The man who brutalized thousands of his people and held in abject terror millions more; who launched an occupation of neighboring Kuwait and launched poison gas against the Kurdish people; who was said by President George Bush to represent one spoke of the Axis of Evil, was found, almost pathetically, holed up in an underground bunker on a remote farm southwest of his hometown of Tikrit. He was captured, and as Bush promised, two years later he was brought to justice.

On this day, October 19, in 2005, Saddam Hussein and seven of his compatriots were charged with the massacre of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail, not far from Baghdad.

Saddam Hussein remained defiant from the outset of the trial, claiming to still hold the presidency of Iraq and challenging the legitimacy of the tribunal assembled to try him. He had reason to feel self-assured, as his loyalists intimidated witnesses and carried out reprisal attacks of lawyers for the prosecution. Despite the numerous delays, the trial concluded with a guilty verdict one year later.