Terrorism - The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
(terrorism. Answers.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://www.answers.com/topic/terrorism, accessed December 07, 2005.)

Of course most people really don’t need a dictionary definition, they have a pretty good idea of what terrorism is, or at least a visceral feeling about it. But today at the Saddam Hussein trial we get a new definition.

Saddam, dressed again in a dark suit and white shirt and clutching a Quran, complained that he and the seven other defendants were tired and had been deprived of opportunities to shower, have a change of clothes, exercise or go for a smoke.

“This is terrorism,” he declared.

Aside from providing the world with some lexiconic insight, he has also attempted to hijack the procedings once again.

Saddam Hussein’s trial was delayed Wednesday after the ousted president refused to attend the session, court officials said. Defense lawyers huddled with the judges in hopes of resolving the latest test of wills in the often-unruly trial.

An angry Saddam threatened at the end of the Tuesday court session to boycott the next day’s proceedings after complaining that he and the seven other co-defendants had been mistreated by the “unjust court.”

Court officials on Wednesday said Saddam was sticking by his vow, and the judges were trying to decide whether to proceed without him.

Let me help them out. Yes. Proceed without him.

In this, the first of several trials, Saddam and his co-defendants are “charged in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims in retaliation for an assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail in 1982.” Two women and three men testified yesterday, telling the court of the abductions, beatings and torture that took place.

From the start of the trial the defendants have been at times defiant and at other times condescending. As noted in the article, “Saddam has repeatedly staged confrontations with the court and attempted to take control of the proceedings with dramatic rhetorical flourishes.”

It is my opinion that the court has gone to great lengths to be fair and professional. They are under great scrutiny from the entire world. Still, if Saddam wants to sit in his cell while the proceedings continue, let him.

Linked with breakfast at basil’s blog and the Wednesday Schmendsday Bacon Break.