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12/06/2005:

"Saddam's Outbursts Well-Received by Some"

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Watching the Saddam Hussein trial at home on television, Jinan Mushrif said she got chills of pride Monday when she saw the ousted leader and a co-defendant chant, "Long live Iraq, long live the Arab state." "These are the real men of Iraq, not those who hide behind their bodyguards," the 49-year-old Baghdad housewife said with a laugh.

Saddam's repeated outbursts at the third session of his trial on charges of mass murder found a receptive audience among some Sunni Arabs, tapping into Sunni resentment of the new order in Iraq, in which their once-ruling minority community is now dominated by the Shiite Muslim majority and the Kurds.

Mushrif's son, Ziyad Tariq, stayed home from work at his auto parts shop to watch the trial. He believes the trial is a sham intended to boost support among followers of the Shiite leadership.

The trial is just "a battle of talk, in which no one cares about Iraqis. They just want to fulfill their own objectives," he said.

His suspicions only increased when the first prosecution witness described a wave of arrests and torture in the Shiite town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam.

"Did you see this guy, with his Iranian accent?" the 27-year-old Tariq shouted to his mother. "He is wearing a suit without a tie, just like the Persians."
breitbart.com