http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1451362004
Saddam fans flames with a plea to unite SADDAM HUSSEIN has urged Iraqis to unite against the US occupation in a rallying call from his prison cell. Lawyers who met the deposed dictator said he had urged Iraq's ethnic groups to work together against the invaders. He also denounced the upcoming elections, warning of the danger of falling into a US "trap". The message from his Baghdad cell is bound to inflame insurrection in Iraq, at a time when rebels are carrying out continual attacks in an attempt to undermine the elections planned for the New Year. Iraqi lawyer Khalil al-Duleimi met Saddam late last week, the first meeting since the former president's capture a year ago. "Our representative told us that the president warned the people of Iraq and the Arabs to beware of the American scheme aimed at splitting Iraq into sectarian and religious divisions and weakening the (Arab) nation," said Bushra Khalil, a Lebanese member of the defence team. "The president sent recommendations to the Iraqi people to remain united and not fall in the trap of America's slogans. "He said Kurds, Arabs, Shia, Sunnis and Christians are all Iraqis who all have to stand united against the US plot." Al-Duleimi said the deposed leader was in good health and his morale was high, according to Ziad al-Khasawneh, who heads Saddam's legal team. Al-Duleimi came to Jordan to brief the legal team on "the very fruitful four-hour meeting with President Saddam", said al-Khasawneh. Saddam is kept in a 3x5-yard cell "which lacks anyconnection with the outside world", al-Khasawneh told reporters. Al-Duleimi told the lawyers he was taken to the meeting with Saddam in an armoured vehicle with darkened windows and did not know where in Baghdad Saddam was being held. Al-Duleimi did not appear in the press conference attended by nine of the 20 lead lawyers as he had returned to Baghdad. He told the other lawyers that Saddam had no news of Iraq or the outside world before the meeting. When al-Duleimi informed Saddam of Iraq's upcoming elections, he urged caution. "President Saddam recommended to the Iraqi people to be careful of this election, which will divide the Iraqi people and their land," said al-Khasawneh. When he heard aircraft flying over his detention location, Saddam said: "These are probably going to Fallujah. I live with their pain." Al-Khasawneh said Saddam signed an affidavit officially appointing the lawyers, selected by Saddam's wife Sajida, as his defence team.. Saddam and 11 other defendants, all former members of the ousted Iraqi regime, appeared in court in Baghdad in July on charges of war crimes and genocide. On Saturday, Ali Hassan al-Majid, the former general known as "Chemical Ali", and Saddam's last defence minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmad, appeared in the first in a series of interrogatory hearings held to gather evidence for trials of Iraq's one-time Baathist leaders. Interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday that the 11 detained Saddam regime figures, plus the deposed dictator, would start appearing before court in the coming week - moving forward with the trials ahead of the January 30 elections. Saddam's message follows a weekend of violence in Iraq. Car bombs tore through a Najaf funeral procession and Karbala's main bus station, killing at least 60 people and wounding more than 120 in the two Shia holy cities. And, in Baghdad, gunmen murdered three election officials, in their campaign to disrupt next month's parliamentary ballot. Yesterday's deadly strikes highlighted the apparent ability of the rebels to launch attacks almost at will, despite confident assessments by US military commanders that they had regained the initiative after last month's campaign against militants in Fallujah. In the Baghdad attack, dozens of guerrillas - unmasked and apparently unafraid to show their faces - ran rampant through Haifa Street, a main thoroughfare. They dragged the election workers from a car, lay them on the street in the morning traffic and shot them. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $4.98 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Q7_YsB/neXJAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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