U.S. Says Hussein Is Cooperating

Jailed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been cooperating with U.S. military interrogators, providing intelligence that has led to the arrests of several high-ranking officials of his former regime and confirming details of guerrilla cells operating in Baghdad, U.S. officials said Monday.

Investigators also are studying documents seized during Hussein’s arrest Saturday for further clues about his possible role in directing the insurgency that has claimed nearly 200 American soldiers’ lives since President Bush declared the end of major combat May 1.

As Iraqis struggled with the realization that the brutal former dictator was in U.S. custody, many, including officials appointed by the U.S. administration, insisted that Hussein be turned over to them so they could begin preparations to put him on trial. Many saw Hussein’s capture as an indication that the U.S.-led occupation might end soon.

“Now that Saddam is out of the picture, we have a better chance of getting Iraq on its own feet and the Americans will be leaving sooner rather than later,” said Saber Fareed, a 29- year-old Islamic law student.

The American military said the intelligence supplied by Hussein was the major breakthrough Monday, one that gave them hope they could start eliminating secret cells whose guerrilla tactics have disrupted efforts to restore basic goods, services and safety to Iraq.

The suicide bombings of two Baghdad-area police stations in which 10 people, including the two attackers, were killed and at least 22 others hurt were reminders that the battle to root out guerrillas was far from over.

Because interrogators had spent less than 24 hours questioning the deposed Iraqi leader, they had only just begun converting clues gleaned from Hussein into military operations aimed at eliminating insurgent cells, said Army Capt. Aaron Hatok, a spokesman for the 1st Armored Division, which is responsible for American troops in Baghdad.

The circumstances in which Hussein was discovered, in a dirt hole with no means of communication, raised doubts about the extent to which he might have been directing attacks on U.S. troops.

But Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of the 1st Armored Division, said he believed Hussein was in some way coordinating insurgent cells.

The general, in an e-mail exchange with a Washington-based Los Angeles Times reporter, said the information culled from Hussein and from documents he had with him confirmed several theories American intelligence analysts had already been pursuing.

Hertling said the 1st Infantry will use other newly gathered intelligence “to further connect the dots of cells that operate in Baghdad.” He said the next phase will be working with the Iraqi police to hunt down car theft rings in the capital to help restore security there.

Investigators also said they were trying to determine whether Hussein was linked to a money trail funding insurgents. The informant who during interrogation turned in the deposed dictator has been connected to the seizure of $1.9 million in Samarra last week -- money possibly earmarked for underground fighters, officials said. U.S. officials said the informant is from a prominent family involved in guarding Hussein when he was president.

While the initial haul of information encouraged interrogators, persistent attacks on U.S.-led forces Monday reinforced the fact that those attacking American troops were a diverse group with varying agendas.

“We hope this intelligence will lead to the breakup or at least disruption of a significant number of these cells,” Hatok said. He described the insurgents in Baghdad as “very complex,” with factions other than those loyal to Hussein.

“That is only one component,” Hatok said. “We’re also seeing foreign fighters and religious extremists and some of these are not necessarily fighting for Saddam Hussein, but they are fighting the coalition.”

Hatok said investigators have yet to establish any link with the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

On Monday, at least four car bombs were left at various Iraqi police stations being readied to assist U.S. troops in providing security in the vicinity of Baghdad. Two of them detonated, one at a station in Husseiniya, 18 miles north of the capital, killing eight policemen and wounding 15 people. Another blew up near a station in the Baghdad suburb of Amiriyah, injuring seven Iraqis. Another car bomb was defused in Amiriyah after police fired on an approaching vehicle, forcing its driver to flee. Security forces also found an abandoned vehicle packed with explosives in the eastern part of Baghdad.

In an unrelated incident, a coalition soldier died in Baghdad at about 7:30 a.m. Monday from a “non-hostile gunshot wound” -- often a euphemism for suicide or friendly fire -- authorities reported. They did not disclose the victim’s name or nationality.

While U.S. military investigators have been pleased with the first fruits of their interrogation of Hussein, Iraqi officials are concentrating on his hand-over for trial. They want Hussein transferred to an Iraqi jail as soon as feasible so they can begin preparations to put him on trial at a special tribunal newly created to prosecute war crimes.

