That would be intriguing, but why would conservative American lawyers mindful of their own safety and self interests want to be associated with Saddam Hussein, in an age when lawyers can get treated like Lynn Stewart?
Then again, Hussein doesn't need any service of American lawyers, Ramsey Clerk or conservative rule-of-law stiffs:
***** Lawyers line up to defend Saddam John K. Cooley IHT Wednesday, December 31, 2003 Seeking to embarrass ATHENS
Saddam Hussein's capture may have bolstered President George W. Bush's poll ratings with Americans, but it has clearly not totally damaged Saddam's standing among some of Iraq's nearest neighbors or some European leftists.
Hundreds of Arab lawyers outside Iraq have signed up to form a team to defend Saddam in whatever court he is to be tried.
This message, sobering to anyone who may have thought that all Arabs regard Saddam as their enemy, may require new thinking by those who managed the invasion, and who must now manage conversion of the U.S.-led occupation into full sovereignty for the Iraqis.
As of early this week, more than 600 local, foreign Arab and international attorneys had signed up with the Bar Association in Jordan - a U.S. ally - in response to a call by the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers' Union, an umbrella organization for lawyers from across the Arab world, from Morocco to the Gulf.
The president of Jordan's Bar Association, Hussein Mjalli, a high-profile advocate for Saddam's defense against the multiple war crimes, genocide and other charges he may face, said that this growing international brigade of lawyers opposes any trial at all for Saddam. The former Iraqi dictator, Mjalli said, was "unlawfully deposed and captured by U.S. troops" and remains "Iraq's legitimate president."
Solemnly, Mjalli and his associates claim that "thus any action or decision stemming from the American conquest and occupation should be considered null and void."
Many polls have shown that publics in the Arab world - and in Greece, Turkey and other non-Arab neighbors - overwhelmingly rejected the U.S.-led coalition's move into Iraq as "imperialistic." But it is far from clear how this rhetoric translates into zeal to defend Saddam against retribution for his many crimes, unless we attribute it to the gut-level anti-Americanism that seems to rising throughout much of the Muslim world.
Motives of another high-profile volunteer to defend Saddam, this one European, appear to be clearer. Jacques Vergès, 79, a Parisian lawyer with a Vietnamese mother and French father, is something of a celebrity to much of France's political left.
He likes to take on unpopular clients, from Algerian militants - branded terrorists in France during the 1954-62 Algerian war of independence - to the Nazi war criminal Claus Barbie; the convicted Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal; and the former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic.
Vergès is usually indifferent to mainstream political sentiment, and even to mainstream leftist politics, and appears to thrive on defending political black sheep. He has already agreed to defend another Iraqi captive of the Americans, former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, one of Saddam's right-hand men.
Although few Arab voices have spoken out publicly for Aziz, Verges has publicly demanded that the United States publish whatever charges it plans to level against him. He has made a formal offer - in contrast to his rather offhand "hypothetical" offer to represent Saddam in court if asked to do so - to stand up for Aziz in court.
Referring to Saddam, Vergès told Radio Europe 1, "if he is judged and treated like a pariah, clearly his defense counsel would have to say, 'but this pariah was a friend of the Western heads of state. He was not only their friend but their ally.'"
If given a chance in court, it is likely that Saddam or his lawyers would do their best to embarrass Iraq's former Western backers, who encouraged Saddam and supplied Iraq with military hardware in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, including material for chemical weapons.
Saddam might also refer to well-documented evidence of CIA support for his successful 1968 Baath party coup, the basis for the supreme power he exercised from 1979 until 2003.
With hundreds of litigious Arab lawyers on the case, the U.S.-led coalition's planners and their Iraqi allies should tread very cautiously in preparing Saddam's trial.
The writer has been covering the Middle East and North Africa for 40 years.
<http://www.iht.com/articles/123241.html> *****
The show trial of Hussein may become more interesting than I thought.
Besides, Hussein may choose to defend himself, like Milosevic. . . .
Cf. ***** Milosevic Wins Serbian Parliament Seat Monday December 29, 2003 7:46 PM By DUSAN STOJANOVIC Associated Press Writer
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - Jailed former President Slobodan Milosevic and another U.N. war crimes suspect won seats in Serbia's parliament as an extreme nationalist party swept weekend elections, according to results released Monday. . . .
<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/29/1072546444522.html> ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>