'Good riddance' to Saddam

WASHINGTON — President Bush said Monday that he had a simple message for the captured Saddam Hussein — "Good riddance, the world is better off without you" — and said he would leave it to the Iraqi people to determine if their former leader should be executed.

Sounding ebullient during a 47-minute news conference, Bush reaffirmed his determination "to stay the course until the job is done" in Iraq, signaling that the capture of Saddam was not prompting the White House to contemplate a speedier exit.

He refused to be pinned down on a timetable, but expressed confidence that now that "the enemies of a free Iraq have lost their leader," Iraqis should know "you're plenty capable of governing yourself." That transition to self-governance is scheduled to begin in the summer, just months before the U.S. presidential election. Bush, appearing buoyed by the weekend's events, announced, almost as an aside, that he would be running in that election.

The president said he had his own opinions about Saddam's fate, but he insisted that "my personal views aren't important in this matter" because he is not an Iraqi citizen. Several times, however, he termed Saddam a "torturer" and "murderer," and left little doubt, given his record of support for the death penalty as governor of Texas and in Washington, what kind of penalties he would consider appropriate.

Senior administration officials said Bush refrained from expressing an option because he is determined that the Iraqis choose the penalty, and, as one official said, to show the Arab world that "this is Iraqi justice, not American vengeance."

Bush did decline to say that Saddam should face the special criminal tribunal set up by the Iraqi Governing Council last week, just three days before the former dictator's capture. Instead, he said he would "work with Iraqis to develop a way to try him that will withstand international scrutiny."

The current occupant of the rotating presidency of Iraq's interim Governing Council said in Paris on Monday that Saddam Hussein would be tried by Iraq's recently established war crimes tribunal and that he could face the death penalty if convicted.

Bush described the long-sought capture of the man who survived the Gulf War and attempted to assassinate his father as the capstone of what he called "an extraordinary year for our country." He listed a series of accomplishments, from the invasion of Iraq to the passage of prescription drug coverage for seniors to his signing of a bill outlawing partial birth abortion, in what appeared to be a prelude to his re-election campaign.