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Tampa lawyer tells of judging Saddam

By JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published December 1, 2005

TAMPA - Greg Kehoe believes in the Iraqi High Tribunal, the group of five judges who face the task of judging Saddam Hussein.

That's partly because Kehoe, during a yearlong stint in Iraq, helped build the court.

Literally.

Kehoe, 51, located and renovated the would-be courthouse out of Saddam's old Baath Party headquarters, he said in a speech for several dozen lawyers and judges lunching at the University Club on Wednesday. The speech was sponsored by the Tampa chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative organization of lawyers and scholars.

"Our job was to establish the rule of law in a country that didn't see the rule of law," said Kehoe, a Tampa lawyer, describing efforts to advise Iraqis on how to build an open, fair court system.

Until March 2005, Kehoe worked as the "regime crime liaison," basically running the office that built the criminal case against Saddam Hussein and his top henchmen. Hussein is now on trial for murder in front of the Iraqi High Tribunal, which met Tuesday and will meet again next week.

Kehoe painted a grisly picture of his work overseeing the collection of evidence, which included analyzing mass graves, digging through death warrants and interviewing survivors of attacks. Kehoe was appointed to the job, because of his experience in the area, having served the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which successfully prosecuted a Croatian general for war crimes.

In Kehoe's opinion, Hussein's reign was worse. "Compared to Iraq, the bodies in Yugoslavia were child's play," he said.

[Last modified December 1, 2005, 01:06:06]