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Saddam transferred to Legal Custody of Iraqi Government as U.S. Troops Near Baghdad International Airport Attacked by Mortars
Aired June 30, 2004 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: It's 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. in the West. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Drew Griffin in for Daryn Kagan.
The headlines from Iraq this hour. Saddam Hussein transferred to legal custody of the Iraqi government. He is no longer a prisoner of war but a criminal defendant.
U.S. troops based near Baghdad International Airport came under a mortar attack today. It's a common occurrence, but today's barrage sent nearly a dozen soldiers to a field hospital.
And the former U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq calls the new Iraqi prime minister one tough guy. Paul Bremer says he's confident Ayad Allawi is up to the job of stabilizing Iraq and restoring security ahead of January's elections.
Details on all this from CNN's Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf. She joins us from the Iraqi capital where it is now early evening. And hopefully a little quieter than when we last left her -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: It was, that roar of helicopters has died down certainly, Drew. And it was a brief appearance earlier today, but that many Iraqis have been waiting decades for. Saddam Hussein being presented to Iraqi authorities. He is now in Iraqi legal custody.
Now, physically, he remains with U.S. forces. Iraq doesn't have a suitable jail for him. But he was presented to legal authorities here. He apparently, accord to Salem Chalabi, the head of the tribunal that will try him, asked if he could ask a question. He was told that would have to wait.
He apparently was looking in good health, although he has lost weight. And he has also lost that long hair and the tangled beard that Iraqis last saw him with when he was captured in December.
Saddam will appear again tomorrow to face charges including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Those charges will be read out to him. The trial won't start for months, and it's expected to take months.
At the same time, 11 others who included some of his closest associates, Ali Hassan al Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged chemical weapons attacks against the Kurds, will stand trial. He appeared today, walking with a cane. And, according to Salem Chalabi, complaining he did not have a chair to sit in at the proceedings.
Saddam's personal secretary appeared as well. He told the court he did nothing wrong.
All of them will also be read the charges against them on Thursday -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Jane, any word on what needs to take place before the Iraqis actually get total physical custody and have Iraqis guarding these 11 people?
ARRAF: Well, a lot would have to change here, Drew. Certainly, the security would have to improve. We saw earlier today mortar attacks against one of the main U.S. Army bases. There are mortar a tacks almost every day, as well as rocket attack and car bombs and other explosions in this city. It's really quite unstable.
And what that means is that Saddam and other -- what they refer to as high-value targets, will likely remain in U.S. custody for quite some time -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Jane Arraf, reporting live from Baghdad. Thank you, Jane.
The family of a U.S. Marine held in Iraq says the military has changed his status to captured. Corporal Wassef Hassoun was initially listed as missing when he failed to report for duty on June 20. The military believes Hassoun left his base in Iraq on unauthorized leave and was captured. An official says he may have been trying to reach relatives in Lebanon where he was born.
The family of a soldier taken hostage in Iraq is waiting for word on his fate. Militants claim to have killed Army Specialist Matt Maupin. But the military has not confirmed that claim. Maupin captured April 9 when his convoy was ambushed outside Baghdad.
They are young and restless, but they also realists. Iraqis in their teens and 20s have a chance to be the first generation to come of age under a free and Democratic system. CNN's Aneesh Ramen reports from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A pool hall in Baghdad on Saturday night. It is one of the few places the city's youth, like 24-year-old Rammi Falah, can go to enjoy themselves.
RAMMI FALAH, IRAQI YOUTH: I think it is difficult now, and difficult before to have fun, to live as other people my age.
RAMAN: Just out of college, Rammi is part of a generation of Iraqis growing up in volatility, caught between new freedoms and new fears, with very few places to just hang out.
FALAH: We don't have any public places for fun. All the places of fun have been taken from the American Army.
RAMAN (on camera): The future of Iraq is hugely dependent on the future of its youth. Iraqis under 21 make up roughly half of the population. And while happy to be free from Saddam in this new world, they want more.
