From: www.cnn.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden celebrated American patriotism and mocked the ghost of Saddam Hussein during a Fourth of July visit to Iraq on Saturday.

Vice President Biden congratulates a soldier who became a U.S. citizen on Saturday.

He presided at a naturalization ceremony at one of Hussein's former palaces, where 237 U.S. service members were sworn in to become American citizens.

"We did it in Saddam's palace and I can think of nothing better. That S.O.B. is rolling over in his grave right now," Biden said of the former Iraqi dictator, who was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and executed by the Iraqi government in 2006.

Standing in the shadow of a 50-foot American flag, the service members recited the Oath of Allegiance and the Pledge of Allegiance in the rotunda of the Al-Faw Palace, now part of the U.S.'s Camp Victory complex in Baghdad. Watch Biden greet U.S. troops in Baghdad »