Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein uses a handkerchief while listening to the prosecution during the Anfal genocide trial in Baghdad, December 21." - REUTERS photos

"Saddam in his own words

AT THE START OF GULF WAR - January 1991: When the deaths and dead mount for them, the infidels will leave and the flag of Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) will fly over the mother of all battles.

DURING GULF WAR - February 1991: We will chase Americans to every corner at all times. No high tower of steel will protect them against the fire of truth.

ON THE 9/11 ATTACKS - September 2001: The United States is reaping the thorns its rulers have sown in the world.

ON U.S. THREATS OF WAR: August 9, 2002: The forces of evil will carry their coffins on their backs, die in disgraceful failure, taking their schemes back with them, or digging their own graves.

ON IMMINENT U.S. ATTACK - January 17, 2003: They will commit suicide on the walls of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities ... The entire nation will rise up in defence of its right to life, of its role and of anything it holds sacred.

ON NOT LOSING SLEEP ABOUT WAR - January 20, 2003: Put your minds at ease that I rarely find it difficult to sleep ... I fall asleep as soon as I put my head on the pillow. I don't need sleeping pills, unlike some officials we hear about, and I don't get insomnia like some people do.

ON FIRST DAY OF U.S.-LED INVASION - March 20, 2003: The criminal little Bush has committed a crime against humanity.

SADDAM ON THE RUN - July 2003: Addressing the Iraqi people in an audiotape: I urge you to protect the heroic resistance fighters and not to give the infidel invaders or their aides any information or help ... Now that all has been revealed, I would like you, Iraqis, to ask the invaders: Where are the weapons that you claimed Iraq was hiding and which you used as a pretext to wage war and aggression on our country?

ON HIS CAPTURE - December 2003: My name is Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq, and I want to negotiate.

DURING HIS TRIAL - December 2005: Even if they put me in hellfire, God forgive me, let them put me in fire with the firewood that wanted to burn Abraham and I would say, 'Fine, for the sake of Iraq.' And I will not cry, for my heart is full of belief.

DUJAIL TRIAL - March 2006: During his trial for the killing of 148 Shi'ites from Dujail and the razing of their farmland and mass deportations, Saddam said he acted after an attempt on his life as he drove through the town during a visit in July 1982: So where is the crime?

AHEAD OF EXECUTION - December 2006:

Here I offer myself in sacrifice. If my soul goes down this path (of martyrdom) it will face God in serenity.