US President George Bush said last night that he believed that Saddam Hussein should face execution for his actions as dictator of Iraq, writes Conor O'Clery in New York
Mr Bush's remarks came in an interview with NBC news in which he said the Iraqi leader should face the "ultimate penalty" for his legacy of violence in Iraq. "He is a torturer, a murderer, and they had rape rooms, and this is a disgusting tyrant who deserves justice, the ultimate justice. But that will be decided not by the president of the United States, but by the citizens of Iraq in one form or another," Mr Bush said.
Meanwhile the interrogation of Saddam is being carried out by the CIA, the US Secretary of Defence Mr Donald Rumsfeld has disclosed, though US officials say he has so far proved unhelpful, though compliant.
Mr Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon said the CIA under director Mr George Tenet is taking the lead in the interrogation of Saddam who was found in an underground 'spider hole' near Tikrit on Sunday.
He described Saddam's state as "resigned" but did not say if he had offered any information of value. US officials said the interrogation has so far yielded nothing on whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction - which Saddam has denied - or ties to al-Qaeda.
The defence secretary defended the release of a videotape of a dishevelled Saddam being examined by a military doctor. A top Vatican official Cardinal Renato Martino yesterday criticised the US military for showing video footage of the former Iraqi president being treated "like a cow" as he had his mouth examined.
Saddam was being "accorded the protections" of the Geneva Convention but was not being designated a prisoner of war, Mr Rumsfeld said. "He has been handled in a professional way. He has not been held up to public curiosity in any demeaning way by reasonable definitions of the Geneva convention."
It was important that this "brutal dictator" who killed hundreds of thousands of people be seen by the public for what he was, Mr Rumsfeld said. Iraqis needed to see proof that the former dictator was "off the street, out of commission - a fugitive, living in a dirt hole and surrendering." Mr Rumsfeld said Saddam had been paraded before former comrades like Tariq Aziz only for positive identification purposes before DNA tests were completed.
Saddam's capture has boosted Mr Bush's popularity at home. Some 58 per cent of voters said they approved of his handling of the conflict, up 10 points since mid-November, according to an ABC/Washington Post poll taken since the news became known.