U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking on CBS’s 60 Minutes the next day, said Hussein, who according to the U.S. government is currently being interrogated, would be treated according to the Geneva Conventions. “He will be accorded the privileges as if he were a prisoner of war,” Rumsfeld said. Under these conventions prisoners of war are not to be subjected to torture, corporal punishment, or degrading treatment.

U.S. Special Forces had conducted an intense search for the former Iraqi president since he went into hiding as the Anglo-American invaders advanced on Baghdad in early April. Over the past several weeks, U.S. government officials said, they had been closing in on leads in this area near Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, located in a largely Sunni Muslim region where his Baathist party apparatus has built its main base of support.

Hussein was captured in a raid by 600 troops including the U.S. Delta Force, U.S. Navy SEALs, the British SAS, and Australia’s SAS, backed up by regular U.S. infantry.

Celebrations broke out in many parts of Iraq, including Baghdad, the Shiite city of Najaf, the Kurdish city Suleimaniya, and other towns. The record of a brutal party-police regime that Hussein ran for more than three decades had earned him the hatred of millions of workers and farmers in Iraq and allowed the imperialist forces occupying the country an easy propaganda victory for his capture.

Hamid Ali, a baker in Baghdad who is a Shiite Muslim, told reporters, “Most of my family are either dead or were forced into the army because of Saddam. Every Iraqi should have the right to reclaim justice from him.”

Among those celebrating in the streets were members of different political parties that support the imperialist occupation, including the Iraqi Communist Party. Members of the CP passed out bags of candy and raised red flags outside their headquarters.

Hussein’s capture was announced at a December 14 press briefing in Baghdad. U.S. military officers showed reporters a video of Hussein in U.S. custody, reportedly undergoing a medical check, with soldiers sticking cotton swabs in his mouth.

At a press conference the next day, U.S. president George Bush said the former Iraqi leader would be put on public trial in a proceeding conducted by Washington in a way that “includes the Iraqi citizens and make sure the process withstands international scrutiny.”

Some members of the U.S.-handpicked Iraqi Governing Council, including Amar al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, called for executing Hussein. When asked about the death penalty, Bush skirted the question, saying that he had his personal views but “what matters is the views of the Iraqi citizens.”  
 
 
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