BAGHDAD — Sad­dam Hussein’s trial has started with typ­i­cal blus­ter from the for­mer dic­ta­tor. Primer on the tri­bunal is “here”:http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1118387,00.html. The time stamps on the entries rep­re­sent the time on my com­puter. But the trial tape is delayed by 30 min­utes, so take that into account as you read. When some­thing is hap­pen­ing in real time, I’ll ital­i­cize the entry.
1:07:44 PM When asked for his name, Sad­dam used the oppor­tu­nity to make a bom­bas­tic state­ment in which he said he was the pres­i­dent of Iraq and the court was ille­git­i­mate.
1:08:11 PM The chief judge, Riz­gar Mohammed Amein, a Kurd, has made a smart call and allowed all of the defen­dants their tra­di­tional Arab head gear returned.
_1:12:12 PM Big clashes reported near Umm Qurra mosque, head­quar­ters of the hard-line Mus­lim Cler­ics’ Asso­ci­a­tion. No details yet._
1:17:05 PM Five judges sit in semi-circle at far end of court­room, with five clerks sit­ting in front of them Pre­sid­ing judge is Riz­gar Moham­mad Amein sit­ting in mid­dle, other judges not iden­ti­fied. Defen­dants are in the mid­dle, fac­ing the judges. Sad­dam is in front on the right. Other defen­dants include: Awad Hamad Ban­dar, Taha Yassin Ramadan, Barzan al-Tikriti, Mohammed Azzawi Ali, Ali Dayih Ali, Mizhar Abdul­lah Kadam a-Roweed, Abdul­lah Kadam al-Roweed
On judges’ right and the defen­dants’ left are the pros­e­cu­tors, with chief pros­e­cu­tor Jaa­far al-Musawi sit­ting clos­est to judges. Three other unnamed pros­e­cu­tors and a clerk are also at that table
On the judges’ left there’s the wit­ness stand. After the wit­ness stand are the defense lawyers, sit­ting in two rows fac­ing the defen­dants and the pros­e­cu­tion.
1:20:54 PM List of defen­dants and their lawyers:

2:01:42 PM Jesus, just get­ting their names is tak­ing for­ever.
2:06:51 PM Sad­dam once again takes umbrage with being called “for­mer” pres­i­dent of Iraq. Rebukes the judge. “Those are your words, not mine,” he said of the “for­mer” com­ment. Snap!
_2:10:04 PM Sad­dam has entered a “not guilty” plea for the alleged mur­ders of 143 men and boys in Dujail in 1982._
2:21:57 PM I’m on the sec­ond day rota­tion of the press pool, so if trial runs to tomor­row before a recess, I’ll be in the room. Unfor­tu­nately, that will mean no real-time blog­ging because of the restric­tions on reporters. We can’t bring lap­tops into the court­room and there’s no con­nec­tiv­ity there any­way. Plus, as part of the pool I’m sup­posed to file all my notes to the pool first before any­where else.
2:25:56 PM Charges entered. The mas­sacre at Dujail was “delib­er­ate and pre­med­i­tated.“
2:29:25 PM All defen­dants enter “inno­cent” plea.
_2:40:33 PM My local staff is trans­fixed by the trial. Y., our IT guy and top-notch trans­la­tor says, “This makes me feel very com­fort­able. Look­ing at those guys sit­ting in the cage, say­ing they’re inno­cent.” He smiles with lots of teeth. It’s not a nice smile. “It’s fuck­ing NICE. Great.” And he pumps a fist into the other palm._
_3:09:05 PM Major tech­ni­cal issues with sound in the court­room, ham­per­ing trans­la­tion. But the judges seem pre­pared to rule on whether to grant a delay or not. All signs point to a delay._
3:18:16 PM Trial has been delayed until Nov. 28, answer­ing the defense team’s plea.