M A I N   N E W S

Saddam: I will die without fear

Amman, November 5
A defiant Saddam Hussein today said he would die without fear and the US occupiers of his country would leave humiliated like they did in Vietnam, his lawyers said. They said a jovial and highly spirited Saddam chatted with them for more than three hours about the violence in Iraq and mounting US losses just hours before the death sentence was pronounced today in his trial for crimes against humanity.

The sentence appeared to be the least of his concerns, they said, his focus instead being on the insurgency and the rising US death toll.

''He was totally unconcerned about the verdict. In fact, there was derision about the court and this farce,'' Khalil al-Dulaimi, the defence team's chief lawyer, said on the telephone from Baghdad.

''I will die with honour and with no fear, with pride for my country and my Arab nation, but the US occupiers will leave in humiliation and defeat,'' Saddam was quoted by the lawyers as saying.

Saddam seemed ecstatic when another lawyer gave him the Arabic version of the book ''My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope'' by Paul Bremer, who led the US civilian occupation authority after the 2003 invasion. — Reuters