The Gamut

LET POOR SADDAM GO

The International Committee of the Red Cross (which is separate from the American Red Cross,) has completely lost its mind. Last night, a spokeswoman said that Saddam Hussein must be released from custody or charged by June 30 if the coalition is to conform to international law. Release Saddam? Let him walk? Are these people nuts? That is an interesting date, don't you think? The International Red Cross is demanding Saddam's release on the very day that sovereignty is being handed back to the Iraqi government. Mere coincidence, I'm sure.

Screw international law. Isn't it interesting how these international organizations have all this selective outrage over the war in Iraq, only because it involves the United States? If Saddam were being held by, say, the Saudi government, would they be so upset? Doubt it.

None of the officials were advocating Mr. Hussein's release, and they said they wanted him to stand trial. But they also said that since the United States insists that the occupation will formally end on June 30, when limited powers will be handed to the interim Iraqi government, the Geneva Convention requires that the Americans bring charges against their prisoners of war or release them.

"We're not making any ultimatums or calls for release," Antonella Notari, chief spokeswoman of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told The Associated Press in Geneva on Monday. "What we're saying is: 'Saddam Hussein, as far as we understand today, is a P.O.W., prisoner of war, protected by the third Geneva Convention as all prisoners of war are.'

"In theory, when a war ends and when an occupation ends, the detaining force has to release prisoners of war or civilian detainees if there are no reasons for holding them."

But she added that a prisoner of war who is suspected of committing criminal acts should be prosecuted and tried rather than simply released.

Iraq's interim prime minister said Monday that the United States would hand over former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and all other detainees to Iraq's new government over the next two weeks, as the transfer of administrative power is effected.