Saddam court coverage was 'shambolic'

Broadcasters and press alike were furious with the arrangements, which left print journalists struggling to obtain any information on the day that one of the most hated men in the world was finally brought to court.

"We were told the night before what the arrangements would be - but by the morning of the hearing they had changed completely," said a staff member of one international broadcaster. "It's been a bit of a shambles, no one had a clue what was going on."

CNN and the Arabic TV station al-Jazeera were the only two TV stations to be allowed into the court room, while only one print journalist - the New York Times' chief foreign correspondent John Burns - was given access.

Although CNN made its footage available to other broadcasters, it was yesterday insisting its star reporter Christiane Amanpour was there in a "unilateral" capacity after she was granted access by the director of the Iraqi special tribunal, Salem Chalabi, and her reports were branded exclusive.

Mr Chalabi's involvement in the trial - which was expected to take two years to come to court - is already undermining the credibility of the proceedings.

He is the nephew of Ahmed Chalabi, one of Saddam's most vociferous opponents and the man America once backed as would-be leader of Iraq, now accused of treachery against the US and of peddling disinformation about non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Last night the BBC's John Simpson had to make do with interviewing an American journalist - ABC anchor Peter Jennings - who had gained access to the court after making the same "unilateral" request to the Americans running proceedings.

Print journalists fared even worse, forced to rely on soundless TV images of the proceedings, together with the testimony of an Arabic-speaking CNN producer who had been in court but had not been warned he would be the sole witness of events in the courtroom.

In a televised briefing to journalists, the producer admitted his notes had been intended for his own use and for background colour.

The Guardian's Baghdad correspondent Rory McCarthy described the process as a "shambolic".

"With no audio it was impossible," he said. "The arrangements for the handover were the same - that's just the way things are done here at the moment."

No audio recording of the proceedings was available, although Burns provided a short tape recording in which he described the appearance of the court before the hearing began, but only a single quote from Saddam - "I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq".

At 8.30pm local time, Burns finally gave a briefing to the gathered press - too late for British newspaper deadlines.

But no local media organisations were present, and the only Iraqi journalist there was asked to leave before the proceedings began fully.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1252732,00.html

Audio: Rory McCarthy from Baghdad
http://stream.guardian.co.uk:7080/ramgen/sys-audio/Guardian/audio/2004/07/01/010704mccarthy.ra

War crimes and crimes against humanity are some of the most difficult to prove in court. While Slobodan Milosevic and now Saddam Hussein have made the sight of former heads of state in the dock less surprising, linking such figures to their alleged crimes has become no easier.
The problem is that the leaders rarely carried out the criminal acts, such as massacres, themselves. Blood might be on their hands but not in a literal sense. The challenge for prosecutors is to tie the leaders to the evidence of crimes - mass graves, for example - and testimony of witnesses and survivors.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1252598,00.html

He arrived rattling in chains at the door of a building named Victory Courthouse in the grounds of his former palace now occupied by America's generals.
High Value Detainee One was uncuffed, brought in with guards holding him by the arms and curtly seated before the judge. This was the moment so many of his subjects had hungered for and not a few had dreaded: their dictator rendered impotent, humiliated and accused before an Iraqi court.

For a moment he sat nonplussed and then began in the simplest way what may become a protracted and politicised campaign of defiance. "I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq," he said.

If his critics, opponents and victims were expecting the final disgrace of their scourge this was not it. Instead, clear-eyed, insistent, prodding and embittered, Saddam for 26 minutes seemed to fill the court with his hectoring.

Before him the young, clean-shaven judge, too frightened to be named, appeared at a loss to curb the lectures of his former dictator. It should have been the briefest of formalities, the reading of accusations of heinous crimes and an explanation of the defendant's legal rights. Instead, every moment became a challenge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1252342,00.html