Defiant Saddam rejects charges against him

A defiant Saddam Hussein rejected charges against him in his first appearance before an Iraqi judge on Thursday, saying "this is a theater, the real criminal is Bush."

Saddam was handcuffed when he was brought into the court but the shackles were removed for the arraignment which lasted for about 30 minutes.

Saddam defended his August 1990 invasion of Kuwait and refused to sign legal papers after seven charges were read against him, an official of the Iraqi Special Tribunal said.

He insisted he was still president of Iraq during the arraignment.

The charges against saddam ranged from campaign against Kurds, genocide to the invasion of Kuwait.

He was led from an armored bus escorted by two Iraqi prison guards and ushered through a door guarded by six more Iraqi policemen to the court, according to CNN. The bus was escorted by four humvees and an ambulance.

Earlier, Salem al-Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of the tribunal that will try Saddam, said that the former dictator will be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.