By Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pentagon lawyers have determined that Saddam Hussein has been a prisoner of war since American forces captured him on Dec. 13, a Defense Department spokesman said Friday.
Despite that determination, Secretary of State Colin Powell told CBS News: "I don't know that he has been formally declared a prisoner of war."
That decision was up to the Pentagon, Powell said.
Whether or not Saddam is a prisoner of war could be key to how he is treated in captivity and eventually put on trial. The Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war forbid any kind of coercion in POW interrogations, for example.
Powell said, "We are certainly treating everybody in our custody in accordance with basic rights and expectations of international agreements that we have."
A senior British official said Friday Saddam had not given useful information to his interrogators. The senior official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, said U.S. authorities were taking their time questioning Saddam in the hope that he might eventually open up.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that Saddam and all Iraqi captives are being treated in compliance with the Geneva Conventions. He said Saddam's legal status was being reviewed by several U.S. agencies and no determination had been made.
The general counsel office in the Pentagon _ the Defense Department's top civilian lawyers _ has determined that Saddam is a prisoner of war because of his status as former commander in chief of Iraq's military, spokesman Maj. Michael Shavers said Friday. The lawyers determined that no formal declaration of Saddam's status was needed, he said.
U.S. officials have said they plan to turn Saddam over to an Iraqi court for trial. The United States says Saddam's government killed at least 300,000 Iraqis, including thousands of Iraqi Kurds in a poison gas attack in 1988.
But the Geneva Conventions say POWs can be tried only for crimes against humanity by an international tribunal or the occupying power _ which in this case is the United States.
Powell said the Bush administration had to decide when to hand Saddam over to Iraqi authorities. "We believe the credibility of the new Iraqi government will be measured by how they handle this horrible dictator," Powell said.
POW status also would entitle Saddam to meet with representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross. No such meeting has happened. Some human rights groups have complained that other top former Iraqi officials in U.S. custody haven't been given access to Red Cross representatives.
Saddam is being held and interrogated by the CIA. Iraqi officials say he is being held in the Baghdad area.