corrente

Gotta admire the way the man plays the cards he has...

But I thought that Iraq was now, like, a real country? Sovreign? So why hold up transferring Saddam, anyhow? Well, anyhow, here's the tortured reasoning:

President Bush said on Tuesday he will not hand over former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to the interim Iraqi government until it has secure facilities in place to ensure he does not escape trial.
(via WaPo)

Say, I've got an idea! Put him in Abu Ghraib!

As an intermediate step, officials said the Bush administration was prepared to transfer "legal custody" of Saddam to the new government. But the U.S. military would continue to hold him physically until Washington is satisfied a secure Iraqi-run facility and Iraqi security forces are ready.

Assuming, of course, that the CPA is legal....

The administration would not commit to handing over Saddam and other prisoners by the June 30 transfer of power, as asserted by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

So that would mean that Iraq isn't sovreign, right?

The White House said a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last week gave U.S. forces the authority to hold prisoners deemed to be security threats after June 30.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said international law allows prisoners of war to be detained "as long as the hostilities continue ... (and) it is quite clear at this point that hostilities continue."

But... But.... Major hostilities are over!

President Bush said the United States would not allow "lax security" to jeopardize plans for Saddam to be tried by a special tribunal -- comments that underscored the administration's lack of confidence in Iraqi security forces.

"He (Saddam) is a killer. He is a thug. He needs to be brought to trial," Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Well, it would be up to the Iraqis, now that they are sovreign, heh, to determine what "needs" to happen, eh?

"We want to make sure that he (Saddam) doesn't come back to power. And so therefore, it's a legitimate question to ask of the interim government: 'How are you going to make sure he stays in jail?' And that's the question I'm asking. And when we get the right answer, which I'm confident we will -- we'll work with them to do so -- then we'll all be satisfied," Bush said.

As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, "What do you mean "we," white man?