A defiant Saddam Hussein admitted in court Wednesday that he ordered the trial of 148 Shiites eventually executed in the 1980s, but he insisted that doing so was legal because they were suspected in an assassination attempt against him.
"Where is the crime? Where is the crime?" Saddam asked, standing before the panel of five judges.
"If trying a suspect accused of shooting at a head of state — no matter what his name is — is considered a crime, then you have the head of state in your hands. Try him," Saddam said, arguing that his co-defendants should be released because he was in charge.
His dramatic courtroom speech came a day after prosecutors in his trial presented a presidential decree with a signature they said was Saddam's approving death sentences for the 148 Shiites, their most direct evidence against him so far in the four-month trial.
So when does Ramsey Clarke call Vice President Cheney as a witness?
