Defending Saddam: For many, deposed leader has become symbol of Arab unity

MEGAN K. STACK, Los Angeles Times

..."Hey, excuse me," his voice rang out. "Aren’t you Saddam’s lawyer?" Soon they were all around her, five young men with U.S. military-issued badges clipped to their sports shirts. Their eyes were wide; they smiled. "Tell him you met young people here, youth that are sending their greetings to the president," one of the young men said. "We believe he is suffering injustice," said another. They spoke quickly and eagerly and pressed Khalil for her autograph. Iraqis who had been cleared to work in the drab nerve center of Iraq’s U.S.-backed government, in the heavily fortified Green Zone, might appear to be unlikely fans of the ousted president. But perhaps no supporter is more improbable than Khalil, a Shiite Muslim lawyer who has traveled from Lebanon to defend him (...) Khalil’s story illustrates an inherent irony in Saddam’s war crimes trial, which is grinding through its first phase: The Americans pushed to get him into court, but it’s America that has ended up standing trial in the eyes of the Arab public...

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