Whether it's a strategy or just a reaction to events, eleven hundred lawyers in Saddam's legal team have withdrawn from the case. Let me repeat, 1100. I have trouble paying for one, but then again I don't have access to a UN-run slush fund. Eleven frickin hundred!
In my post below about killing all the lawyers, my suggestion was that Saddam's inner circle arranged the murders to force a change of venue--out of Iraq. If true, today's revelation suggests the rank and file legal team weren't part of that circle, and were not about to be blown away for the cause.
Either way, the result appears as intended--no lawyers, no fair trial. Wonder if that subject came up during Kofi Annan's unannounced trip to Baghdad last week?
UPDATE 11/13
We get word the trial will go forward, in Iraq. If the 1100 bail out or his other counselors fail to show, the Iraqi court will appoint new ones.
Funny, though. If the above comes to pass the trial will take another hit in the schedule, prolonging Saddam's life even further:
We have many legal experts and lawyers, and (the court) will choose from among them" to defend Saddam and the others, he said.
That could result in further delays, Juhi conceded, saying replacement lawyers could ask the court to postpone the trial to give them time to prepare their case.
Saddam could refuse the new lawyers, further delaying the trial. Or the next batch may refuse to defend him, or more might get dead.
Compare the Ba'ath Party trials to a chronology of the Nuremberg trials after World War II, where ten defendants were hanged about a year and a half after it commenced. The formation of the new German government was well behind what we've seen in Iraq. The only difference appears to be the level of violence, probably the main reason the trial has taken so long. Right?
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