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Mr. Hussein's nearly 40-minute speech was the most riveting element so far in a trial that has already been punctuated by tirades from the defendants and searing testimony from victims. Mr. Hussein marched up to the defendants' lectern in the midafternoon, after his half brother had spent three hours proclaiming their innocence, and read from a yellow notepad.
He had delivered outbursts before, but his sense of decorum and calm manner on Wednesday showed he was keenly aware that this afternoon, at this hour, the spotlight was reserved for him. He was better dressed than in previous sessions, draped in a black suit and charcoal-gray vest with a white shirt. His hair was combed and parted.
He went on to do exactly what Iraqi and American officials had long feared he might — use the session, televised across the Middle East, to try to incite the Sunni-led insurgency to further violence.
"You've been great throughout history and you've been great in your resistance to the American and Zionist invasion and its followers," he said in a firm voice, after calling on Iraqis to stop the sectarian violence. "You've been great in my eyes."........
In sharp rejoinders, Mr. Hussein demonstrated a command of recent events in Iraq. Told by the judge that he was accused of killing innocent people, Mr. Hussein pointed to the scores of bodies found this week, the victims of sectarian killings. "Just yesterday, 80 bodies of Iraqis were discovered in Baghdad," he said. "Aren't they innocent?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/international/middleeast/16saddam.html
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