Baghdad, Iraq – Saddam Hussein doesn’t like the prison food served by his American captors. He has an aversion to being watched 24 hours a day.
Something about his plight reminds him of Napoleon and Mussolini. He has been offered family visits but refused them, fearing that the women would cry to see how he lives now.
These were some of the thoughts of Iraq’s former dictator as he bantered with fellow defendants, members of his defense team and courtroom guards Monday during recesses at his trial.
Unknown to Hussein and the others, microphones in the courtroom were live, and their voices were audible to Arabic translators working for foreign reporters in a glassed-off gallery nearby.
After nearly two years in solitary confinement, Hussein seemed buoyed by the chance to talk, especially with men who were once part of his ruling coterie. As the center of attention from the moment he entered the court, he was again, if only briefly and on a confined stage, the dominant figure he was during his 24 years in power.
One passage seemed tinged with dark possibilities. That came when Hussein’s chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, was talking to him about the merits of the prosecution and defense teams.
“Mr. President, about what you suggested, I think that if we find a weak member in our team we take him off, but if there is a weak member in that team we leave him there,” Dulaimi said, as recorded by a translator for The Chicago Tribune. “It weakens their position and strengthens our position.”
The reference to “that team” was interpreted as meaning the prosecution. The Tribune’s notes, referring to Dulaimi, said, “He made a little underhand cupping motion with his hand as he said the words ‘take him off.”‘
What exactly did Dulaimi mean? Removing a weak lawyer from the defense team was understandable enough. But by what means did the chief lawyer imagine that he or anybody on the defense team could choose to “leave” – or not leave – a member of the prosecution team in place? The notes threw no further light on the matter.
For the rest, Hussein seemed pretty much like any other prisoner.
He compared notes on conditions at the American detention centers with Awad al-Bandar, the former chief judge of the revolutionary court under Hussein.
“I don’t care for the food,” Hussein said. “I only eat what I like.”
Then he added, “I walk through four iron gates to get to the area where I can take my morning walk,” where he had about 30 feet to stretch his legs.