" and claimed he and his co-defendants had "no chance to take a shower and no chance to smoke a cigarette".

US, Israel want me dead: Saddam

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117...-23109,00.html

Quote:

DEPOSED Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein today accused the Americans and Israelis of wanting him dead, during a nationalist tirade directed against the United States and the judge in his Baghdad trial.

"The Americans and the Israelis want the execution of Saddam Hussein," he shouted from the dock, dressed in a simple white shirt and black suit, a white handkerchief poking from his breast pocket.

"I was already sentenced to death three times and this will not be the first," he said, referring to the death penalty that he faces if found guilty over the massacre of nearly 150 Shi'ite villagers in 1982.

Saddam fled Iraq after he was sentenced to death for the first time for his role in a 1959 assassination bid against Iraq's president Abdel Karim Qassem.

"Neither Saddam nor his companions are frightened of execution," Saddam said in a speech directed at judge Rizkar Mohammed Amin, asking how as an Iraqi he can be party to the proceedings.

One of Saddam's defence lawyers, US former attorney general Ramsey Clark, yesterday questioned the impartiality of the presiding judge, a Kurd.

Frank · #2 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 06:17 PM

Saddam refuses to attend his own trial! Boycotting his own life and death trial? The guy has grapefruits I will give him that!

Saddam Hussein boycotts hearing

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4505406.stm

Quote:

The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven of his former Baath Party regime colleagues has continued without the former leader in the courtroom.

He boycotted the hearing as a protest against the conditions of his detention and how the trial is being conducted.

On Tuesday the former leader told his judges to "go to hell", vowing that he would not return to an "unjust" court.

O'Sullivan Bere · #3 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horatio

Saddam refuses to attend his own trial! Boycotting his own life and death trial? The guy has grapefruits I will give him that!

I bet you 10-1 he is getting better food than American prisoners and decent free cigarettes when prisoners here get charged for them (and many prisons increasingly going smoke-free). He's nothing special with these antics. Prisoners here complain all the time about the food, cigarettes, and other prison conditions. And your worst criminal prisoners will push every envelope so long as the court system allows them to act that way.

This is the court's fault. Common sense should tell the Iraqi court to use contempt powers every time the guy acts up. Haul him into court in manacles and stick a muzzle over his mouth if they have to, but bring the body and sit him there. And insofar as his prison condition complaints, they can borrow lots of copies of frivolous prison condition litigation laws from any state here that bars such nonsense. And it is no excuse for a non-appearance at court anyway.

Bert X · #4 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 10:30 PM

I think you're thinking too much like a lawyer, and not enough like a politician.

You and I might not have any respect for Saddam Hussien, but right now he's not concerned at all with legal procedure or even getting a verdict. He's doing what he can to delegitimize the court to the arab street. He's going to do everything he can to Americanize it. The American invastion was not legitimate in the eyes of much of the world, including the arab street. This court that we've set up is already questionable to even many in Western Europe, not to mention the Middle East.

Saddam already knows he's going to die. All he's trying to do now is die a hero. It's the same idea they used in the war. They cannot win so they fight a bit and then melt into the woodwork, and shoot you in the back and plant bombs on the side of the road, it is what they can do, and so that is what they do. This is what he can do, and so, he does.

O'Sullivan Bere · #5 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bert X

I think you're thinking too much like a lawyer, and not enough like a politician.

True.

This guy reminds me of some awful garbage I've seen insofar as contemptuous court behaviour and frivolous prison claims filed by nuisance prisoners. The funniest--or lack thereof insofar as taxpayer waste--was a lawsuit I had to address as a judicial clerk with a long term career criminal prisoner called Concepcion (no kidding--really his last name--how coincidentally appropriate) who sued the state for violating his reproductive rights by not supplying him with sexual access to impregnate his girlfriend or alternatively a state-paid artificial insemination of her with his sperm sample. He even already had several kids with different women, but never supported them given his ongoing anti-social criminal behaviour.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bert X

IYou and I might not have any respect for Saddam Hussien, but right now he's not concerned at all with legal procedure or even getting a verdict. He's doing what he can to delegitimize the court to the arab street. He's going to do everything he can to Americanize it. The American invastion was not legitimate in the eyes of much of the world, including the arab street. This court that we've set up is already questionable to even many in Western Europe, not to mention the Middle East.

