Edward Wong (Extracted from "Iraqis Watch the Trial on TV, With Emotions Running High", New York Times, 20 October 2005

"From the very start of the trial, from the moment Saddam Hussein refused to tell the judge his name, Hiba Raad said she knew that she was watching the same man who had ruled over Iraq for decades with muscular authority.

'He's a hero, he's a tough leader,' Ms. Raad, 20, an education student at Mustansiriya University, said as she reclined in black pants and a T-shirt on a sofa in her living room. 'If he came back, I'm sure he'd provide us with security.' "

[Ed: Just as the International Court's prosecution of Milosevich is a farce, so is Saddam Hussein's. In The Hague, the prosecution won't allow Milosevich to appoint his own lawyers or, even though he is a lawyer, to defend himself. In Baghdad, the prosecutors won't allow Saddam Hussein to speak in private with his defence team. In both cases, the 'trials' are public relations stunts designed to humiliate the accused rather than to allow justice to take its normal course. Like Milosevich, Saddam will probably never be formally executed. He will either be rescued by Sunnis or lynched by Shias or Kurds in the coming civil war.]