This excerpt from a New York Times article about the assassination of an attorney for one of Saddam Hussein's codefendants raises questions about the extent of direct American involvement in what is supposed to be an Iraqi procedure:


Many Western legal experts and rights advocates have argued that Mr. Hussein should have been tried before an international court, or in an Iraqi court with a strong international dimension. But the Bush administration and its Iraqi political allies rejected that in favor of an Iraqi tribunal sitting in Baghdad, partly because an international court would not have the option of imposing the death penalty, which many Iraqis believe is the only fit punishment for Mr. Hussein.

While Iraqi and American officials dismissed the idea of moving the trial or changing its ground rules, the killing did send senior officials of the court into urgent meetings with American officials in Baghdad's heavily guarded international zone.

Iraqi officials said the discussions centered on steps to give defense lawyers in the case protection, and to discourage other defense attorneys from quitting the case. That possibility, the Iraqi officials said, could complicate or even block plans for the resumption of the trial, which was adjourned after three hours on Wednesday and is scheduled to resume on Nov. 28.

Elaborate steps to protect judges, prosecutors and other senior Iraqi officials involved in the case have been taken by American officials at the Regime Crimes Liaison Office, a unit of the American Embassy.

The office has had the primary responsibility, painstakingly hidden from public view, of preparing the trial. It has arranged for the judges, leading prosecutors and their families to live inside the heavily guarded international zone where the trial is being held, and to have around-the-clock protection by armed guards