(voice-over): During the daytime, you'll find constant crowds at Baghdad gyms, among them, 20-year-old Hayder Rasheed. For him, the ouster of Saddam was welcome.
"Our generation of the '80s and '90s saw only war," he says, "four wars under Saddam Hussein." But since Saddam's removal, war remains a fact of life, giving many, including Rammi, a reason to leave. He hopes to get a job abroad, returning only if things improve.
FALAH: I feel sad for my country, for my Iraq, for -- not for me, just for me. You know, I hope that things become better. I hope they will.
RAMAN: For Iraq's youth, growing up while their country does the same, hope is all they have.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Tune in to CNN prime time for more. At 7:00 Eastern, "ANDERSON COOPER 360" looks at "The Former Dictator's Future." And on "PAULA ZAHN NOW," "Baghdad Battle, the Mental Cost of War." That's at 8:00 Eastern and 5:00 Pacific.
well now that Iraqis have legal custody of Saddam, the big question is what is next? Coming up, we'll take a closer look at what the trial of a dictator could look like.
Also a 23-year-old teacher and 14-year-old student. Put them together and you get one very serious scandal and police say an even more serious crime.
And later, they say the first step is always the hardest. We'll show you a way to lose weight where it's also the most important. CNN LIVE TODAY coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Here's what's on the docket today in our "Legal Briefs." The defense makes a dent in what appeared to be a prosecution bombshell in that Scott Peterson murder trial in California. A detective testified that a friend says Peterson once told him about a method to dispose of a dead body, very similar to the way Laci Peterson's body was found, weighted down in the bay. Under cross-examination, the detective said police determined the tip was just not credible.
In Orange County, California, the prosecution plans to retry three teenagers accused of gang raping a 16-year-old girl. The encounter was videotaped by one of the teens. A judge declared a mistrial in the case Monday after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked on all 24 counts.
A Tampa area Florida area teacher is facing charges this morning related to alleged sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student at her school.
CNN's Brian Todd has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her marriage and career just beginning, this 23-year-old remedial reading teacher is now at the center of a sordid case that swept through a huge Florida community.
Debra Beasley Lafave faces five counts in connection with her alleged relationship with a 14-year-old boy.
SUSAN LIVOTT, MARION COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: All the contact has been sexual in nature.
TODD: Police and sheriff's officers in two counties tell CNN Lafave met the boy at the school where she teaches, Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, a suburb of Tampa. They say the boy was not her student, but she approached him at various school events, and earlier this month they began having sex, first at her apartment, then inside her portable classroom at the middle school.
Then, authorities say, the boy went on vacation at the home of his cousin, north of Tampa in Ocala, Florida, and Lafave followed him.
LIVOTT: And the teacher traveled to Ocala from her home and met with the student and also his cousin. And some of these activities took place in front of the cousin.
TODD: The activities in question, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office, sex in the backseat of an SUV on at least two occasions while the boy's 15-year-old cousin was driving.
Police back in Temple Terrace were notified after the 14-year-old told his parents of the alleged encounters. Temple Terrace Police contacted the Marion County Sheriff's Office, and Debra Lafave has now been booked on four counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition. She's been released on bond from both counties.
Her attorney spoke to reporters this week.
JOHN FITZGIBBONS, DEBRA LAFAVE'S ATTORNEY: There is a presumption of innocence in this country for anyone charged with a crime. And we hope that everyone would listen to that.
TODD (on camera): In the Marion County Sheriff's probable cause affidavit, the boy told detectives that Lafave was -- quote -- "turned on by the fact that having sex with him was not allowed." Hillsborough County school officials tell CNN Debra Lafave is now on administrative leave with pay.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Seventeen years ago, his crime shocked and disturbed an entire nation. Now the man convicted in a barbaric child abuse case is walking out of jail a free man. We are there live, and that's coming up.
