The chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee met with the chief judge overseeing the trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on Tuesday, saying he was disappointed the court has allowed the former leader "to dominate" the trial.
Senator Arlen Specter also said a US general told him that recently announced US troop reductions had been in the works since April and that more are on the way.
Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania who met with Saddam in Iraq in 1990, was the first member of Congress to meet Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin. Before that meeting Specter, speaking in the courtroom where Saddam is being tried, told reporters he was disappointed the judge has not always kept control.
"You have a butcher who has butchered his own people, a torturer who has tortured his own people," Specter said.
"The evidence ought to be presented in a systematic way which would show that there's been quite an accomplishment in taking [Saddam] out as opposed to letting him be a blusterbun and control the proceedings."
Specter, the former district attorney of Philadelphia, said there's precedent in US and international law to hold Saddam in contempt of court or have him tried in abstention, topics he said he intended to discuss with Amin.
Saddam has often grabbed the spotlight during his trial on mass murder charges. He has railed at the judge, refused to show up at one session, claimed he was tortured and openly prayed in court when the judge wouldn't allow a recess.
"I have been disappointed the way the court has permitted Saddam to dominate the proceedings," the senator said.
Specter said he met with Major General Timothy Donovan, chief of staff for the US-led international coalition, and was encouraged by his report, saying the picture in Iraq was better than what is conveyed in US media.
Specter said Donovan told him the recent announcement by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that two battalions scheduled to go to Iraq would not be going had been in the works since the spring.
"I then asked him the next question, `How about further reductions?' and he said they're in the planning stage but was noncommittal as to what they would be," Specter said.
The senator said that some in the US had suggested the reduction was in response to political pressure, but said: "This is not so, if as General Donovan says, that is a plan that's been in the pipeline since last April."
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