Saddam already knows he's going to die. All he's trying to do now is die a hero. It's the same idea they used in the war. They cannot win so they fight a bit and then melt into the woodwork, and shoot you in the back and plant bombs on the side of the road, it is what they can do, and so that is what they do. This is what he can do, and so, he does.

I think your analysis is correct. He is trying to build his legacy before death using the trial whilst pulling down the US and the new Iraqi government as best he can in the process. I would expect no less of him than what he is doing.

My admittedly lawyer-biased thinking is that the court would better establish its authority if it humbled him the way any other authoritative court must humble anyone who would show utter contempt for it. If the public sees a paper-tiger court that is a wuss in front of a globally known notorious former leader who is now deposed and in chains who clearly did the things he is accused of committing, then my concern is that Saddam will succeed in getting the people to disrespect the new system through his own tolerated disrespect of it. Even myself I think the court is spineless and unworthy of respect when I see it allowing some prisoner to dictate the pace of the trial and frustrate its process with BS and antics.

Pogo · #6 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by O'Sullivan Bere

True.

This guy reminds me of some awful garbage I've seen insofar as contemptuous court behaviour and frivolous prison claims filed by nuisance prisoners. The funniest--or lack thereof insofar as taxpayer waste--was a lawsuit I had to address as a judicial clerk with a long term career criminal prisoner called Concepcion (no kidding--really his last name--how coincidentally appropriate) who sued the state for violating his reproductive rights by not supplying him with sexual access to impregnate his girlfriend or alternatively a state-paid artificial insemination of her with his sperm sample. He even already had several kids too with different women, but never supported them given his ongoing anti-social criminal behaviour.

I think your analysis is correct. He is trying to build his legacy before death using the trial whilst pulling down the US and the new Iraqi government as best he can in the process. I would expect no less of him than what he is doing.

My admittedly lawyerly-biased thinking is that the court would better establish its authority if it humbled him the way any other authoritative court must humble anyone who would show utter contempt for it. If the public sees a paper-tiger court that is a wuss in front of a globally known notorious former leader who is now deposed and in chains who clearly did the things he is accused of committing, then my concern is that Saddam will succeed in getting the people to disrespect the new system through his own tolerated disrespect of it. Even myself I think the court is spineless and unworthy of respect when I see it allowing some prisoner to dictate the pace of the trial and frustrate its process with BS and antics.

I imagine that the judge is more than a little worried. Saddam isn't the only one facing a death sentence in that court.

O'Sullivan Bere · #7 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pogo

I imagine that the judge is more than a little worried. Saddam isn't the only one facing a death sentence in that court.

Yeah, that is true.

But I think the risk is there no matter how strong or weak they act--just being there is deadly. I give alot of the judicial staff credit in this regard--they keep showing up. If they can do that, then they have the inner core to control this sadist's contempt and desire to turn the court into a circus for his own creation. I don't see the good logic so far in entertaining so much of this crap from him. Any thoughts? Or do you also think it is a mistake to be so accomodating?

Spadplanter · #8 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 11:42 PM

With Ramsey Clark on board, I think they feel if they can turn the trial into a circus, they can say it was a farce. The antics will escalate, believe me. They'll twist this in so many ways, it'll become a Gordian Knot.

Pogo · #9 (**permalink**) 12-07-2005, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by O'Sullivan Bere

Yeah, that is true.

But I think the risk is there no matter how strong or weak they act--just being there is deadly. I give alot of the judicial staff credit in this regard--they keep showing up. If they can do that, then they have the inner core to control this sadist's contempt and desire to turn the court into a circus for his own creation. I don't see the good logic so far in entertaining so much of this crap from him. Any thoughts? Or do you also think it is a mistake to be so accomodating?

I agree with you that it shouldn't be tolerated. I would say, though, that the situation is extremely awkward in that there are some people in the Bush administration who are complicit in some of Saddam's crimes. Perhaps this has something to do with it.

adaher · #10 (**permalink**) 12-08-2005, 10:41 PM

This is what would have happened had we put Hitler on trial.

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