Saddam Lawyer Lays Blame

After 2nd Assassination, Claims U.S. Bears Some Responsibility

(CBS/AP)  Saddam Hussein's lawyer said Wednesday that U.S.-led "occupation forces" bear some of the responsibility for the slaying of a second colleague in the trial, and the defense team signaled it may not show up for the next session without international security guarantees.

Khalil al-Dulaimi, head of Saddam's legal team, spoke one day after Adel al-Zubeidi, lawyer for former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan died in a hail of gunfire in west Baghdad. Thamir al-Khuzaie, attorney for another co-defendant, Saddam's half brother Barazan Ibrahim, was wounded.

The attack followed the slaying last month of another defense lawyer, Saadoun al-Janabi, whose body was found with gunshot wounds the day after the trial began on Oct. 19. The killings raise doubts about Iraq's ability to try the case, although the Iraqi government dismissed calls to move the venue or halt the trial. The second session is set for Nov. 28.

In a statement released Wednesday, the defense team said it considered the November date "null and void" in the wake of the attacks because of "the very dangerous circumstances that prevent the presence" of the attorneys "unless there is a direct, neutral international intervention that guarantees" security.

After the death of the first team member, the defense lawyers announced they had suspended further dealings with the special court trying their clients until their security was guaranteed. The latest statement appeared to harden that position in wake of the latest killing.

There was no reaction from the court to the latest statement. But officials have said that if defense lawyers refuse to appear, the tribunal could appoint a new team.

In other developments:

Five policemen were killed and five others were wounded when a suicide car bomber struck a patrol near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The U.S. command said that an American Marine had died of injuries received when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle Monday in western Iraq. The latest death brings to at least 2,055 the number of U.S. military service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, whose relations with the United States have ranged from hot to cold, met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday in a faceoff seen as political rehabilitation. Chalabi also is to meet with Vice President Dick Cheney and Stephen Hadley, the White House national security adviser.

In Baghdad, a driver for the Sudanese Embassy was shot dead Wednesday as he left the Palestinian mission, police said. The shooting occurred in the Mansour area of western Baghdad, where gunmen have attacked foreign diplomats and businessmen in the past. The driver was a Sudanese citizen, his embassy said. The attack followed the abduction last month of two employees of the Moroccan Embassy, who were seized on the highway between Baghdad and Amman, Jordan. Statements attributed to al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility and said the two had been sentenced to death.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the kidnap-slaying last July of three foreign diplomats — two Algerians and one Egyptian — as part of a campaign to cut ties between Muslim countries and the Shiite-dominated, U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

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©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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