You say you need a Lawyer?
Posted on 07/07/2005 1:25:27 PM PDT by echoBoomer
AMMAN, Jordan - Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer quit the Iraqi dictator's legal team, saying Thursday some of the team's American members were trying to run the defense and soft-pedal the U.S. occupation of the country.
Ziad al-Khasawneh also told The Associated Press that Saddam's eldest daughter, Raghad, favors the Americans and non-Arabs on the defense team "because she thinks they will win the case and free her father."
Al-Khasawneh said he tendered his resignation in a telephone call Tuesday to Saddam's wife, Sajida, who is believed to be in Yemen.
"I told her I was resigning because some American lawyers in the defense team want to take control of it and isolate their Arab counterparts," said al-Khasawneh, an Arab nationalist who has often expressed support for Iraqi resistance.
The Americans on the team include former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark.
Al-Khasawneh said Clark and Curtis Doebbler, another American lawyer helping defend Saddam, "have often asked me to refrain from criticizing the American occupation of Iraq and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government."
Al-Khasawneh accused Saddam's daughter of removing all files related to Saddam's defense from his office. "I was away in Libya when she did all that without my knowledge," he said.
Saddam's legal team includes 1,500 volunteers and at least 22 lead lawyers who come from several countries, including the United States, France, Jordan, Iraq and Libya. No date has been set for the trial of Saddam, captured by U.S. troops in December 2003.
Raghad Saddam Hussein rejected the suggestion that she was trying to isolate the Arab lawyers on the team. There "are no differences between Arab and foreign lawyers," she said in a statement written in English and sent to The Associated Press.
Al-Khasawneh's resignation was "unfortunate" because he "provided significant contribution" to the legal team, she said.
Al-Khasawneh accused Saddam's daughter of seeking to exchange the Jordan-based legal team with an international Emergency Committee for Iraq, which was announced last month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The committee seeks to ensure a fair trial for Saddam and other officials of the former Iraqi government ousted by U.S. forces two years ago, said former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad, announcing the committee. Besides Mahathir, other co-chairs include Clark, former Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella and former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas.
Raghad Saddam Hussein said the committee would not replace her father's legal team, but provide "political support." She also said the defense team would refrain from making any more public statements.
Al-Khasawneh became Saddam's chief lawyer in November, weeks after the dictator's family dismissed Mohammed al-Rashdan, a prominent Jordanian lawyer who led the defense team, accusing him of seeking fame in the high-profile case that has drawn world attention.
Mark Geragos is not busy.
The June 2005 issue of the Atlantic Monthly has an article on Ziad al-Khasawneh. In the article, al-Kasawneh reveals that the December tsunami wiped out 20,000 US soldiers whose deaths were being covered up by the Pentagon. He also says that our casualties in Iraq are substantially higher than is being reported and that the bodies of dead soldiers are being dumped routinely in the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers from low-flying aircraft.
I bet that Saddam is really distraught that this outstanding intellect is no longer on his defence (we're all Brits today) team.
If I were Saddamite's lawyer, I'd go for the mercy of the court (in short, make the first shots count).
How fouled up is that? Saddam's daughter thinks he stands a better chance with the Americans, and might even get off with Ramsey Clark's help.
Or is this lawyer just having stage fright, now that there's actually going to be a trial? He's made his easy money, from here on it'd be more like work. Hey, might even be dangerous.
Ole Saddam has quite a sense of humor --naming his daughter Raghead.
To Ashes, DRACULA!!!!
"WOE to Those Who call EVIL good....
They even name their own children as ragheads?
Raghead is cool, raghead is racist, go figure.
Saddam's legal team includes 1,500 volunteers and at least 22 lead lawyers who come from several countries, including the United States, France, Jordan, Iraq and Libya.
Scads of lawyers rushing to offer free representation to a heartless, bloodthirsty tyrant...
Resumé-padding is so declassé.
I'm sure Carter is proud.
Saddam must long for the good old days when he could just have ex-employees shredded.
"The Americans on the team include former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark."
I wouldn't have believed it possible, but Clark has lowered the bar for all lawyers.
I've always felt that Ramsey Clark as AG was another Lyndon Johnson insult aimed at Bobby Kennedy.
I guess she followed the Michael Jackson trial.
Daydream: If only we get them into a nice compact site away from populated areas.
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