Saddam: Killings Were Justified

(CBS/AP)  Saddam Hussein dodged questions from prosecutors cross-examining him for the first time Wednesday over a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s. But he acknowledged approving death sentences for 148 Shiites, saying he was convinced they tried to assassinate him.

At times sharp and combative but often relaxed or even smiling, the former Iraqi leader declined to confirm his signature on documents. When prosecutors presented identity cards of children whose death sentences they said he signed, he maintained they were forged.

"You can buy IDs like this in the market," Saddam said. "Is it the responsibility of the head of the state to check the IDs of defendants and see how old they are?"

Standing alone in a black suit in the defendants' pen, Saddam refrained from the outbursts he has made in previous sessions. But he denounced the court as "illegitimate" and attempted to tap into Sunni resentment of the Shiite-led Interior Ministry, which many Sunnis accuse of backing death squads.

The Interior Ministry "kills thousands of people on the streets and tortures them," Saddam said.

"Don't venture into political matters," Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman admonished him.

"If you are scared of the interior minister, he doesn't scare my dog," Saddam retorted.

The tribunal accused Saddam, and six former members of his regime, of committing genocide against Iraq's Kurds in the north, killing tens of thousands in a 1988 campaign to obliterate any villages that supported Kurdish rebels, reports CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.

A separate trial will be held on those charges, possibly beginning in 45 days, though some officials have questioned whether the tribunal will be able to conduct two trials simultaneously. In any case, it means a drawn-out legal process amid continued violence and political wrangling over the formation of Iraq's next government.

In other developments:

An extremist group posted an Internet video Wednesday that it said showed a U.S. pilot being dragged along the ground, burning, after the crash of his Apache helicopter. It was not clear whether the man being dragged was wearing a U.S. uniform. A closeup showed the word "Hanes" on his underwear. A U.S. military spokesman would not confirm the authenticity of the video, but said the U.S. was "outraged" at its presentation.

Separately, the U.S. military in Baghdad announced Wednesday that it had confirmed the two pilots in the downed helicopter had died, and said it had recovered "all available remains found on the scene, given the catastrophic nature of the crash."

Iraqi prosecutors, citing a lack of evidence, have withdrawn their case against an Iraqi cameraman who had been expected to go on trial Wednesday. Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein was working for CBS News when he was detained.

In documents obtained by CBS News, Saddam put Ali Hassan al Majid in charge of the attack on the Kurds and soon earned his nickname, "Chemical Ali." A field report described how chemical weapons killed 50 people, in just one village, Dozier reports.

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