The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Vatican City - A top Vatican cardinal said Tuesday he felt compassion for Saddam Hussein after seeing video pictures in which, the prelate claimed, American forces treated the captured Iraqi leader "like a cow." In the first Vatican comment on Saddam's capture, Renato Cardinal Martino said Saddam should face trial, but he stressed the church's opposition to the death penalty. He told reporters the Vatican hoped Saddam's arrest would "contribute to the pacification and the democratization of Iraq." Martino said he felt "compassion" for Saddam, even if he was a dictator, after seeing images of "this destroyed man" being "treated like a cow, having his teeth checked" by an American military medic. Washington - U.S. intelligence agencies are turning their efforts toward rounding up remaining principals of ousted president Saddam Hussein's regime who may be playing a more direct role than the now-captured dictator did in running guerrilla operations in Iraq, officials say. This came amid a report from the U.S. military that American soldiers had detained dozens of Iraqis after a raid north of Baghdad. Officials in Washington said the interrogation effort has made little progress in gaining information as to whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or ties to the al-Qaida network - among the chief stated reasons for the U.S.-led invasion. They described Saddam as compliant but unhelpful.
