A deal for Saddam or new interrogation tactics?

There is a report from AP that Saddam is being held in Qatar.


Following his capture by US forces in December last year, Saddam was first moved to a US aircraft carrier in the Gulf for interrogation, a British newspaper reported, without citing its sources.

He was then -- at a time not specified by the report -- transferred to Qatar under great secrecy, with even the state's royal family not informed of his presence.


Why Qatar? Why not keep him on an aircraft carrier or move him to Diego Garcia or some other isolated, secure location?
And how does this jive with his POW status as reported here?

And then we get this bit of information:

At the end of the last month, Saddam's wife left Syria for Qatar, according to a Jordanian lawyer who says she retained him to represent her husband.

Is it possible the US is working on a deal with Saddam? I can't see him being released into exile, but there maybe some horse trading going on here. The US wants the WMD's or at least what happened to them and Saddam surely doesn't want to be tried in Iraq; even though the death penalty has been outlawed. Life in an Iraqi prison for him would be much worse than dying.

Maybe far fetched but I wish some intrepid reporter would run it down and see if there is anything to it.


Update The Independant is carrying this as well. Unfortunately you have to pay for the whole article. And The Dow Jones Newswire is linking to The Independant story. Interesting.