And a dictator comes full circle. Saddam's now back in the hands of people he's accused of terrorizing. We'll sort out the ins and outs of his legal situation. That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: With the military stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of soldiers rarely tapped for duty are being called back into service. An official announcement expected today on plans to call up members of the Individual Ready Reserve.
Details from CNN's Sean Callebs in Washington -- Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good day, Drew.
The Army is in need of troops in combat zones in the war on terror, so it has decided to tap into its reserve of former military members. The Army says some 5,600 troops, either refired or discharged soldiers, who are not member of the National Guard or Reserve, are being involuntarily told, we need you, and now. The soldiers will be sent to either Afghanistan or Iraq, and the tour of duty will last at least 18 months. These troops, as you mentioned, are called Individual Ready Reserve. The last time the United States tapped this source was back in 1991 during the first Gulf War.
Most of the troops will perform jobs done by Reservists. That of truck driver, engineer or military police, and a lion's share of the Individual Ready Reserve will be drawn from California, Texas, New York and Delaware.
This Reserve force is made up of people who left the military but still owe the service part of their eight-year obligation. The troops are heading to Iraq, will be going into an area that is a long way from being secure. The insurgency is rolling on. A while ago we heard Jane Arraf say a mortar attack Wednesday at a U.S. Army base near the Baghdad International Airport wounded 11 soldiers -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Sean, how much time do they have to get ready before they're actually deployed? A lot of these people have been going on living normal lives here in the U.S.
CALLEBS: Exactly. They are being plucked from their civilian life. They don't have that long at all, and they're going to be over there for 18 months. The U.S. military, the government doesn't believe this is going to be popular with these 5,600 in any way, shape or form, but they say it's something that must be done.
Drew, critics are also point to fact that this shows just how thinly the U.S. military is stretched, and they say that this could be a bigger problem if more troops are needed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or some other part of the world.
GRIFFIN: Sean, thanks for that.
Saddam Hussein and his top deputies will be arraigned tomorrow, arraigned on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide. Their transfer today to the legal custody of Iraqis ends their status as prisoners of war. They are now criminal defendants subject to Iraqi law.
What does that mean? Let's talk about the case against Saddam and company with David Bederman. He is a professor of international law at Emory University in Atlanta. Along with going on trial, there are certain rights, I would assume, that are going to be afforded to Saddam Hussein, which he did not have as a prisoner of war.
PROF. DAVID BEDERMAN, EMORY UNIV. LAW SCHOOL: That's right, Drew. I think among the rights, of course, is that he has his legal team in place that will represent him during the proceedings. He'll be informed of the charges against him when the indictment is issued tomorrow and as it's going on over the next few days.
Also he will presumably have the right to cross examination witnesses that will be brought against him.
GRIFFIN: Tell me what this means when he has a right to cross examine. He has supposedly a legal team of 20 people. Do they all need to be credentialed to get into the Iraqi court? How disturbed was the Iraqi court in Saddam's years where you have to rebuild the entire judicial system?
BEDERMAN: Well of course the court that will hearing the case against Saddam Hussein and 11 of his other senior associates in the former Iraqi government will be a special tribunal established precisely to hear these charges.
So this will be a special court created for this purpose. Whether all the lawyers on Saddam's legal team will have access to the proceedings, of course, remains to be seen. I would expect that each of the 12 defendants that were named yesterday will each have their own legal team.
GRIFFIN: What is the precedent for holding this type of trial in the actual country where the person accused of war crimes supposedly committed those crimes?
BEDERMAN: Well, Drew, there is some precedent for this. With the disturbances in Sierra Leone and Liberia in Africa over the past few years, there are war crimes trials going on in those countries. In Cambodia this has been discussed as well.
So there is precedent for Saddam Hussein and his associates to be tried in the country where they lived and perpetrated their deeds.
GRIFFIN: Professor, do you think that this could lead to anything like we've seen with Slobodan Milosevic trying to use his time in court as a way to reach, quote/unquote, "his people" or his supporters?
