Saddam's Time Running Out

U.S. Takes First Step Toward Handing Him Over To Iraqi Authorities

(CBS/AP)  In a farewell letter posted on the Internet Wednesday, Saddam urged Iraqis to embrace "brotherly coexistence" and not to hate the U.S.-led troops.

"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," said the letter.

Saddam is in the midst of another trial, one in which he's charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation. That trial was adjourned until Jan. 8, and experts have said the trial of Saddam's co-defendants is likely to continue even if he is executed.

Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog group, says Saddam was certainly a human rights violator, but Iraq's government shouldn't execute him. "The true test of respect for human rights comes when the human rights of someone who has violated in unspeakable ways the human rights of many millions of people comes into play," said the group's Richard Dicker.

In other recent developments in Iraq:

A suicide bomber killed nine civilians north of Baghdad on Friday afternoon, police said. At least a dozen people were also injured when the bomber detonated his explosives belt in Khalis, 50 miles north of the Iraqi capital, police said.

Two Iranian diplomats detained by U.S. troops in Iraq were released early Friday in Baghdad, Iran's state-run television and news agency reported. The Iranians were in Iraq on the invitation of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, officials have said. Their detention was announced on Monday.

The U.S. military announced five more American troop deaths: four soldiers hit by roadside bombs on patrol and a Marine killed in combat in volatile western Iraq. That raises U.S. troop deaths this month to 100.

As of Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006, at least 2,991 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The British military has reported 126 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 18; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, six; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, one death each.

In search of a new U.S. strategy on Iraq, President Bush met at his ranch Thursday morning with his top national security advisers. Afterwards, he said he's making good progress in coming up with a new plan for Iraq, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

In a 2004 interview embargoed for release after his death, former president Gerald Ford told the Washington Post the war in Iraq was unjustified and that he very strongly disagreed with President Bush's reasons for attacking Iraq.

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©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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