The mother of all trials?

Now comes the mother of all trials.

Saddam Hussein is not exactly making the debate about his fate any easier. While he surrendered to U.S. forces without a fight, he's been defiant in captivity.

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Saddam Hussein, captured and shaven

According to a report in Time magazine, he's been less than fully coherent – sometimes employing rhetorical techniques familiar to Saddam watchers.

When asked "How are you?" said an intelligence official, Saddam reportedly responded, "I am sad because my people are in bondage." When offered a glass of water by his interrogators, Saddam 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?"

The interrogators also asked Saddam if he knew about the location of Captain Scott Speicher, a U.S. pilot who went missing during the first Gulf War. "No," replied the former Iraqi president, "we have never kept any prisoners. I have never known what happened."

According to Time, Saddam was also asked whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. "No, of course not," he replied, according to the official, "the U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us." The interrogator continued along this line, said the official, asking: "if you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?" Saddam's reply: "We didn't want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy."

"I would be surprised if he gave any info," said the intelligence official.

The end came for Saddam Hussein on a small farm where he had bricked himself into a dungeon hiding place to avoid detection by U.S. forces. He was caught in the town of Adwar, 10 miles from Tikrit. The man who once commanded dozens of lavish palaces, was found in a hole six to eight feet deep, camouflaged with bricks and dirt and supplied with an air vent to allow long periods inside.

Now the main question facing Americans and Iraqis is what should be done with him.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is backing U.S. calls for the fate of the former dictator to be decided by his own people at a war crimes tribunal.

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In July, the Iraqi Leadership Council, a group of 25 American-appointed Iraqi leaders, agreed to set up a judicial commission that would recommend the form of a war crimes tribunal best suited to Iraq's needs.

Last week, it published the statute under which the Special Tribunal for Crimes against Humanity will operate. Panels of five Iraqi judges will try suspects at a former museum where Saddam displayed gifts he received as head of state.

Unlike the Nuremberg Trials, which sentenced former Nazi leaders to death after the Second World War, a court run by Iraqis could not be accused of delivering "victors' justice."

The death penalty in Iraq was suspended by the coalition forces following Saddam's overthrow, after strong pressure from the British government.

However, the Coalition Provisional Authority has promised to hand power back to the Iraqis in little more than six months' time, and Iraq would then be free to resume executions.

There is no prospect of Saddam being tried before the new International Criminal Court in The Hague. That tribunal has no jurisdiction over war crimes committed before July 2002, which would exclude most of the charges Saddam is expected to face.

Human Rights Watch, the New York-based monitoring group, criticized the tribunal announced by the Iraqi Governing Council last week, saying it lacked essential elements to ensure legitimate and credible trials for perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Another more immediate problem facing Americans is where Saddam should be held while he awaits a trial.

Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, was keeping the exact location of Saddam's jail a closely guarded secret, but it would seem likely that the former Iraqi leader is being kept far away from his former capital.

While the U.S. bases around the airport have high security, they have proved vulnerable to mortar fire and could attract demonstrations from former regime supporters. It would be very embarrassing if the Americans' prize was killed or injured in a random mortar attack, as has been the case with several prisoners held at these sites over recent months.

President Bush said he "will face the justice he denied to millions," without giving details of conditions or venue for the trial.

He said that while lawyers were still discussing Saddam Hussein's legal status, he would be accorded the privileges of being a prisoner of war under the Geneva Convention.

Unconfirmed reports suggested the 66-year-old had been moved to another country. The Dubai-based Arab TV station Al-Arabiya said Saddam Hussein was taken to Qatar.

Members of Iraq's Governing Council said the former president showed no remorse when he was brought before them for further identification in Baghdad.

Council member Adnan Pachachi said: "We found him obviously tired and haggard but he was unrepentant and even defiant. He told us he was a just and firm ruler."

Pachachi added: "We will deal with Saddam Hussein. He was an unjust ruler responsible for the deaths of thousands of people."

President Bush said the capture had brought to an end a "dark and painful" era for the Iraqi people. But he warned it did not mean the end of violence in Iraq.

The news of Saddam Hussein's arrest prompted scenes of jubilation among some Iraqis and was welcomed by many world leaders.

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