Unaccompanied by a lawyer, he was presented with seven preliminary charges that included gassing thousands of Kurds in 1988, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the suppression of 1991 revolts by Kurds and Shiites, the murders of religious and political leaders and the mass displacement of Kurds in the 1980s.

As the former dictator spoke, he stroked a neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard and a dark mustache, sometimes brushing his fingers across his bushy black eyebrows. At one point, he took a pen out of his coat and made notes on a piece of yellow paper.

Saddam, whose mood swung during the hearing from nervousness and exasperation to contempt and defiance, even anger, appeared most agitated when Kuwait was mentioned.

"The armed forces went to Kuwait. Is it possible to raise accusations against an official figure and this figure be treated apart from the official guarantees stipulated by the constitution and the law? Where is this law upon which you are conducting investigations?

Saddam arrived in a blue jumpsuit — the prison uniform given to regime detainees on Wednesday, when their legal custody was handed over to Iraqi authorities by the U.S. military. The former president changed into off-the-rack civilian clothes provided by authorities in an adjacent room.

At the end of the hearing, Saddam got up to leave. One of the uniformed Iraqi guards rushed to help him up. "Take it easy — I'm an old man," Saddam told him.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20040701/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_saddam_97

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Also, according to reporters who attended the 30-minute hearing which authorities allowed to be filmed without sound, Saddam called the Kuwaitis "dogs" and referred to the tribunal as "a play aimed at Bush's chances of winning the US presidential elections." He also said the "the criminal is Bush".


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/69849F29-1B52-418A-8478-BBA0D3CFB37C.htm