Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
LONDON - (AP) A lawyer for Saddam Hussein said the deposed Iraqi
leader believes someone tipped off U.S. forces to his whereabouts two years
ago and that he was gassed while hiding in the spider hole, a newspaper
reported Monday.
The Sun also quoted former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark as
saying Saddam only spent a short time in the hole near his hometown of
Tikrit when he was captured in December 2003, and a motorcycle was supposed
to be waiting for him to help him get away.
"Saddam thinks he was gassed in the tunnel," the newspaper quoted
Clark as saying. "He tried to get to the exit of the tunnel. But he did not
have time to get away. He told us he spent maybe minutes in this tunnel _
not hours or days.
"When he started to get out there were soldiers around that area.
There was supposed to be a motorcycle there. It was gone," Clark told the
newspaper.
He is a member of Saddam's defense team in the trial on mass murder
charges.
"Saddam knew the person who owned the house wasn't there. He knew he
had been betrayed," Clark said.
He said Saddam told his lawyers he had been moving around Iraq daily
with the help of insurgents.
"But every few days he came back to this escape area. Now he knows
it was a mistake. Probably American soldiers did not discover the hole. They
were told about it," Clark said.
The Sun quoted a man identified as Issam Gazyzwi, said to be another
of Saddam's lawyers, as saying Saddam had not seen the picture of himself
dressed only in underpants which appeared on The Sun's front page in May.
"Saddam has not actually seen the pictures. He tried to take it
philosophically," Gazyzwi was quoted as saying.
Saddam and seven others are charged with killing more than 140
people in the town of Dujail in 1982. Their trial is scheduled to resume
Dec. 21.
leader believes someone tipped off U.S. forces to his whereabouts two years
ago and that he was gassed while hiding in the spider hole, a newspaper
reported Monday.
The Sun also quoted former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark as
saying Saddam only spent a short time in the hole near his hometown of
Tikrit when he was captured in December 2003, and a motorcycle was supposed
to be waiting for him to help him get away.
"Saddam thinks he was gassed in the tunnel," the newspaper quoted
Clark as saying. "He tried to get to the exit of the tunnel. But he did not
have time to get away. He told us he spent maybe minutes in this tunnel _
not hours or days.
"When he started to get out there were soldiers around that area.
There was supposed to be a motorcycle there. It was gone," Clark told the
newspaper.
He is a member of Saddam's defense team in the trial on mass murder
charges.
"Saddam knew the person who owned the house wasn't there. He knew he
had been betrayed," Clark said.
He said Saddam told his lawyers he had been moving around Iraq daily
with the help of insurgents.
"But every few days he came back to this escape area. Now he knows
it was a mistake. Probably American soldiers did not discover the hole. They
were told about it," Clark said.
The Sun quoted a man identified as Issam Gazyzwi, said to be another
of Saddam's lawyers, as saying Saddam had not seen the picture of himself
dressed only in underpants which appeared on The Sun's front page in May.
"Saddam has not actually seen the pictures. He tried to take it
philosophically," Gazyzwi was quoted as saying.
Saddam and seven others are charged with killing more than 140
people in the town of Dujail in 1982. Their trial is scheduled to resume
Dec. 21.
