Saddam bid "courteous" adieu to US captors

BAGHDAD, Jan 3 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein thanked his American jailers as they sent him to his death on Saturday but he lost some of his composure when they handed him over to the Iraqis who would hang him, a US general said today.

''Saddam ... was dignified, as always, he was courteous as he always had been to his US military police guards,'' Major General William Caldwell told a news conference in Baghdad.

''He thanked them for the way he had been treated and said goodbye to them,'' Caldwell said.

He said it was clear Saddam knew he was about to die when, an hour before the dawn execution, the former president of Iraq was bundled aboard a US military helicopter for the 10-minute flight to an Iraqi-run prison in northern Baghdad.

''His characterisation did change at this prison facility where Iraqi guards were assuming control of him,'' Caldwell said.

At that point, the U.S. troops who had guarded Saddam for three years left him to his fate at the hands of his enemies, whose failure to prevent observers from taunting Saddam on the gallows and filming the proceedings have fuelled sectarian tensions and clearly discomfited Washington.

US forces ''would have done things differently,'' Caldwell said.

A senior court official who took part in the execution, prosecutor Munkith al-Faroon, said Saddam appeared ''frightened'' when first brought by Iraqi guards to a room next to the execution chamber. But he recovered his poise as details of his conviction for crimes against humanity were read out.

Speaking on Al Jazeera, Faroon gave no explanation for the change. It may be that Saddam was reassured by the judicial formalities being followed that he was indeed to be executed according to legal norms and not about to face other violence.

US troops kept physical custody of Saddam after capturing him three years ago, partly out of concern for his treatment at the hands of Iraqi officials who had suffered during his three decades in power.

''He spoke well to our military police as he always had ... He said farewell to his interpreter,'' Caldwell said, describing the ''cordial manner'' of a man once aided by the United States but later vilified as a tyrant and part of an ''axis of evil''.

A US military medic who cared for Saddam in prison said this week he was prepared for his end and never complained as he passed his final days writing, tending plants and feeding birds.

REUTERS PB KN2105