BEDERMAN: Yes, I'm afraid so. I mean the Milosevic example, although, you know, that case at the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague has been a model of fairness, one of the criticisms has been it that it has essentially given Milosevic a soap box to use to essentially create a positive image for him and his supporters.
I think that we're going to certainly see some elements of this with the Ba'athist Party, what remains of it, of course, in Iraq.
GRIFFIN: And of course we're discussing Saddam a lot, but there are 11 others, I believe, who are all facing similar -- his top people, two half brothers of his, all being marched into court. Will this be a group action, all tried together? Are we going to see a series of individual trials carried out over probably the course of years?
BEDERMAN: It remains to be seen but I suspect they will be individual trials. If we go back to the example of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials after the second World War, each of the cases were against the individual defendants. So proof will be brought on.
This is probably a fairer way to proceed. Each defendant gets his own legal team, is aware of the individual charges against him and can defend himself because not all of the 12 will be charged with exactly the same things.
"Chemical Ali," for example, who you mentioned before, is obviously going to be charged with the equivalent of genocide and war crimes for his use of chemical weapons against the Kurdish population in Iraq's north.
GRIFFIN: Historically speaking, when we get the details, which you can get nowhere else but in court, but are we likely to be shocked, even from Iraqi standards, as what the past of these individuals wrought?
BEDERMAN: I think so. Obviously a large part of the mission of the Coalition Provisional Authority with the Regime War Crimes Unite has been to assemble a large body of evidence. Obviously Iraqis are participating in this process to builds dossiers for the criminal prosecution of each of these 12. I think we will be shocked, yes.
GRIFFIN: Interesting times ahead. Professor David Bederman with Emory University School of Law, we thank you for joining us.
BEDERMAN: Thank you, Drew.
(WEATHER REPORT)
GRIFFIN: It was beautiful in Washington, D.C. A perfect day for a photographer in the right place at the right time to record unbelievable scenes, frightening scenes. It happens at a D.C. bank. You're going to see it all unfold for yourself next when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 30, 2004 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: It's 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. in the West. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Drew Griffin in for Daryn Kagan.
The headlines from Iraq this hour. Saddam Hussein transferred to legal custody of the Iraqi government. He is no longer a prisoner of war but a criminal defendant.
U.S. troops based near Baghdad International Airport came under a mortar attack today. It's a common occurrence, but today's barrage sent nearly a dozen soldiers to a field hospital.
And the former U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq calls the new Iraqi prime minister one tough guy. Paul Bremer says he's confident Ayad Allawi is up to the job of stabilizing Iraq and restoring security ahead of January's elections.
Details on all this from CNN's Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf. She joins us from the Iraqi capital where it is now early evening. And hopefully a little quieter than when we last left her -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: It was, that roar of helicopters has died down certainly, Drew. And it was a brief appearance earlier today, but that many Iraqis have been waiting decades for. Saddam Hussein being presented to Iraqi authorities. He is now in Iraqi legal custody.
Now, physically, he remains with U.S. forces. Iraq doesn't have a suitable jail for him. But he was presented to legal authorities here. He apparently, accord to Salem Chalabi, the head of the tribunal that will try him, asked if he could ask a question. He was told that would have to wait.
He apparently was looking in good health, although he has lost weight. And he has also lost that long hair and the tangled beard that Iraqis last saw him with when he was captured in December.
Saddam will appear again tomorrow to face charges including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Those charges will be read out to him. The trial won't start for months, and it's expected to take months.
At the same time, 11 others who included some of his closest associates, Ali Hassan al Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged chemical weapons attacks against the Kurds, will stand trial. He appeared today, walking with a cane. And, according to Salem Chalabi, complaining he did not have a chair to sit in at the proceedings.
Saddam's personal secretary appeared as well. He told the court he did nothing wrong.
All of them will also be read the charges against them on Thursday -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Jane, any word on what needs to take place before the Iraqis actually get total physical custody and have Iraqis guarding these 11 people?
