'Broken' dictator interrogated at undisclosed location

Saddm Hussein woke up for the second day yesterday as a prisoner although the exact whereabouts of his incarceration remained a mystery.

CNN reported that he had been flown from a holding cell in Baghdad International Airport to Qatar, the headquarters of the US military command during the war. But an Iraqi Governing Council official said that he was still at an undisclosed location inside Iraq.

What we can be certain of is that the interrogation had already begun. US officials said that the deposed tyrant was complying with simple demands to sit or stand, but had been less than co-operative under questioning. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the US military commander in Iraq, had described Saddam as talkative. But this was contradicted by Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, who said that the former Iraqi leader "has not been co-operative in terms of talking or anything like that".

Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council who met Saddam on Sunday spoke of "a broken man". He added: "He was, I think, psychologically ruined and very demoralised. His body language showed that he was very miserable." When found in his underground pit on Saturday night, Saddam greeted US troops in English with the statement: " My name is Saddam Hussein. I am president of Iraq and I want to negotiate."

An American soldier replied: "Regards from President Bush."

However, questioned later in the airport cell, Saddam's answers were, it is claimed, "full of rhetoric" but short on information. According to a report in the US magazine Time, he also appeared to be threatening a form of "toilet strike".

When asked " how are you?" the Iraqi leader responded: "I am sad because my people are in bondage". When offered a glass of water, Saddam was said to have replied: "If I drink water I will have to go to the bathroom. And how can I use the bathroom when my people are in bondage."

Asked whether he knew about the whereabouts of Captain Scott Speicher, a US pilot who went missing during the 1991 Gulf war, the former Iraqi president said: " We have never kept any prisoners. I have never known what happened."

Saddam's comments on his alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were not so different from those made by many critics of Washington and London during the war. Asked whether Iraq possessed WMDs, he replied: "No, of course not. The US dreamt them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us."

The interrogator then said: "If you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the UN inspectors into your facilities?" Saddam's alleged reply was: "We didn't what them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy."

The answer is a strange one, as the last set of UN and International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) inspections, under Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei demanded and got access to presidential palaces. Mr Rumsfeld said yesterday that the former dictator would be "accorded the privileges as though he were a prisoner of war, not that he necessarily is one".

If he were to be designated a prisoner of war under the protection of the Geneva Conventions, the only answer he would be obliged to provide would be his name, rank - in his case head of Iraq's armed forces - and, if he had one, his serial number.

As a PoW, Saddam would, in theory, be living under military rules. He should be allowed to wear his uniform, and be addressed by his rank. The daily regime should begin at around 6.30am with reveille, a parade, and cell inspection. The shaving of the former Iraqi leader's beard could be deemed to be a breach of the Conventions, as interfering with his Muslim religious convictions.

However, it is not known whether this was done against his wishes, and until his disappearance during the war, the Iraqi leader did not have a beard.

The US could also be accused of breaching international law by issuing photos and film footage of Saddam after his arrest. Indeed, Washington and London complained when the Arabic channel al-Jazeera broadcast pictures of captured American troops during the war. The Red Cross said yesterday that it expected to be given permission to visit the former president.

Other members of the Iraqi regime held by the US have been seen by the organisation. Florian Westphal, a spokesman said: "There is no fixed time frame within the Geneva Conventions. It doesn't say that these visits should take place within 48 hours. But we expect Saddam Hussein will, at some stage, be visited by the ICRC."

A team of American officials are believed to have arrived in Qatar, one of America's closest allies in the Arab world, to continue the questioning of Saddam.