Saddam Hussein Kept on Hold
M. O'BRIEN: The Saddam Hussein trial should have resumed today but it did not. It turns out some witnesses who were slated to testify were not there. There were no-shows. But it shouldn't have been a surprise. They were at the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage. It shouldn't have been a secret to members of the prosecution team. Attorney Ramsey Clark who was the former attorney general of the United States under President Johnson, is part of Saddam Hussein's defense team. He joins us from Baghdad to talk about what is going on behind the scenes. Mr. Clark, good to have you with us. What can you tell us about this latest delay?</s>RAMSEY CLARK, DEFENDING SADDAM HUSSEIN: It's further evidence and strong evidence that the court's dysfunctional. I mean, we've now had three of the original five judges taken off the court. One some time ago because he was clearly disqualified, and two now because of external pressures, political pressures. One because he resigned because the pressure against him was so great, and one was removed because of a committee that Ahmed Chalabi, one of the major politicians here. So the court is under all these political pressures, and it simply can't function. We have had two defense counsel murdered, assassinated, one seriously injured, and a great number who have simply not showed up anymore. And still, they haven't provided protection for the defense counsel. How do they expect the trial to go forward if the defense counsel get killed? It's a part of their dysfunction. They've put on 16 witnesses before two of these judges were removed from the court. And how are new judges going to pick up that? How can they judge the testimony of witnesses they didn't even see.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Clark -- Mr. Clark, you were involved in defending Slobodan Milosevic, whose trial occurred, of course, in the Hague international war crimes tribunal. Do you believe -- I suspect you do, but I'm curious if you feel if this trial were moved to a place lake the Hague if there would be a fairer trial there?</s>CLARK: Well, there's all the difference in the world. You have a real court there. You have a court that's able to function. You have a court there that knows the law. You have a court there that can manage the case. And here you have chaos. You never know what is going to happen. We come to the court 7:30 this morning, traveled all the way from the United States, have to wait here two days for the court to tell us seven hours after they are supposed to convene that there's not going to be any trial. Not only today, but not tomorrow, not the next day, and not until next Sunday. And we have no confidence there will be a trial next Sunday because they are simply out of control. Then they give a false reason. Unbelievable. The reason they gave for not hearing anybody today was, after six or seven hours of waiting, that the witnesses weren't available because they were coming back from Hajj. But Hajj has been over for a long time. It's simply not true. It's because the judges couldn't agree on what to do because they put in new political people because there's pressure on them. You had President Bush on the 19th of this month, just a few days ago, really, saying that the trial was on track. The trial has never been on track.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Clark...</s>M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Clark...</s>CLARK: You had</s>M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Clark, who do you petition to, though? If your petition is a question of the legitimacy of the court, and it goes before the court, obviously that's a catch-22.</s>CLARK: We filed briefs on the legality of the court. The court announced that it was -- before they received the briefs and before they heard the argument on legality, they said, the court is legal, we'll give you our reasons later, soon. A month has gone by. We don't have the reasons. They want to continue the trial when there's a challenge to the legality of the court. And the court is clearly illegal. It was created by the United States during a military occupation. And it's not conceivable that this court could be legal. It's a creature of the United States. It's financed by the United States. This expensive building is paid for by the United States. The court -- everything comes from the United States. The United States personnel are all over the courtroom. And no wonder it doesn't function well, because they are not independent.</s>M. O'BRIEN: But isn't it important that justice for Saddam Hussein come from inside Iraq by Iraqis?</s>CLARK: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. I couldn't hear the question.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Is it not important that the trial be held on Iraqi soil and that justice for Saddam Hussein comes at the hands of Iraqis?</s>CLARK: What you can tell is that this court is so dysfunctional, it's so lacking in independence, and the judges are not impartial. You don't -- you don't have a Sunni Arab on this court. You've got people that are avowed enemies that are chosen by his avowed enemies. And you can't have a fair trial. It's impossible to have a fair trial. And that's -- that will be a tragedy. It will mean more war because people will deeply resent the conduct of an illegal court. But the court's not even functional. So what they are going to have to do is they are going to have to abandon this court. The idea was wrong. The court was conceived illegally. And it's being functioning -- trying to function under pressures that destroy its independence. And you just -- you're just going to have to start over again some place. And I don't think you're going to be able to do it here. We already lost two defense lawyers.</s>M. O'BRIEN: We have to cut you off, sir. I'm sorry. Our time has expired. Ramsey Clark is a Saddam Hussein legal adviser, former attorney general of the United States. Thank you for your time.</s>CLARK: Thank you.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, remember the school nurse when you were a kid? Just about every school had them. Not any more. Believe it or not, not having a school nurse is turning into a disaster for some schools. A look at "House Call" is up next on AMERICAN MORNING.