Saddam Hussein's status won't affect Iraq's ability to try him

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Saddam Hussein's current status as an enemy prisoner of war (EPW) will not affect the U.S. government's plans to have Iraqis "play a significant role" in any trial of the ex-dictator.

Rumsfeld was asked what kind of intelligence information the United States is getting from interrogations of Hussein, why it was decided to classify him as an EPW, and whether doing so would have an effect on U.S. plans to have Saddam's trial be a largely Iraqi matter. In reply, Rumsfeld noted that the CIA was handling Saddam's interrogation, not the Defense Department, and that the decision to classify him as an EPW was made by an interagency team of lawyers.