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50 Die in Rising Iraq Violence
Relatives grieve during the funeral for Naji Lateef, who was killed in Baghdad Monday by a bomb. Such attacks have risen steadily since December elections.
(By Karim Kadim -- Associated Press)
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Dozier, now at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, is in critical but stable condition, CBS reported Tuesday. She was responsive, opening her eyes to commands, a U.S. military spokesman said.
A diplomat from the United Arab Emirates taken hostage earlier this month was released unharmed, the Associated Press reported. Naji Rashid al-Nuaimi, 28, first secretary at the UAE Embassy, was seized in Baghdad's upscale Mansour district by gunmen who shot and killed his Sudanese driver.
Tuesday's violence overshadowed an unusual day in the trial of Saddam Hussein, in which the defense team mounted its most serious challenge yet to the prosecution's case.
Two of the three defense witnesses who testified on Hussein's role in the alleged execution of 148 Iraqi Shiites in retaliation for an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982 testified that at least 23 of the people sentenced to death were still alive. The witnesses also accused the chief prosecutor, Jafar al-Mousawi, of openly recruiting witnesses by offering bribes and false documentation.
The day's second witness, who was a high school student in 1982, said several of the people allegedly sentenced to death had fled to Iran and returned to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 toppled Hussein's government.
"I have shaken hands, ate and drank with those guys who were supposedly executed," the witness said, speaking from behind a curtain to shield his identity. He gave the names of six of the 23 people, and the court vowed to investigate the truth of the claims.
Two witnesses also said they were present at a party in 2004 that celebrated the anniversary of the assassination attempt.
"One guy said, 'We tried to kill Mr. President, but fate made him survive,' " the second witness recalled. "I heard a person saying, 'Brothers, we should put hand in hand, and if Saddam remains he will be a cancer over Iraq. And brothers, our leadership in Iran greets you, and says: Spend and do not be shy to spend, from one dinar to a billion dinars. If you've got no one to supply you with documents, we've got people who can supply you with documents that no one could know was fake.'
"This guy was talking to the first, second and third witnesses who came to court" to testify for the prosecution, the witness said. "This guy was the prosecutor."
"What do you mean by 'the prosecutor?' " Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman asked.
"Mr. Jafar Mousawi."
The defense team argued that the new testimony should cause the court to drop its charges against Hussein and his seven co-defendants if it proved true; they said they had a video to support the claims, but it was not shown in court. "It's impossible," Mousawi said in a brief interview after the trial, of whether or not he attended the party. "Because I was an assistant to the director-general of a department of legal affairs. And I haven't seen Dujail in my whole life. Those pictures were fabricated, or maybe a great resemblance."
Special correspondent Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.
