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Cloclo.
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Ex-Leader, Found Hiding in Hole, Is Detained Without a Fight
By EDWARD WONG
and KIRK SEMPLE
Published: December 14, 2003
AGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 14 — Saddam Hussein, the deposed Iraqi leader, was captured in a raid on a farm near Tikrit on Saturday night, American officials confirmed today.
"We got him," the American administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, declared at a news conference here.
Coalition troops discovered Mr. Hussein hiding in a hole below a walled compound on the farm, located in the town of Ad Dwar, about 10 miles from his hometown of Tikrit.
Military authorities said that although Mr. Hussein was armed with a pistol at the time of his capture, he put up no resistance and not one shot was fired in the operation.
"He was caught like a rat," Maj. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who heads the Army's Fourth Infantry Division, told reporters.
Officials said they were able to confirm Mr. Hussein's identity using DNA tests.
President Bush said the capture of Mr. Hussein was "crucial to the rise of a free Iraq." He added: "In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over."
Mr. Hussein was being held this afternoon at an undisclosed location and American authorities had yet to decide whether to hand him over to the Iraqis for trial. Iraqi officials want him to stand trial before a war crimes tribunal created last week.
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said that ultimately the Iraqis will determine how Mr. Hussein will be tried. "It is they who will decide his fate," he said.
Finding Mr. Hussein solved one of the great mysteries that tormented the American-led occupation force in Iraq: whether he was still alive and, if so, where he was hiding.
Some senior Bush administration officials had suspected that Mr. Hussein was not only still alive but inspiring, if not leading, the guerrilla-style insurgency that has left more than 190 American soldiers dead since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May. 1.
Since April, when coalition forces pushed into Baghdad and declared the start of the occupation, American-led troops have tried to wipe away all vestiges of the old government in part by capturing or killing many of Mr. Hussein's former advisers and associates.
But their biggest target, Mr. Hussein himself, continued to evade coalition forces even as he broadcast audio messages intended to rally his loyalists while, seemingly, taunt the occupiers.
Mr. Bremer appealed to insurgents loyal to Mr. Hussein to give up the fight today.
"With the arrest of Saddam Hussein, there is a new opportunity for the members of the former regime, whether military or civilian, to end their bitter opposition," he said in the news conference, which was televised. "Let them now come forward in a spirit of reconciliation and hope, lay down their arms, and join you, their fellow citizens, in the task of building the new Iraq."
Mr. Blair welcomed Mr. Hussein's capture as an opportunity for national reconciliation in Iraq.
"Where his rule meant terror and division and brutality, let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people in Iraq," Mr. Blair said. "Saddam is gone from power. He won't be coming back. That the Iraqi people now know." He called the cause of Mr. Hussein's supporters "futile."
At the Baghdad news conference today announcing the capture, American officials aired a video showing Mr. Hussein, with a scruffy white beard and wild, curly hair, being examined by a doctor. His face was puffy and wrinkled.
They also showed footage of a cramped, six-to-eight-foot-deep cellar where Mr. Hussein was found at about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. The entrance to the hideaway had been camouflaged with bricks and dirt, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top American military commander in Iraq, said at the news conference.
"The captive has been talkative and is being cooperative," General Sanchez said.
Coalition troops captured two other Iraqis in the raid and seized two AK-47 assault rifles, a pistol and $750,000 in $100 bills, General Sanchez said.
He described Mr. Hussein as "tired" and "a man resigned."
The military targeted Mr. Hussein's hideout using information gleaned from interrogations of people with familial and tribal ties to Mr. Hussein, General Odierno said in a news conference.
"Over the last 10 days or so we brought in about 5 to 10 members of these families," the general said. "Finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals."
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Gigi Marzullo.
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Ce la fai a tradurla tutta in Italiano... sarebbe un sogno 
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Samanta.
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Ciao cloco,
se mangiassero tutti il frutto proibito non avrebbero più testosterone e quindi non ci sarebbe più guerra.......
Dovevo andar io a Camp David. -
redcat.
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QUOTE (Gigi Marzullo @ 16/12/2003, 09:21) Ce la fai a tradurla tutta in Italiano... sarebbe un sogno
Effettivamente non sarebbe una brutta idea...
Me leggi sempre il New York Times?!?!. -
Samanta.
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E' gratis ..... l'unico giornale (di un certo valore) gratis online . -
redcat.
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concordo
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E' la vera via della pace?Con chi sta il popolo iracheno? |