ARRAF: Well, a lot would have to change here, Drew. Certainly, the security would have to improve. We saw earlier today mortar attacks against one of the main U.S. Army bases. There are mortar a tacks almost every day, as well as rocket attack and car bombs and other explosions in this city. It's really quite unstable.
And what that means is that Saddam and other -- what they refer to as high-value targets, will likely remain in U.S. custody for quite some time -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Jane Arraf, reporting live from Baghdad. Thank you, Jane.
The family of a U.S. Marine held in Iraq says the military has changed his status to captured. Corporal Wassef Hassoun was initially listed as missing when he failed to report for duty on June 20. The military believes Hassoun left his base in Iraq on unauthorized leave and was captured. An official says he may have been trying to reach relatives in Lebanon where he was born.
The family of a soldier taken hostage in Iraq is waiting for word on his fate. Militants claim to have killed Army Specialist Matt Maupin. But the military has not confirmed that claim. Maupin captured April 9 when his convoy was ambushed outside Baghdad.
They are young and restless, but they also realists. Iraqis in their teens and 20s have a chance to be the first generation to come of age under a free and Democratic system. CNN's Aneesh Ramen reports from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A pool hall in Baghdad on Saturday night. It is one of the few places the city's youth, like 24-year-old Rammi Falah, can go to enjoy themselves.
RAMMI FALAH, IRAQI YOUTH: I think it is difficult now, and difficult before to have fun, to live as other people my age.
RAMAN: Just out of college, Rammi is part of a generation of Iraqis growing up in volatility, caught between new freedoms and new fears, with very few places to just hang out.
FALAH: We don't have any public places for fun. All the places of fun have been taken from the American Army.
RAMAN (on camera): The future of Iraq is hugely dependent on the future of its youth. Iraqis under 21 make up roughly half of the population. And while happy to be free from Saddam in this new world, they want more.
(voice-over): During the daytime, you'll find constant crowds at Baghdad gyms, among them, 20-year-old Hayder Rasheed. For him, the ouster of Saddam was welcome.
"Our generation of the '80s and '90s saw only war," he says, "four wars under Saddam Hussein." But since Saddam's removal, war remains a fact of life, giving many, including Rammi, a reason to leave. He hopes to get a job abroad, returning only if things improve.
FALAH: I feel sad for my country, for my Iraq, for -- not for me, just for me. You know, I hope that things become better. I hope they will.
RAMAN: For Iraq's youth, growing up while their country does the same, hope is all they have.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Tune in to CNN prime time for more. At 7:00 Eastern, "ANDERSON COOPER 360" looks at "The Former Dictator's Future." And on "PAULA ZAHN NOW," "Baghdad Battle, the Mental Cost of War." That's at 8:00 Eastern and 5:00 Pacific.
well now that Iraqis have legal custody of Saddam, the big question is what is next? Coming up, we'll take a closer look at what the trial of a dictator could look like.
Also a 23-year-old teacher and 14-year-old student. Put them together and you get one very serious scandal and police say an even more serious crime.
And later, they say the first step is always the hardest. We'll show you a way to lose weight where it's also the most important. CNN LIVE TODAY coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Here's what's on the docket today in our "Legal Briefs." The defense makes a dent in what appeared to be a prosecution bombshell in that Scott Peterson murder trial in California. A detective testified that a friend says Peterson once told him about a method to dispose of a dead body, very similar to the way Laci Peterson's body was found, weighted down in the bay. Under cross-examination, the detective said police determined the tip was just not credible.
In Orange County, California, the prosecution plans to retry three teenagers accused of gang raping a 16-year-old girl. The encounter was videotaped by one of the teens. A judge declared a mistrial in the case Monday after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked on all 24 counts.
A Tampa area Florida area teacher is facing charges this morning related to alleged sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student at her school.
