The trial of Saddam Hussein in a Baghdad court room isn’t lacking high drama, grisly testimony or bizarre theater. What it does lack - so far - is any testimony directly linking the former Iraqi leader to the killing of 148 Shiite men in Dujail, north of Baghdad, in 1982. Saddam and co-defendants have pleaded not guilty. By all accounts, the testimony and Saddam’s responses have been shocking. While the case is far from finished, evidence tying Saddam directly to the charges will need to come sooner, rather than later, to calm the theatrics. Many commentators across the global have expressed unease about Saddam being tried in Iraq, instead of an international tribunal under the auspices of the United Nations.

While no one - but perhaps for Saddam and his attorneys - is predicting the former leader will beat the charges, there hasn’t been much talk of the possibility, save for an item on the Web’s Drudge Report which said the White House has a plan to deal with that outcome. A ‘’top Bush source'’ was quoted as saying that more charges would be filed, and still more, if Saddam is acquitted on the current case. Prosecutors reportedly will present a videotape of Saddam issuing assassination orders. Restraint and jurisprudence will be the best weapons for the prosecution. Though it wasn’t a criminal trial, the nagging reminders of Kuwait’s over-reaching campaign to win U.S. military action to push Saddam out of Kuwait in 1991 come to mind.

Back then, Kuwait hired a powerful U.S. PR firm to help present its case, which included graphic claims of widespread episodes of babies being ripped from incubators in Iraqi hospitals. It later turned out that a witness, testifying before Congress in secret to protect her identity, was actually the 15-year-old daughter of Kuwait’s then-U.S. ambassador, Sheikh Saud Nasser Al-Sabah (later its oil minister), and the events described were hyped. For justice to be done that will stand the test of history, not just hurriedly end an historical chapter for political purposes, only the unvarnished truth will produce a fair trial - and a fair verdict.