WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Saddam Hussein acted as a polite gentleman to his U.S. security detail right up to his execution, a U.S. general said Wednesday.
"He was courteous, as he always had been, to his U.S. military police guards," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, told a Baghdad press conference Wednesday according to a report published by the Army Times citing the transcript of the conference.
"His characterization did change at the prison facility when the Iraqi guards were assuming control of him, but he was still dignified towards us. He spoke very well to our military police, as he always had," Caldwell said according to the Army Times report. "He thanked the military police squad, the lieutenant, the squad leader, the medical doctor we had present, and the colonel that was on site," Caldwell said.
Saddam was hanged Saturday after an Iraqi court turned down his appeal against the death sentence imposed upon the former Iraqi dictator after his conviction in November for ordering the reprisal killing of 148 Shiite Iraqis in 1989.
"The execution took on a macabre carnival atmosphere with a band of hooded Iraqi men who can be seen and heard, as captured on a telephone video, taunting the dictator in his last moments," the Army Times said.
"You know, if you're asking me, would we have done things differently, yes, we would have," Caldwell said according to the report. "But that's not our decision. That's a government of Iraq decision."
Caldwell noted that U.S. military forces had always guarded Saddam physically since they had captured him even though his fate had been decided by the Iraqi legal authorities who had jurisdiction over him.