CNN's Brian Todd has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her marriage and career just beginning, this 23-year-old remedial reading teacher is now at the center of a sordid case that swept through a huge Florida community.
Debra Beasley Lafave faces five counts in connection with her alleged relationship with a 14-year-old boy.
SUSAN LIVOTT, MARION COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: All the contact has been sexual in nature.
TODD: Police and sheriff's officers in two counties tell CNN Lafave met the boy at the school where she teaches, Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, a suburb of Tampa. They say the boy was not her student, but she approached him at various school events, and earlier this month they began having sex, first at her apartment, then inside her portable classroom at the middle school.
Then, authorities say, the boy went on vacation at the home of his cousin, north of Tampa in Ocala, Florida, and Lafave followed him.
LIVOTT: And the teacher traveled to Ocala from her home and met with the student and also his cousin. And some of these activities took place in front of the cousin.
TODD: The activities in question, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office, sex in the backseat of an SUV on at least two occasions while the boy's 15-year-old cousin was driving.
Police back in Temple Terrace were notified after the 14-year-old told his parents of the alleged encounters. Temple Terrace Police contacted the Marion County Sheriff's Office, and Debra Lafave has now been booked on four counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition. She's been released on bond from both counties.
Her attorney spoke to reporters this week.
JOHN FITZGIBBONS, DEBRA LAFAVE'S ATTORNEY: There is a presumption of innocence in this country for anyone charged with a crime. And we hope that everyone would listen to that.
TODD (on camera): In the Marion County Sheriff's probable cause affidavit, the boy told detectives that Lafave was -- quote -- "turned on by the fact that having sex with him was not allowed." Hillsborough County school officials tell CNN Debra Lafave is now on administrative leave with pay.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Seventeen years ago, his crime shocked and disturbed an entire nation. Now the man convicted in a barbaric child abuse case is walking out of jail a free man. We are there live, and that's coming up.
And a dictator comes full circle. Saddam's now back in the hands of people he's accused of terrorizing. We'll sort out the ins and outs of his legal situation. That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: With the military stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of soldiers rarely tapped for duty are being called back into service. An official announcement expected today on plans to call up members of the Individual Ready Reserve.
Details from CNN's Sean Callebs in Washington -- Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good day, Drew.
The Army is in need of troops in combat zones in the war on terror, so it has decided to tap into its reserve of former military members. The Army says some 5,600 troops, either refired or discharged soldiers, who are not member of the National Guard or Reserve, are being involuntarily told, we need you, and now. The soldiers will be sent to either Afghanistan or Iraq, and the tour of duty will last at least 18 months. These troops, as you mentioned, are called Individual Ready Reserve. The last time the United States tapped this source was back in 1991 during the first Gulf War.
Most of the troops will perform jobs done by Reservists. That of truck driver, engineer or military police, and a lion's share of the Individual Ready Reserve will be drawn from California, Texas, New York and Delaware.
This Reserve force is made up of people who left the military but still owe the service part of their eight-year obligation. The troops are heading to Iraq, will be going into an area that is a long way from being secure. The insurgency is rolling on. A while ago we heard Jane Arraf say a mortar attack Wednesday at a U.S. Army base near the Baghdad International Airport wounded 11 soldiers -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Sean, how much time do they have to get ready before they're actually deployed? A lot of these people have been going on living normal lives here in the U.S.
CALLEBS: Exactly. They are being plucked from their civilian life. They don't have that long at all, and they're going to be over there for 18 months. The U.S. military, the government doesn't believe this is going to be popular with these 5,600 in any way, shape or form, but they say it's something that must be done.
Drew, critics are also point to fact that this shows just how thinly the U.S. military is stretched, and they say that this could be a bigger problem if more troops are needed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or some other part of the world.
GRIFFIN: Sean, thanks for that.
Saddam Hussein and his top deputies will be arraigned tomorrow, arraigned on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide. Their transfer today to the legal custody of Iraqis ends their status as prisoners of war. They are now criminal defendants subject to Iraqi law.
