THIS MAY CALL FOR ANOTHER ORDER OF "FREEDOM FRIES..."
French Lawyer Verges Would Call Rumsfeld, Kissinger to Stand in Defense of Saddam
WASHINGTON - Controversial French lawyer Jacques Verges said he would call US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger as witnesses if he succeeds in defending ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in an eventual trial.
The lawyer, whose past clients have included Nazi Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie, Carlos the Jackal, and former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic said in March that Saddam's nephew Ali Barzan al-Tikriti had asked him to represent his uncle, who was captured by US forces in Iraq in December.
"This mass destructive weapons were sold to Iraqi government by the United States. And Mr. Rumsfeld has been one of the man responsible for this sale, for this bargain, for this market," Verges told CBS.
He would call Kissinger to testify "for sure."
Asked if he would try and put the United States on trial in his defense of Saddam, he said: "What I am criticizing is not (the) United States; (it) is the actual leaders of the (United States)."
The 79-year-old lawyer said he feared the United States might try to kill Saddam prior to trial. "I have this fear. I am not sure. If I express my fear, it's precisely to avoid this."
Verges said his defense of some of the worst perpetrators of crimes against humanity is because, "I am curious to understand."
The French lawyer has also brushed off a claim by Jordanian lawyer Mohammad Rashdan that he had not been legitimately appointed.
Rashdan told AFP he had been contacted by Saddam's wife and eldest daughter to personally represent the former Iraqi leader, and that Verges had no right to representation.
The ferocity and success of the guerrillas is partly attributable to covert assistance from Iraq's neighbors, Mr Zebari added.
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