That was the closest that Brown, an assistant U.S. attorney in Jacksonville, came to the notorious Iraqi ruler during the six months he was deployed as an attorney advisor with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Regime Crimes Liaison’s Office at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Brown was deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom after responding to a request from the Department of Justice for prosecutors willing to spend six months in Baghdad assisting and advising the Iraqi High Tribunal in the investigation and prosecution of high ranking members of the former Iraqi regime.

“I have never been in the military but always admired those who served,” Brown said later, “especially the military veterans who became federal agents and investigated cases which I prosecuted. So the service part of the opportunity appealed to me. It was something I was being led to do.”

Back home in the United States, Brown’s usual work day as an AUSA involves investigating and prosecuting criminal cases in federal court, including drug trafficking, child exploitation, violent crime and firearms cases. In Iraq, Brown and the other American lawyers assisting the tribunal were not in the courtroom during the trial proceedings. Instead their duties included assisting judges, prosecutors and even defense attorneys behind the scenes with security, logistics, defendant and witness transportation, legal arguments, and proper courtroom procedures. He said it was “organized chaos.”

However, it was the travel throughout the country to locate and interview witnesses to mass killings of Iraqi citizens by the former regime that impacted Brown most. One case involved the investigation of the suppression of the 1991 Shi’ite uprising in which his team had to connect victims discovered in several mass graves to the criminal acts committed by the former regime. American forensic anthropologists would clean clothing found in the graves, arrange it on mannequins, and then photograph the mannequins. The photos then would be shown to potential witnesses in town near the mass grave sites for identification. Because much of the clothing was handmade, surviving relatives could identify it 15 years later.

“The victims were glad we were there. They wanted their stories told,” Brown said.

In another investigation in northern Iraq, Brown said regime troops had taken every male over the age of 11 from several different villages and deported them. Brown also spent a week in Kurdistan working with the Kurdish minister of human rights investigating the 1983 genocide of the Barzani tribe, in which the remains of 513 men were found in a mass grave in southern Iraq.

He was appointed a special deputy United States Marshal and carried a weapon constantly during his tour. Although he flew more than 30 helicopter missions without taking fire, there were times—such as one afternoon in late January 2007 when four rockets struck and exploded just outside the U.S. Embassy as he worked inside—that came a little too close.

On November 11, 2006, Brown and over 250 other Americans ran the Baghdad International Memorial Marathon. He said that the race, which coursed through parts of downtown Baghdad in the International Zone, was one of the highlights of his deployment.

Brown watched and celebrated the Gators football national championship game in Baghdad, and gloated over the victory to several of his fellow lawyers who hailed from Ohio.

Brown said the Iraqis with whom he worked were appreciative of the American presence and treated him and his colleagues very well. It was, he said, the experience of a lifetime to be part of one of the trials of the century, like being at the Nuremburg trials in the 1940s.

On Brown’s last day in Baghdad before returning home, he visited several of the judges with whom he had worked closely to say goodbye. The judge thanked Brown for his service and stated that he wished that Brown could stay in Iraq for 10 years. Brown responded, “I don’t think that my wife would like that.”

Christine A. Klein
Professor; Associate Dean for Faculty Development

• Published “The Law of the Lakes: From Protectionism to Sustainability,” 5 Michigan State Law Review 1259 (2006) as part of a symposium on Great Lakes water allocation issues held in Chicago.

William H. Page
Marshall M. Criser Eminent Scholar in Electronic Communications and Administrative Law; Professor

• Presented his paper, “Mandatory Contracting Remedies in the American and European Microsoft Cases,” at the conference on “The End of the Microsoft Case?,” sponsored by the Searle Center of Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago on Nov. 16.
• Served as commentator in a panel on recent Supreme Court antitrust decisions at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Economic Association in New Orleans on Nov. 19.

UF Law Faculty in the News

Robert H. Jerry, II
Dean; Levin Mabie and Levin Professor

• The Independent Florida Alligator, Nov. 16. Quoted in an article discussing the recent trend of declining applications for law schools and how the University of Florida has not been affected over the last two years. “It’s fair to say that our law school is increasingly a popular first-choice destination,” said Jerry who expects the number of applications to UF law school to continue to rise. “People who take a close look at the university and especially those taking a look at the law school realize we’ve got some pretty good things going on here.”

Jon L. Mills
Professor; Director of Center for Governmental Responsibility; Dean Emeritus

• The St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 15. Mentioned as the legal advisor for House Speaker Marco Rubio, a gambling opponent who has Mills’ opinion that any compact is subject to lawmaker’s approval. Mills said legislative approval is required because table games permitted in the compact are illegal under Florida law.

Michael L. Seigel
Professor

• The Washington Post, Nov. 18. Quoted in an article discussing the recent release from prison of Arthur Bremer, who in 1972 shot and paralyzed Democratic presidential candidate Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace in Laurel, Md. The article highlights other high-profile crimes of that era. “In general, there is an odd element of nostalgia that is attached to these crimes, especially for baby boomers,” says Michael Seigel. “It may be odd, but I do think that for many of us, it brings back memories of where we were, and what we were doing and how these events impacted our lives.” In discussing citizen’s fear of Bremmer’s release, Seigel said, “Most of the time, murder is not a recidivist crime. Unless someone is a mass murderer or a psychopath, they don’t do it again. Statistically speaking, if someone kills in a fit of passion, the odds of them murdering again is not high.” Public interest in the crimes is high, however, with a proliferation of such TV shows as “CSI” and “Law & Order,” which fuel the nation’s collective fascination, Seigel said. “Americans find crime, particularly homicide, as entertainment, which is unfortunate, but has become part of our culture.”

Christopher Slobogin
Stephen C. O’Connell Chair; Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry; Adjunct Professor, University of South Florida Mental Health Institute; Associate Director, Center for Children and Families

• The Washington Post, Nov. 16. Quoted in an article that also referenced his newly published book, Privacy at Risk. The article, entitled “The Picture Of Conformity In a Watched Society, More Security Comes With Tempered Actions,” refers to the following passage from the book: “Anonymity in public promotes freedom of action and an open society. Lack of public anonymity promotes conformity and an oppressive society.” Furthermore, it discussed Slobogin’s opinion sample, which randomly selected 70 people from Florida jury pools and asked them to rank the level of intrusiveness of 25 law enforcement tactics, including several surveillance techniques. People “don’t expect to be stalked either by a person or by a camera—at least they don’t like it,” he said. “They expect to get lost in the crowd, or at least not to be monitored continuously.”