What does that mean? Let's talk about the case against Saddam and company with David Bederman. He is a professor of international law at Emory University in Atlanta. Along with going on trial, there are certain rights, I would assume, that are going to be afforded to Saddam Hussein, which he did not have as a prisoner of war.
PROF. DAVID BEDERMAN, EMORY UNIV. LAW SCHOOL: That's right, Drew. I think among the rights, of course, is that he has his legal team in place that will represent him during the proceedings. He'll be informed of the charges against him when the indictment is issued tomorrow and as it's going on over the next few days.
Also he will presumably have the right to cross examination witnesses that will be brought against him.
GRIFFIN: Tell me what this means when he has a right to cross examine. He has supposedly a legal team of 20 people. Do they all need to be credentialed to get into the Iraqi court? How disturbed was the Iraqi court in Saddam's years where you have to rebuild the entire judicial system?
BEDERMAN: Well of course the court that will hearing the case against Saddam Hussein and 11 of his other senior associates in the former Iraqi government will be a special tribunal established precisely to hear these charges.
So this will be a special court created for this purpose. Whether all the lawyers on Saddam's legal team will have access to the proceedings, of course, remains to be seen. I would expect that each of the 12 defendants that were named yesterday will each have their own legal team.
GRIFFIN: What is the precedent for holding this type of trial in the actual country where the person accused of war crimes supposedly committed those crimes?
BEDERMAN: Well, Drew, there is some precedent for this. With the disturbances in Sierra Leone and Liberia in Africa over the past few years, there are war crimes trials going on in those countries. In Cambodia this has been discussed as well.
So there is precedent for Saddam Hussein and his associates to be tried in the country where they lived and perpetrated their deeds.
GRIFFIN: Professor, do you think that this could lead to anything like we've seen with Slobodan Milosevic trying to use his time in court as a way to reach, quote/unquote, "his people" or his supporters?
BEDERMAN: Yes, I'm afraid so. I mean the Milosevic example, although, you know, that case at the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague has been a model of fairness, one of the criticisms has been it that it has essentially given Milosevic a soap box to use to essentially create a positive image for him and his supporters.
I think that we're going to certainly see some elements of this with the Ba'athist Party, what remains of it, of course, in Iraq.
GRIFFIN: And of course we're discussing Saddam a lot, but there are 11 others, I believe, who are all facing similar -- his top people, two half brothers of his, all being marched into court. Will this be a group action, all tried together? Are we going to see a series of individual trials carried out over probably the course of years?
BEDERMAN: It remains to be seen but I suspect they will be individual trials. If we go back to the example of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials after the second World War, each of the cases were against the individual defendants. So proof will be brought on.
This is probably a fairer way to proceed. Each defendant gets his own legal team, is aware of the individual charges against him and can defend himself because not all of the 12 will be charged with exactly the same things.
"Chemical Ali," for example, who you mentioned before, is obviously going to be charged with the equivalent of genocide and war crimes for his use of chemical weapons against the Kurdish population in Iraq's north.
GRIFFIN: Historically speaking, when we get the details, which you can get nowhere else but in court, but are we likely to be shocked, even from Iraqi standards, as what the past of these individuals wrought?
BEDERMAN: I think so. Obviously a large part of the mission of the Coalition Provisional Authority with the Regime War Crimes Unite has been to assemble a large body of evidence. Obviously Iraqis are participating in this process to builds dossiers for the criminal prosecution of each of these 12. I think we will be shocked, yes.
GRIFFIN: Interesting times ahead. Professor David Bederman with Emory University School of Law, we thank you for joining us.
BEDERMAN: Thank you, Drew.
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GRIFFIN: It was beautiful in Washington, D.C. A perfect day for a photographer in the right place at the right time to record unbelievable scenes, frightening scenes. It happens at a D.C. bank. You're going to see it all unfold for yourself next when we come right back.
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