Secretary of State Colin Powell on July 31 approved the payment of $30 million to the individual who provided the information that enabled coalition forces to locate the two sons of Saddam Hussein, Uday and Qusay, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Briefing reporters in Washington July 31, Boucher said the U.S. government has offered to pay up to $25 million under the Rewards for Justice program for information that leads to the apprehension of Saddam Hussein.

Uday and Qusay Hussein were located and killed by coalition forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul July 22.

Secretary Powell today approved the payment of a $30 million reward to the individual who provided a critical piece of information that led us to the location of Uday and Qusay Hussein. We are pleased with the results in this case. We are pleased that we were able to pay this reward. It is the largest ever paid under the Rewards for Justice program.

We would note as well that Saddam Hussein remains at large. We encourage anyone with information on the location of Saddam Hussein to contact the Office of the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, or any U.S. military commander in Iraq will pay a reward of up to $25 million for information that leads to the apprehension of Saddam Hussein.

QUESTION: You said individual or individuals?

MR. BOUCHER: One individual who provided the information. So one individual is getting $30 million for providing this information.

QUESTION: Can you give us any information about it?

MR. BOUCHER: No, I can't.

QUESTION: Are you providing any visa or U.S. passport or witness protection for the individual and/or his family?

MR. BOUCHER: Our program indicates that we can try to provide relocation assistance. But whether we're doing so in this particular case, I am not in a position to say.

QUESTION: You know but you're not in the position to say?

MR. BOUCHER: That's right.

QUESTION: Does this person -- does this individual now have the money, check-in-hand, or is this just the --

MR. BOUCHER: No, the payment will be made very shortly.

QUESTION: But how?

MR. BOUCHER: That remains to be worked out with the individual, in its choice of denominations or transfers.

QUESTION: I have two points. First, he is not going to pay any taxes, just to reiterate what you said earlier, right? And, secondly, it's a lump sum payment of 30 million, not some sort of annuity?

MR. BOUCHER: It's a payment. It's not the lottery. It's actually for services rendered. It's a lump sum payment of $30 million. The question of whether the person has tax liability will depend on their -- I'm sure -- their residence and the tax laws of the place where they are located.

QUESTION: Is this the shortest period of time that the nomination occurred to the actual decision by the Secretary of State?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes.

Tammy.

QUESTION: Can you say if he is still inside Iraq?

MR. BOUCHER: Nope, can't say.

George.

QUESTION: Is this person an Iraqi?

MR. BOUCHER: Can't say. I'm sorry. We're not giving any information, whatsoever, that --

QUESTION: Would that narrow it down too much?

MR. BOUCHER: -- that would narrow it down to 24 million people, as opposed to 5 or 6 billion in the world. We're being very careful about the individual's identity in every possible way. And so I am just not in a position to describe for you any of the details or any of the information about who this individual might be, where he might be, or how he might receive his money.

QUESTION: Richard, recognizing why Secretary Powell would want to expedite the process, could you just state for the record why it is he felt it was important to make sure this went through quickly?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, I think it's important, first of all, to show people that we do what we say we're going to do; to make clear to people that if we make an offer like this, we're going to stand behind it; to make clear to people that this is very important to us and we do sincerely appreciate the effort that this individual made and the risk that he took to help us in what is a very important development for the United States, for coalition forces, but also for the people of Iraq. And so we wanted to do this as quickly as possible.

And, finally, I would say that we want to make clear that there are other opportunities for similar -- almost similar sums of money to be paid should other individuals want to come forward with information about Saddam Hussein.

QUESTION: Isn't it going to be difficult to both publicize the fact that you're paying out this money because you want the Iraqis to see that you're paying out this money? How are you going to do that at the same time as giving no details about it?

MR. BOUCHER: That is, indeed, a complication, but we're going to rely on the good faith of our friends in the media to tell the Iraqi people that this money has been authorized and will be soon paid, will be paid shortly.