French Lawyer Agrees to Defend Hussein
COOPER: All right, now in California there's no dancing on cars, no gloved waves to adoring fans, but somewhere around Santa Barbara, a grand jury is meeting right now to take up the criminal case against pop star Michael Jackson. We say somewhere because the location and witness list are kept secret. Miguel Marquez has what we know.</s>MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A grand jury listened to the first day of testimony in the molestation case against Michael Jackson. CNN has confirmed grand jurors will meet four times this week to hear evidence offered by Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon. Just what evidence jurors will hear and when they will hear it is being kept a closely guarded secret by a Santa Barbara Superior Court judge. While grand jury proceedings are typically secret, the court has added a level of secrecy by moving the grand jury to a site away from the location where it normally meets. Just who will testify remains a question. It has been reported that Jackson's now 14-year-old accuser may testify. It has also been reported that despite and out of court settlement, Mr. Jackson's alleged victim from his 1993 molestation case could testify as well. A veteran defense lawyer familiar with grand jury proceedings says testimony is possible from relatives, investigators, and doctors who played a part in the current case, the '93 case, or both. Grand jurors are also likely to hear at least some evidence netted as a result of 18 search warrants. The affidavit of the most recent warrant indicates investigators are seeking unedited videotape of Mr. Jackson hoping to establish a relationship between him and the alleged victim or victims.</s>MARQUEZ: Now the grand jury is expected to hear evidence for about the next two weeks. If it indicts at the end of that time, Mr. Jackson would be re-arraigned, which means he'd have to appear back in court to plead guilty or not guilty -- Anderson.</s>COOPER: All right, Miguel Marquez thanks. We're tracking a number of developing stories around the globe right now. Let's take a look at the "Up Link." Tashkent, Uzbekistan, terror attacks, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Uzbek capital today capping 12 hours of violence that killed at least 19 people. Now officials are blaming Islamic extremists. Uzbekistan is a U.S. ally providing an air base for troops in Afghanistan. Jerusalem, Sharon scandal, an Israeli court is ordering Ariel Sharon's son to hand over documents in a corruption investigation. The prime minister is under pressure to resign after Israel's top prosecutor recommended his indictment on bribery charges. Dublin, Ireland, no butts about it. A new national ban against smoking is in effect, now illegal to light up in all indoor public spaces. Vendors face heavy fines. Ireland becomes the first country in the world to outlaw smoking in restaurants and pubs countrywide of course. London, no sign of crime, police looking into claims of physical abuse against this man, scientist Stephen Hawking say they can't find any evidence. The academic has a motor neuron disease, requires around the clock care. Now, suspicions were raised last summer when Hawking's nurses reported signs of abuse. Police say they don't see them. That's a look at the "Up Link." As they say in TV cop shows, Saddam Hussein has lawyered up and the Frenchman who says he has been asked to represent the ousted Iraqi leader is already planning his defense strategy. It's a strategy that may make some in Washington kind of nervous. From Paris, Jim Bittermann reports why.</s>JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He has defended Nazi Klaus Barbi, terrorists like Carlos the Jackal and accused war criminals like Slobodan Milosevic and now flamboyant French Attorney Jacques Verges says his next client is Saddam Hussein. Verges says he would bring into court not only the former Iraqi leader himself but those (unintelligible) sold weapons of mass destruction in the first place.</s>JACQUES VERGES, SADDAM HUSSEIN'S ATTORNEY: That means of course first of all (unintelligible).</s>BITTERMANN: In Verges' mind, George W. Bush and Henry Kissinger would also be put on the stand but, for the moment, the lawyer says it's impossible to prepare any defense since there's no court, no prosecutor and no charges and he believes it's conceivable Saddam will never be tried.</s>VERGES: I am afraid because the case is too difficult for the state that the people who keep him provoke (unintelligible) and his death.</s>BITTERMANN: According to Verges, it was Saddam's nephew who contacted him about his defense but that is now in dispute. (on camera): A Jordanian lawyer claims he heads Saddam Hussein's defense team sought out by Saddam's wife and daughter just two days after he was captured and he says that the Arab Union of Lawyers will also be involved. Verges, though, brushes aside any hint of rivalry saying there are plenty of people who will want to see the ex-dictator's rights respected. (voice-over): And that the Frenchman says will be his first step, attempting to make sure Saddam Hussein is well treated and has a chance to see a lawyer, any one of them. Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.</s>COOPER: All right. A moment ago you may have heard the French lawyer mentioning Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a potential witness, why? Let's flash back. The year 1984, the U.S. and Iraq were still allies. Then Special Envoy Donald Rumsfeld met with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad just three weeks after the U.S. publicly condemned Iraq's use of chemical weapons, Rumsfeld's mission improve relations between the two countries. Politics, as always, makes for very strange bedfellows. Drinking your way to better health are you? Well the benefits of moderation ahead. Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains how to find bliss in a bottle perhaps. Also tonight a former "Baywatch" actor spills sordid details of an alleged affair with the wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. and the media is just lapping it up. Why we think it is just wrong ahead. And the ultimate boy scout. You're going to meet a 92-year-old hero who saved a man on the verge of suicide. This guy is going to make you feel good to know guys like him still exist. Be right back.