Saddam's trial witnesses faulty - lawyer( Ramsey Clark)

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, part of a team of lawyers defending Saddam Hussein against charges of crimes against humanity, on Friday accused witnesses in the trial of false testimony. Clark said the prosecution was battling to present a coherent case, with the nine witnesses who have testified so far either speaking from behind a curtain to hide their identities or reading from papers as if their testimony was pre-written. He also questioned the wisdom of combining their evidence with their civil claims for compensation from the defendants.

"Some of the witnesses' testimony seemed entirely fabricated and some seemed to be assisted, and those who appeared all had paper in front of them," Clark, 77, who has attended the trial since it resumed on November 28, told Reuters in an interview. "They were reading. Who do you know who wrote what? You cannot tell whether it's something they saw or something they heard or read in a newspaper," he said. The trial was adjourned until December 21 on Wednesday after a highly charged day in which Saddam refused to attend the court after telling the judge the evening before to "go to hell". Clark, a controversial figure who has represented other jailed former leaders in the past, including Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic, said the inability of the defence to confront witnesses was a serious flaw in Iraq's justice system.

Of the nine witnesses to testify so far, only two have stood in open court. The others have not only been hidden behind a high curtain but have also had their voices computer modified. "You have a right to confront your witness to see what he is doing -- if someone is whispering in his ears or a text under the table," Clark said. Two defence lawyers were murdered in the days after the trial began on October 19 and many witnesses are too scared to appear, even with their identities concealed. Some of those who have testified have been verbally threatened by the defendants. Much of the testimony so far has been harrowing, with witnesses describing detentions, torture, near starvation and sexual assault at the hands of Saddam's intelligence services following a failed attempt on the president's life in 1982.

But there have also been many inconsistencies in the stories the witnesses have told, and the judge has repeatedly warned some of them not to ramble, and to clarify their thoughts. Several were barely teenagers when the events took place. "This is one of the amazing things," said Clark. "How does a 10 or 12-year-old remember details and names, and sits there and recites 18 names after how many years now we are talking? Going back to 1982 or 1980?" he said. "That's ridiculous ... Somebody gave them those names."

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6304181&cKey=1134152439000

Ramsey Clark is one of the bravest men in America.

Now don't get me wrong I don't like Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic one bit, but I believe everybody has the right to legal counsel. I can guarantee that much of what Saddam Hussein did sickens Clark, but Clark believes that everyone has the right to a fair trial so he is willing to defend those that no one else wants to. Those who call Clark a traitor for representing people in a court of law are showing us that they don't believe in the right to a fair trial.

"witnesses describing detentions, torture, near starvation and sexual assault at the hands of...intelligence services"

Quite the farce.

retaliatory massacre for an assassination attempt against his wife (I think it was his wife). Anyway, the point is, if condemned, he will get the death penalty. The prosecution is taking great pains to make certain none of the OTHER INFAMOUS crimes....GASSING HIS OWN PEOPLE, HIGHWAY OF DEATH, ETC, come to light, because the United states role in these events would also be exposed.

WE sold him the gas used in the gassing of the Kurds and we gave him our blessing for the war in which they were used.

We encouraged his enemies to rise up against him after the first Gulf War and we promised we would get their back and then we abandoned them to be slaughtered with the helicopters and weapons we had sold Saddam on the infamous Highway of Death....these are the mass graves of his own people Bush rants on and on about...his Daddy filled those graves.

They will execute Saddam based on the decision of this one murder charge, that's all they need, and none of this other stuff will see the light of day.

I HOPE Ramsey Clark can change this.

They are selectively prosecuting crimes that the judges themselves (or their puppets) have carefully decided they are not complicit in, ignoring all those that they are complicit in. It is like Caligula prosecuting a provincial governor.

1. The United States engaged in a pattern of conduct beginning in or before 1989
intended to lead Iraq into provocations justifying U.S. military action against Iraq and
permanent U.S. military domination of the Gulf.

2. President Bush from August 2, 1990, intended and acted to prevent any
interference with his plan to destroy Iraq economically and militarily.

3. President Bush ordered the destruction of facilities essential to civilian life and
economic productivity throughout Iraq.

4. The United States intentionally bombed and destroyed civilian life, commercial and
business districts, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, shelters, residential areas,
historical sites, private vehicles and civilian government offices.

http://deoxy.org/wc/warcrim2.htm

Charging

George Bush, J. Danforth Quayle, James Baker,
Richard Cheney, William Webster, Colin Powell,
Norman Schwarzkopf and Others to be named

With

Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes, Crimes Against
Humanity and Other Criminal Acts and High Crimes in
Violation of the Charter of the United Nations,
International Law, the Constitution of the United States
and Laws made in Pursuance Thereof.