Rice gave go-ahead for Saddam transfer

BAGHDAD, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice approved the transfer of Saddam Hussein to Iraqi officials before he was executed, a report says.

The U.S. soldiers who guarded Saddam before his execution say he thanked them before he headed to Iraqi custody and the gallows, The New York Times reported Sunday.

By the time the former Iraqi dictator realized he was being transferred to Iraqi custody, U.S. officials had agreed to hand him over for what some of them considered to be an unexpectedly swift execution.

Rice's decision was endorsed by national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, the newspaper said.

"It literally came down to the Iraqis interpreting their law, and our looking at their law and interpreting it differently," a source told the Times. "Finally, it was decided we are not the court of last appeal for Iraqi law here. The president of their country says it meets their procedures. We are not going to be their legal nannies."