At the White House, President Bush confirmed Monday that Hussein will be tried in Iraq rather than extradited to an international tribunal or a U.S. court.

“We will work with Iraqis to develop a way to try him that will withstand international scrutiny,” Bush told reporters in Washington.

Bush expressed skepticism that Hussein could be trusted to supply truthful information about guerrilla cells or alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush administration was forced to try to counter criticism Monday that it had violated the Geneva Convention by releasing video footage of Saddam Hussein taken after his capture.

The convention says prisoners should not be humiliated by displaying them to satisfy public curiosity. Some European commentators have criticized the videotape of Hussein being examined by a military doctor.

But a State Department official said the videotape was released to reassure Iraqis that the dictator was in captivity, and was a justifiable step to improve security in the country.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday called Hussein’s capture “a positive development” that had removed the shadow of fear that was keeping Iraq’s transition from moving forward. But he also said the Iraqi tribunal must meet international standards and that the U.N. would lend its expertise to set it up, if asked. But the U.N. would not support a tribunal that included the death penalty.

Iraqi authorities want to expedite prosecution of their jailed former leader and avoid the time-consuming procedures of an international tribunal such as the one still trying Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic more than a decade after some of his alleged crimes.

The only contact between Hussein and leaders of the new Iraqi government that has succeeded him was a half-hour visit Sunday by four governing council figures at the “secure location” where he was being held.

Key members of the Iraqi Governing Council said Hussein could be put on trial in the next few months and later executed, if found guilty, after Iraq recovers its sovereignty from the U.S.-led occupation July 1.

But some Iraqi leaders, such as Dara Noureddine, who heads the governing council’s legal committee, estimated that a few more weeks are necessary to prepare a secure detention facility for the 66-year-old Hussein, one of more than 40 former regime figures in U.S. custody here.

“We have agreed with the Americans that such criminals will be handed over to the Iraqi people,” said Noureddine, a retired judge who was once jailed by Hussein for refusing to issue convictions on the dictator’s orders. “Evidence will be collected and sent to the tribunal, where he will be tried in a just forum, in an open court with the press and the public in attendance or watching it on TV.”

U.S. officials said they would need several weeks to try to elicit intelligence from Hussein on the whereabouts of other Baath Party fugitives, his role in orchestrating attacks on the coalition and the location of any weapons of mass destruction.

Another Governing Council member said Iraqi leaders had been assured by U.S. officials that Hussein would be made available for interrogations.

“When we want to see him, we will be able to,” said Mouwafak Rabii, a member of the council’s legal committee and one of the four Iraqis who saw Hussein in his cell shortly after his capture.

It is not yet known what charges Hussein would face. Rabii and Noureddine said the death penalty would be sought against Hussein because of the scope of his abuses. New York-based Human Rights Watch estimates that Hussein is responsible for the deaths of 250,000 Iraqis, including 100,000 Kurdish men and boys shot dead in the 1988 Anfal genocide.

Agencies like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have been lobbying for the trying of Iraqi war crimes suspects at an international tribunal. Iraqis vehemently oppose this, largely because such a tribunal would reject capital punishment.

The streets of Baghdad, which had seen scenes of chaotic jubilation Sunday, were mostly business as usual Monday, as shops reopened and frustrated drivers went looking for what little gasoline they could find.

However, pro-Hussein demonstrations broke out in various Sunni areas of Iraq, including Tikrit, Fallouja and the Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiyah. Young men protested Hussein’s arrest by firing into the air.

Many Iraqis expressed regret that the U.S.- led occupation forces and not Iraqi citizens or police found him.

“We would like to see him humiliated in an Iraqi court dock. We don’t want the Americans to send him to Guantanamo like the Al Qaeda fighters. We want to prosecute him in our own land,” said Azawi Karadi, a 45-year-old engineer.

Since Hussein’s overthrow, an array of newspapers and radio and TV stations have sprung up. On Monday, many ran the same picture published around the world -- of the disheveled and disoriented Hussein.

The weekly independent Kulul lraq, ran this headline in red: “People live their great happiness with the capture of their tyrant and executioner.”

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Williams reported from Baghdad and Schrader from Washington. Also contributing were staff writers Patrick J. McDonnell in Baghdad, Paul Richter in Washington and Maggie Farley at the United Nations.