Saddam Lawyer Lays Blame

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

(CBS/AP) 
Al-Dulaimi, speaking in the insurgent hotspot of Ramadi, brushed aside government suggestions that pro-Saddam insurgents or religious extremists were behind the killings.

"The occupation forces are responsible for this criminal incident, and they bear the responsibility of preserving the lives of the people regardless of their identity," he said. The "Iraqi government also has the responsibility to protect people and put an end to such actions."

He called on "all free people, the United Nations, the Arab League, Arab presidents and kings and the Arab Bar Association to shoulder the responsibility to face the tyranny of the criminal gangs that are targeting the country."

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd and longtime Saddam opponent, also condemned the assassination and urged the rest of the defense team to accept government protection which they had refused.

Regardless of who was responsible, the killing of another defense lawyer reinforced grave misgivings among human rights groups and international lawyers about holding the trial in a country gripped by a brutal insurgency — much of it led by the defendants' supporters in the Sunni Arab minority.

"I don't understand how you can have a fair trial in this atmosphere of insecurity, with bombs going off," said Richard Goldstone, the first prosecutor at the U.N. tribunal for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and one of the world's most prominent jurists.

He told The Associated Press by telephone that Iraq's government should consider shifting the trial to an Arab country "where there is security."

Meanwhile, U.S. Air Force jets destroyed a building near the Syrian border Wednesday where al Qaeda insurgents hid weapons, the U.S. military said. The attack occurred early in the day in the village of Bu Hardan near the cities of Qaim and Husaybah where U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted a major operation in the past four days.

"The terrorists were seen moving mortars and other small weapons into the targeted building," the statement said. "This weapons cache was directly linked to mortar attacks on Coalition and Iraqi security forces."

The statement said the raid destroyed the building and "all contents of the weapons cache."

Late Tuesday, the military announced that U.S. and Iraqi forces have secured the town of Husaybah and that al Qaeda-led insurgents there have been neutralized.