US interrogators question Saddam

The interrogation of Saddam Hussein will begin in earnest today and he will immediately be hit with three key questions: who is running the terrorist campaign in Iraq, exactly which foreign groups are involved, and what has happened to the chemical, biological and other "exotic" weapons identified by the UN 10 years ago?

The investigators urgently need to find out from the dictator what he knows of the whereabouts of his former sidekick, Ibrahim Izzat al-Douri, now believed to be the mastermind behind the growing resistance to the Americans and their allies.

Izzat Ibrahim is the most senior Ba'ath member who is not from Saddam's tribe - but the two have worked closely since the former Iraqi leader began his bloody climb to power in 1968.

With him are a handful of the toughest and shrewdest chiefs of Iraq's dreaded state intelligence and secret service units. Among them is Tahir Jalil Haboush, who was Saddam's point man for links with international terrorist groups, and managed the Palestinian terror chief Abu Nidal after he took up residence in Baghdad, where he died last year. Unconfirmed reports, sourced to a group of former Iraqi exiles, claim that in July 2001 Tahir Jalil Haboush met and briefed Mohamed Attah, leader of the September 11 hijackers.

Two other key operational commanders are the blood relatives Hani al-Latif Tilfah and Rafi al-Latif Tilfah, in charge of the Special and General Security organisations.

Interrogation experts from the US military's Central Command, the CIA, Defence Intelligence and MI6 have been waiting for months to get to Iraq's former dictator.

It is understood the team of at least 12 people, with skills including forensic psychiatry and psychology, have agreed a prepared strategy to get to Saddam's secrets.

Instead of spending weeks, possibly months, trying to gain his trust and confidence, they have devised a strategy of "going for the jugular", before he has time to settle into a routine in prison. They will use Iraqi questioners and translators. The Iraqis, several of whom were exiled in Britain, have undergone training in the techniques required to break Saddam's resistance.

The interrogation is expected to be conducted on a US Naval ship in the Gulf. Yesterday the US military denied suggestions Saddam had been transferred to the US-friendly Gulf state of Qatar. Some reports have indicated Saddam has been " rambling and confused", although others say he is "cooperative".

The very fact his first words to his US captors were "I want to negotiate" has given the interrogation team hope that they can tease information from him.

Saddam will also be quizzed over one of the enduring mysteries of the first war with Iraq. Lt Commander Scott Speicher, an F-18 Navy pilot, was shot down on the first day of the air war in Iraq in 1991. He was at first believed to have been killed in action, but his body was never recovered. But after intelligence reports suggested he might have survived the crash, the Navy changed his status to "missing in action" in 2001, the only American still listed as such from 1991.

It was also revealed today that the soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division who captured Saddam at his remote farmhouse hovel used a special X-ray detector to scour the ground for underground passageways.

At the same time the soldiers' find also saved the US government paying out the $25million (£17million) reward offered for Saddam's capture.

One official said the breakthrough in the hunt for Saddam came as the result of interrogations. The man who provided the crucial information was named last night as Qusay Rasoul, a local businessman who had distant links to Saddam's tribe.

Growing anger inside Iraq is already calling for a "very public trial" for Saddam and then a hanging in Baghdad.

One market trader, Mahmoud Al-Kuttab said today in Baghdad: "We want him on trial tomorrow and we want to hang him then drag his body around the streets on the back of a donkey."

However, a senior US official has made clear it is likely to be some time before Saddam is put on trial. He said a decision on how the former Iraqi leader might be prosecuted had to be taken first, and a mountain of evidence sifted through.