Long Journey of Ramsey Clark

Ramsey Clark, the lawyer defending Saddam Hussein, has gone from being America's top law enforcement official during the final years of Lyndon Johnson's administration to become a fierce opponent of the country's foreign policy and military intervention.

The son of a US supreme court justice, Mr Clark grew up in Dallas and made his name as a civil rights lawyer. After his tenure as attorney general he became increasingly active in leftwing politics, and has travelled from Hanoi to Tripoli, Grenada to Panama and most recently Iraq to denounce US power.

In 1991, as the first Gulf war raged, he toured Iraq to denounce what he called the American bombing of civilian targets, bringing the full ire of the US political establishment down on his head.

He is used to being criticised for his choice of clients, including a onetime Nazi concentration camp guard and the PLO, in a suit filed by the family of Leon Klinghoffer, who was killed by Palestinian terrorists on the Achille Lauro.