Several papers have reported over the last couple days about the abduction of a lawyer who was representing a co-defendant of Saddam Hussein. Today, the Washington Post has the confirmation that the lawyer has been killed. Intriguingly, the article points out that:
Heavy protection was provided for prosecutors and judges in the Saddam trial, on the theory that they were likely targets of pro-Saddam insurgents seeking revenge. Their names have not been revealed and their faces were not shown in the broadcast of Wednesday’s opening session _ with the exception of the presiding judge and the top prosecutor, whose identities were revealed for the first time just before the trial.
But security measures do not appear to have been extended to the defense lawyers for Saddam and his seven co-defendants. Their identities have been known, although most of them have not been prominent in the press.
The article does not elaborate on why security measures were not also given to defense lawyers, which would seem to be the most salient question after revealing such a discrepancy. It seems to me to be an indication that the administration believes the “pro-Saddam insurgents” have control of that area. They must have felt that the defense attorneys were safe enough to remain unguarded, and it lays bare that the administration knows that they don’t have control.
Or…this is all a show trial, and they don’t really care whether Saddam’s lawyers and those of his co-defendants get killed. The article indicates that:
Saddam’s chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said after the kidnapping that defense lawyers have received many threats in past weeks by e-mail, cell phone text message and by telephone. He did not specify if they were from Saddam opponents angry at their defending Saddam’s regime or from Sunni supporters angry that they were participating in the trial at all.
If the lawyers of the defense, even after receiving numerous death threats, have not received even the same basic security that the prosecution has, it seriously calls into question the way the trial is being run. It seems much more important for the trial to end quickly and dramatically (with a death sentence for Saddam) than for proper protections to be taken. Thus, the prosecution must remain intact and fluid, and the defense is just a formality anyway so even if lawyers get killed and the defense is significantly hindered by finding and familiarizing new ones it doesn’t really matter, let alone the actual human life lost.
So, despite the fact that no one is paying attention to this development, I want to hear what the administration has to say: have they, through their actions acknowledged that the military is losing a vitally important area of Baghdad (the area where the trial is being conducted) to insurgents, or is this all a show trial anyway, and so it doesn’t matter. That seems to be the dilemma that this death has revealed.
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I believe Judy Miller will have a story on it soon. Apparently, he was transporting some WMDS in the trunk of his car.
Great find, Dan…they just never let up. This administration is shameful.