Saddam defiant before Iraqi judge

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Wearing a crisp white shirt, charcoal pinstriped jacket and full but groomed beard, the man in court looked more like a businessman than a humbled prisoner, and his tone was defiant from his very first words: "I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq."

He was heard before he was seen in the courtroom, his chains clanking in the hall outside. With the shackles off for the proceedings, a fierce Saddam began challenging the young magistrate and the authority of the Iraqi court, scoffing at charges of war crimes and mass killings that could get him the death penalty.

"This is all a theater by Bush, the criminal," he declared.

Last seen shaggy-haired, haggard and somewhat dazed getting a dental exam on a military video clip, a trimmer, sharper Saddam made his first public appearance Thursday since his humiliating capture in a dirt hole nearly seven months ago.

He was visibly nervous when he first sat down in the court, held at a U.S. military base set up in one of his former palaces on the western outskirts of Baghdad. He used his hands constantly, poking the air, dragging a thumb across his black, bushy eyebrow, brushing a fly from his cheek.

He quickly gained composure. At times waving his fist and lecturing a judge who could have been half his age, the 67-year-old Saddam appeared to dominate much of the 26-minute exchange.

"I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq," he said unprompted, sitting in a chair facing the magistrate on the other side of a wooden railing. When asked his name, he repeated it in full: "Saddam Hussein al-Majid, president of Iraq."

He insisted he be referred to as "president of the Republic of Iraq" and began asking who the judge was and under what authority he was holding the hearing.

The judge, whom officials have refused to identify for security reasons, said he was representing the Iraqi people and acting under coalition authority.

"So you are an Iraqi representing the coalition forces?" Saddam asked.

"No," the judge replied. "I am an Iraqi representing the Iraqi judicial system."

Speaking in strong tones, as if he was still commander in chief, Saddam offered a bit of advice.

"The judicial system in Iraq always represents the will of the people," he said. "You should not work according to the law of the occupying forces; these are invading forces."