Saddam tells lawyers he faces death without fear

AMMAN, Nov 5 (Reuters) A defiant Saddam Hussein shrugged off a possible death sentence, saying he would die without fear and the US occupiers of his country would leave humiliated like they did in Vietnam, his lawyers said.

They said a jovial and highly spirited Saddam chatted with them for more than three hours about the violence in Iraq and mounting US losses just hours before an expected death sentence today in his trial for crimes against humanity.

The prospect of the sentence appeared to be the least of his concerns, they said, his focus instead being on the insurgency and the rising US death toll.

''He was totally unconcerned about the verdict. In fact there was derision about the court and this farce,'' Khalil al-Dulaimi, the defence team's chief lawyer told Reuters by telephone from Baghdad.

''I will die with honour and with no fear, with pride for my country and my Arab nation but the US occupiers will leave in humiliation and defeat,'' Saddam was quoted by the lawyers as saying.

Saddam seemed ecstatic when another lawyer gave him the Arabic version of the book ''My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope'' by Paul Bremer, who led the US civilian occupation authority after the 2003 invasion.

The lawyers who saw him said the former strongman, arrested in December 2003, had scoffed at the book's title and said he could only see a ''doomed America sinking more and more in the Iraqi quagmire, just like what happened in Vietnam''.

''RIVERS OF BLOOD'' ''They will see rivers of blood for years to come. It will dwarf Vietnam,'' they quoted Saddam, 69, as saying.

''He has an awareness from the experiences of history that the Iraqi people will never submit to occupation,'' said Wadoud Fawzi Shams Eddin, a member of the defence team.

''He laughed and said the Americans were paying heavily for their invasion which they thought would be picnic,'' said Issam Ghazzawi, a Jordanian lawyer who also saw him yesterday.

More than 100 US soldiers died during October, the highest monthly toll in nearly two years.

The lawyers said the toppled leader, wearing a dark grey suit with a white shirt, was aware a death sentence was the likely outcome of the year long trial.

Saddam, 69, and seven co-accused have been charged with crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shi'ite villagers after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982.

But he seemed more concerned, as always, about news of more Americans losses in Iraq.

''When the lawyers told him yesterday the Americans had suffered seven casualties, he nodded with a broad smile,'' Shams Eddin said.

To their surprise, his American captors had provided him with a radio that enabled him to tune into the pro-US Iraqi channels, the lawyers said.

That made him aware that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had put the army on alert and that a curfew would keep Baghdad and two flashpoint provinces locked down today.

''The brave Iraqi resistance are already defeating the greatest power on earth and for me they are my idols and I will depart content they have preserved Iraq and the Arab glory from the infidel,'' said one lawyer who requested anonymity, recalling Saddam's last words to them before they departed.

Reuters SBA VP0705