BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein went on trial Wednesday for a massacre of his fellow Iraqis, turning immediately argumentative as he appeared in a tightly secured courtroom in the former headquarters of his Baath Party two years after his capture. He faces charges in a 1982 massacre of nearly 150 Shiites that could carry the death penalty if he is convicted.

When the trial began, the 68-year-old ousted Iraqi leader — looking thin with a salt-an-pepper bear in a dark grey suit and open collared white shirt — stood and asked the presiding judge: "Who are you? I want to know who you are."

"I preserve my constitutional rights as the president of Iraq," Saddam said. "I do not recognize the body that has authorized you and I don't recognize this aggression ... I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect."

The presiding judge, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, a Kurd, tried to get Saddam to formally identify himself, but Saddam refused.

The panel of five judges will both hear the case and render a verdict in what could be the first of several trials of Saddam for atrocities carried out during his 23-year-rule.

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