Posted on 12/15/2003 4:09:59 AM PST by traumer
Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has reportedly yielded no intelligence information since his capture by US troops near his home town Tikrit. "He has not been co-operative in terms of talking or anything like that," said US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
But the soldiers who captured him have revealed that he asked to "negotiate" when they found him hiding in a dugout.
It has also emerged that the tip-off which led to his capture came from a detainee under interrogation.
"It marks the end of the road for him and all who bullied and killed in his name" -President Bush
Boost for Bush
Mr Rumsfeld said that Saddam Hussein was being accorded the privileges of a prisoner-of-war under the Geneva Convention although America was "not defining him as such".
Amid calls for him to go on trial in Iraq, Mr Rumsfeld said his fate would be decided at a senior level. "No-one would want to turn anyone over until and unless there was a process in place that was acceptable and appropriate and would ensure that he would be brought to justice," he said.
US officials are thought to be questioning him about the insurgency against the US-led occupation and about alleged weapons of mass destruction - the basis for going to war.
US President George W Bush said the capture had brought to an end a "dark and painful" era for the Iraqi people but he warned it did not mean the end of violence in Iraq.
After a day of jubilation in Baghdad and many other parts of the country, the Iraqi capital woke to two car bomb attacks on police stations on Monday.
'I am the president of Iraq'
Colonel James Hickey, who led the raid on Saddam Hussein's hideout on Saturday, has revealed that soldiers were seconds away from throwing a hand grenade into the pit where he was hiding before he surrendered.
Saddam capture: Your views
The operation was launched, Colonel Hickey said, on the basis of information from an individual arrested in Baghdad on Friday, then brought to Tikrit for interrogation on Saturday morning.
It is not known if the Americans intend to pay a $25m reward offered for information about him.
The troops who came across Saddam Hussein on Saturday were offered "negotiations", spokesman Major Brian Reed said on Monday.
"I am Saddam Hussein, I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate," the former leader was quoted as saying in English from his pit.
The soldiers, according to Major Reed, replied with the words "President Bush sends his regards".
'Unrepentant'
The current head of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, called for Saddam Hussein to be tried by Iraqi judges at a tribunal working and located in Iraq "under the supervision of international experts".
SADDAM: POSSIBLE CHARGES
Campaign against the Kurds in the 1980s, including the use of poison gas at Halabja Suppression of Kurdish and Shia revolts after the first Gulf War Brutality against the Marsh Arabs Crimes committed during the wars against Iran and Kuwait Possible involvement in recent attacks on coalition forces and other targets in Iraq
What happens now?
Adnan Pachachi, another IGC member who saw Saddam Hussein on Sunday when he was taken to Baghdad for further identification, said the ex-president had appeared "unrepentant and even defiant" and had insisted he had been a "just and firm ruler".
A special tribunal was set up in Iraq last week to try leading members of the former government.
Some human rights groups say an international tribunal - without the power to award the death penalty - would be preferable to a trial in Iraq.
World leaders have welcomed the capture, including some who had opposed the war to oust Saddam Hussein
President Chirac of France said it would strongly contribute to democracy and stability in Iraq.
Kuwait - invaded by Saddam Hussein's forces 13 years ago - called it the moment the whole world had been waiting for.
In some Arab countries, there was amazement and disappointment that the Iraqi leader had given in to his pursuers without a fight.
SledgeCS
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