Ramsey Clark
Ramsey Clark
William Ramsey Clarkis an American lawyer, activist and former federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, notably serving as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969; previously he was Deputy Attorney General from 1965 to 1967 and Assistant Attorney General from 1961 to 1965...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
Date of Birth18 December 1927
CountryUnited States of America
The statutes of the high court in Iraq requires a public hearing but he (the presiding judge) arbitrarily cut it off so that you the press and the rest of the world could not see what he said.
I've been in many unpopular cases where there's been high community prejudice against the defendants, but here everybody has been hurt, and everybody is angry,
President Saddam Hussein was in very good spirits, very clear minded. We had a good discussion after the court.
Both commanders were courageous enough to fight more powerful countries.
Cutting off the president (Saddam) was absolutely unwarranted. He has international rights to a public trial.
It creates sectarian passions that destroy rationality and reason and the search for truth.
We never thought we couldn't come back in. The fundamental right to counsel is the right to counsel of choice, not to somebody else's choice.
Nearly two months after the brutal execution of one of their members and the summary execution of a second lawyer, and all this time these men and their families have been left essentially unprotected.
What was the government doing? What's the meaning of this?
What was the government doing? ... (FBI agents) had absolutely no regard of the lives of any of the people in there. All they had to do was wait them out.
We've had 10 years of malnutrition and sickness,
There is not a person who feels secure. It's impossible to hold a fair trial in such a climate ... A trial is supposed to be a rational process. Fear is the ultimate irrationality. How do you function in fear?
We will be back in court on December 5 and we will demand protection of the counsel.
This trial can divide or heal. Unless it is seen as absolutely fair, and fair in fact, it will divide rather than reconcile Iraq.