Posted: 7/1/2004 12:52:18 PM EDT
I guess this shows there are liberal (read stupid) students everywhere...
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&e=29&u=/nm/20040701/ts_nm/iraq_saddam_supporters_dc
"I don't know why they are trying Saddam. He is guilty of nothing," said Ahmed Abdallah, a student from Baghdad's Sunni Muslim Adhamiya district, once favored by Saddam.
"If it were up to me, I would bring him back as president today, not tomorrow."
Downcast but defiant, a thinner Saddam arrived at a courthouse in handcuffs and chains on Thursday to hear the charges against him.
The images, the first since U.S. forces found him hiding in a hole near his home town of Tikrit in December, stung the pride of some Iraqis who saw his public disgrace as a slap in the face for all Arabs.
"He was a president, an Arab leader. I feel all Arabs are humiliated when I see him as a prisoner like this, no matter what he did," said Faleh Jasem, a driver who was watching the first footage of Saddam facing an Iraqi judge.
"I would feel so hurt if they executed him, because he took a heroic position. He stood up to America and that makes him a real man in my eyes."
"HE WILL ALWAYS BE IN OUR HEARTS"
Many Iraqis want Saddam to be executed, some say they would rather he suffer a more protracted punishment for 35 years of Baathist brutality that saw Sunni Muslim Arabs favored at the expense of the Shi'ite majority and the minority Kurds.
Iraq's interim government is considering restoring the death penalty, suspended during the U.S.-led occupation, but those who benefited from his rule hailed him as a strongman who only crushed bad apples.
"Saddam was our president and we were happy with him so who are these infidels to take him away?" said Hana Majid, whose eldest son lost his job as a senior officer when the United States dissolved the army after last year's war.
"All those people in mass graves were just rabble who deserved everything they got."
In the first step toward a trial that may not start for months, Saddam was accused of suppressing Kurdish and Shi'ite revolts after the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites), massacring Kurds, killing religious leaders and political figures over three decades.
"The Americans are punishing Saddam for standing up to them," said Mohammed al-Sammaraei, who runs a music shop in Adhamiya, where pictures of the former ruler still take pride of place in some living rooms.
"Under Saddam, I used to work in the government. Now I am sitting at home," said Abdallah, another Adhimiya resident who declined to give his full name.
"Saddam was a part of us for 35 years. He will always be in our hearts," he said touching his chest.
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