WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has asked the CIA to take the lead on directing Saddam Hussein's interrogation, he said Tuesday at the Pentagon.
Rusmfeld also defended the handling of Saddam Hussein, insisting he is being treated in accordance with the protections afforded by the Geneva Convention.
CIA director Tenet "and his people will be the regulator over the interrogations -- who will do it, the questions that'll get posed, the management of the information that flows from those interrogations," Rumsfeld said. "They know the needs we have in terms of counterterrorism, they know the threads that have to come up through the needle head. And to the extent that this individual can offer anything that even conceivably, by accident, would be helpful, we need to have people doing that. "
Meanwhile in Iraq, military forces took a brief pause in carrying out certain raids to see whether the news of Saddam's capture prompts any of his associates to turn themselves in, said Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace.
"What we wanted to do was take the data that we had initially from the capture, digest that as best we could, put it into the mix of the other intelligence we had, see if while we were doing that, others in his close circle might understand that, in fact, this is it for Saddam Hussein, and see if they would take the opportunity to come forward and give themselves up," Pace said.
None have given themselves up yet, Pace said.
Saddam is still being held by U.S. military forces, presumably at the well-defended Baghdad International Airport, but he has not been accorded official prisoner of war status, Rumsfeld confirmed.
"He is being accorded the protection of a POW, but he's not being legally described as one at this stage. He, clearly, is being treated ... with the protections of the Geneva Convention, and is being treated humanely," Rumsfeld said.
The Geneva Convention prohibits humiliating prisoners of war in any way, a practice the Pentagon has interpreted regarding detainees in Guantanamo Bay as a prohibition on photography. Saddam was shown on international television being combed for vermin by U.S. military personnel, and undergoing a medical check up at the hands of a gloved medic.
Rumsfeld said showing this footage does not violate the prohibition on humiliation, and indeed was necessary to prove to his supporters he is not coming back into power.
"He is an individual who is representative of a regime that has been replaced, and it's terribly important that he be seen by the public for what he is -- a captive, without question. And if lives can be saved by physical proof that that man is off the street, out of commission, never to return, then we opt for saving lives; and in no way can that be considered even up on the edge of the Geneva Convention protections," Rumsfeld said.
"It is not a matter of parading various people before him for the sake of curiosity," he said.
Saddam's status, in what court he will face justice, and what rights he has will be determined through "interagency" discussion, Rumsfeld told reporters.
"It is only fair that the president and people he would like to designate have a voice in how these decisions are made," Rumsfeld said. "And it's something that will be decided by probably an interagency committee, so that it is felt to be the right decision and a decision that we are comfortable with as a government."
If Saddam is proven to have been involved in directing the insurgency against coalition forces, that could affect charges and influence the court where he is tried -- possibly setting him up as a subject of the new U.S. military tribunal created for the global war on terrorism. It has not tried any suspects yet.
The Geneva Convention allows prisoners of war to provide their captors only basic information about their identity -- they can not be compelled to give information beyond that. Obviously Saddam is a prime intelligence target who will be pressured to tell his captors everything he knows.
The convention might also require that the $750,000 Saddam was found with be kept in an account for him, and he be provided with a receipt.
A Pentagon official said because the money was not found directly on Saddam's person it would not be covered under this provision even if he were declared a prisoner of war.
