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Eyes of the Snake, Roar of the Lion

November 05, 2006 5:34 PM

Ever since Saddam first appeared in court in Baghdad, it has been pretty clear that everyone in the courthouse was intimidated, to some greater or lesser extent, by the former dictator.  Even as a prisoner he had a way of controlling the tone of the proceedings, if not the proceedings themselves.  Sometimes he would look bored and disinterested, sometimes he would ask very pointed questions that were not easy to dismiss, and sometimes he just acted the bully.  He forced one judge -- since replaced -- to placate him by saying in the court that Saddam "was not a dictator."  He would refer to himself as still being the rightful president of Iraq, and then he had a technique of talking about himself in the third person, as if elevating his personage above the sordid level of legal debate that was being transacted in the courtroom.

Many people in the courtroom were afraid to be identified -- several of the prosecutors and judges were never named and the courthouse cameras were placed so their faces were never shown on television. Some witnesses gave their evidence in a booth shut off by curtains with scrambling technology on their microphones so their voices were not recognizable. Even in the press area there were signs on some of the seats warning that if one chose this chair, one could be seen on the courthouse cameras. Foreign journalists were not particularly concerned by this, but for Iraqi journalists it could mean the difference between life or death for them and their families, and they never sat in those positions.

Iraqis called Saddam "Abu Laythien," which means the father of two lion cubs -- Uday and Qusay, his two notorious sons -- making him the truly incarnated Lion of Babylon, the supreme ruler. During his trial, one of the witnesses offended Saddam as he gave his testimony, effectively poking fun at the former dictator who had now lost all his power. Saddam responded that, “If you put a lion in a cage even a coward can bring a stick and poke him.”

Today when Saddam was sentenced to death, there were no outbursts in court, no shouts or even voices raised in excitement or contempt.  The entire courtroom was silent -- except for Saddam, who kept back-talking to the judge, defiant up to the very end. It reminded me of seeing people in India watching a cobra, silent and mesmerized, fascinated and at the same time, afraid of this potentially lethal creature. 

This man had just been told he was going to die, and still he managed to transmit fear to others.

Whatever atrocities Saddam committed during his rule -- and that is not a short list -- he had a demonic charisma about him that gripped everyone in the court. One can only imagine what people felt like in front of him when he was still the lion king.

November 5, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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