Team Saddam Walks Out Of Court

IHT is reporting that Saddam's defense team walked out of court, earlier today. It seems that Ramsey Clark, the latest addition to the defense team for the former Iraqi dictator, wanted to address the court on the legitimacy of the court.

Mr. Clark has been an attorney for many years. It would seem to me that he should know, the best ways to impress any judge do not include questioning the legitimacy of of his/her court. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that it will at very least, seriously irritate him/her, when you do.

But most people that have a minimal amount of cognitive functioning can easily figure out that Mr. Clark was sent in to throw wrenches into the process. Because otherwise, it wasn't going well. This was step one.

Here you have a case of inexperienced lawyers (inexperienced at creating smokescreens, specifically designed to outflank the rule of law) trying to defend a client that is guilty as sin. They really don't have much of a defense. Enter the well experienced conman (er, I mean lawyer) from America (where this kind of thing is a science) to confuse things by deflecting attention from the matter of guilt and innocence, to anything else that is irrelevent.

Can you spell circus?

UPDATE - They changed the link on me because the judge has caved in and allowed the address. As a result, the defense has returned.

Since they have returned, the IHT has changed the article to reflect such. But here is the original article I linked to:

(Baghdad) - Saddam Hussein's defense team walked out of the court Monday after the chief trial judge refused to allow former Attorney General Ramsey Clark to challenge the tribunal's legitimacy in an address to the session.

After the lawyers walked out, Saddam told the judge: ''You are imposing lawyers on us. They are imposed lawyers. The court is imposed by itself. We reject that.''

Clark tried to address the court, saying he needed only two minutes to present his argument. But Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin said the tribunal had been established under the law by an elected Iraqi government and that only Saddam's chief lawyer could address the hearing.

Amin said the defense should submit its motion in writing and warned that if the defense walked out then the court would appoint replacement lawyers.

''We reject the appointment of court employees to defend us,'' Saddam said.

He and his half brother Barazan Ibrahim then chanted ''Long Live Iraq, Long Live the Arab state''

When the judge explained that he was ruling in accordance with the law Saddam replied ''This is a law made by America and does not reflect Iraqi sovereignty.''

A guard tried to calm Ibrahim but he angrily told them to leave him alone.

The defense maintained that the court could not proceed to issues of substance before the matter of legitimacy and other procedural matters were resolved.

Saddam's chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, demanded that the court halt its proceedings until the challenged is ruled on. The judge replied that the proceedings must go on while the challenge is being deliberated.

Clark spent about 15 minutes trying to address the ourt, but the judge wouldn't let him, arguing that only Arabic is recognized the language of the court.

'' We will give you enough time to address the court at a suitable time,'' said the judge.

At that point, Saddam snapped: ''The American occupation continues.''