His aides claim that that “betrayal” and the vindication provided by Saddam Hussein’s capture will persuade Democratic primary voters to take a second look at their man.Though he avoided praise for Mr Bush yesterday, Mr Dean was forced to utter some rare kind words for the President on Sunday, immediately after the stunning news arrived from Iraq. “This is a great day of pride in the American military, a great day for the Iraqi people … I think President Bush deserves a day of celebration,” he said.But Dean aides insisted that the thrust of the major foreign policy speech he was giving in California yesterday had not been changed by the dramatic events in Iraq. “The issue wasn’t capturing Saddam,” said Ivo Daalder, a former senior official on the Clinton National Security Council and a foreign policy adviser to Mr Dean.

“The issue is whether this was the right war at the right time, and that critique still stands.”Mr Daalder is one of several former Clinton foreign policy specialists enlisted by the Dean campaign to make up for their man’s perceived lack of international experience. Even so, nine out 10 of those surveyed said the US still faced “big challenges” in Iraq, and one in three thought that the capture of Saddam would make little difference to the parlous security situation in the country.. A former nurse told prosecutors in New Jersey yesterday that he killed dozens of patients in several hospitals in the course of his 16-year medical career because they were “very sick” and deserved relief from their suffering. Authorities said they were studying records from 10 hospitals where the suspect is known to have worked in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.In his first court appearance yesterday, Cullen said he had no plans to contest the charges “I am going to plead guilty I don’t plan to fight this,” he said. He told Superior Court Judge Paul Armstrong that he did not want a lawyer. The judge ordered him held on $1 million bail.Prosecutors charged Cullen with the murder of a Catholic priest, the Very Rev.

Florian Gall, who died while hospitalised at the Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey in June. He was also charged with the attempted killing of another patient, a 40-year-old woman, at the same hospital.After his arrest, the nurse reportedly told investigators that his record of killing was far more extensive. Under questioning, he insisted he had killed 30-40 patients by means of lethal overdose during his career, which began in 1987.He went on to claim that they had all been mercy killings of patients who had been “very sick”. He declared that his purpose was to spare them from unnecessary pain and suffering.It may be weeks before investigators can finish attempting to corroborate his claims. However, officials last night said they were inclined to believe them. “The evidence that we have indicates that may very well be the case,” commented Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest.Mr Cullen came to the attention of investigators after he was fired by the Somerset Medical Center on 31 October. At the time, however, the authorities had no notion that the case might turn into a serial killer investigation.The hospital acted after discovering that Cullen was linked directly to six cases where laboratory blood tests on patients had turned in unusual results, indicating abnormalities so serious as to be life-threatening Four showed dangerously low blood sugar levels.