Something quite interesting deep in this story.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein harangued the judge at the second session of his trial on Monday before it was adjourned to grant co-defendants time to find new counsel after one of their lawyers was killed and another fled Iraq.
After less than three hours of hearings, including videotaped testimony from a witness who has since died, Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin ordered a one-week adjournment until December 5, just 10 days before Iraq holds parliamentary elections.
Monday's session began with Saddam displaying the same defiance he showed at the opening of the trial on October 19, when proceedings were adjourned for 40 days.
Saddam, dressed in a white shirt, dark jacket and carrying a Koran, arrived late and then upbraided the judge when asked why.
"They brought me here to the door and I was handcuffed. They cannot bring in the defendant in handcuffs," Saddam rejoined.
Amin ordered the former president and his co-defendants to be unshackled by their guards before they entered the courtroom.
Saddam complained he had had to walk up four flights of stairs because of a broken elevator in the courthouse.
"I will tell the police about this," Amin told him in the cool, polite tone he maintained during several tirades by the former president on the first day of the trial.
"I don't want you to tell them, I want you to order them," Saddam replied hotly. "They are invaders and occupiers and you have to order them."
So Saddam is defiant as ever. Big deal. What I found curious was this-
Saddam then argued with the judge about his rights and his jailers' action in taking away his pen and paper. As his voice rose heatedly, television footage of the proceedings broke away.
The images are being broadcast by U.S. company Court TV with a 30-minute delay to allow officials to censor the footage.
Following the killings of the defense lawyers, security for the trial is extremely tight. TV footage is not showing the faces of any defense lawyers and only one of the five judges.
Does this mean broadcast in Iraq? Or here? I think it means Iraq.
If the case is cut and dried (and it sounds like it is), why the censorship to the Iraqi people? And I'm not buying the "security reasons" excuse when they are breaking away from something as trivial as pen and paper. Which "officials" are censoring the footage? Iraqis or Americans?
They mean to hang him. Period. His defense will not be broadcast.