Posted on 12/15/2003 7:03:54 AM PST by Pikamax
How the story broke
US soldiers returned from their mission with whoops of excitement and an occasional 'Hoo-ha!' ripping through the night air
Lisa O'Carroll and Claire Cozens Monday December 15, 2003
First rumours that the US had taken a "High Value Target" emanated in certain well-connected circles on Saturday night, according to the Guardian's Michael Howard.
"I got a call from my sources in Iraq on Saturday night that there had been a major capture but didn't realise it was Saddam. I had no idea who it was, " he said.
Up in Tikrit there were reports that US soldiers were "looking pleased with themselves" after returning from their raid, but Howard, like another colleague closer to the scene, had no confirmation about the identity of their prey.
CNN's reporter Alphonso van Marsh, who had been stationed with the US 4th Infantry Division for the last four days, was the closest to the mission.
From a distance he witnessed the soldiers being debriefed when they returned on Saturday night and heard "whoops" of excitement, but was not told whom the target of their mission.
Van Marsh said he first knew something big was happening when he saw the division's Bradley armoured fighting vehicles were missing from outside the front gates of the compound.
He said night-time sorties were not uncommon in the division but added: "I see the troops go out, I see them return. But I have never seen them take the Bradleys."
"At about 11 pm local time - 8pm UK time - a convoy of heavily fortified Humvees - followed by two Bradleys - roared past the guardhouse into the Raider Base military complex. Standing at the steps and under the bright light of a waning full moon I could see the excitement on the soldiers' faces... So I grabbed my camera," he wrote on the CNN website.
"From the guardhouse rooftop venue, I could see over the three meter high security fence and into the palace grounds. I filmed dozens of US forces gathering in front of the Bradleys, with my night scope-equipped camera I could see military leadership giving what looked to be a pep talk to the troops. Their response, an occasional "Hoo-Ha!" ripped through the night air. Then some of the service members pulled out their own cameras and started taking pictures. Posing like a soccer team on the pitch before the match. Bright smiles. Arms over the shoulders. Shaking hands with captain and colonel."
Van Marsh said CNN had been granted "extraordinary access" to the soldiers until then. But he said that on Saturday night, after the raid was over, he was "politely and swiftly walked and talked out of the room".
"I asked one military source - if we were playing poker with the US's 'most-wanted Iraqi' deck of cards, 'which card would you be holding?' I was hoping to hear 'Ace of Spades, that's Saddam's card'. But lady luck was not on my side. No answer from the source, but a bit of encouragement: 'Are you religious? If so, I would say a prayer, light a candle, carry out a sacrifice, whatever works for you because Sunday will be a busy day. You will just have to wait and see,'" he said.
Van Marsh said it was "daybreak" before he knew that they had got "number one" and even then he had to get it confirmed by his Washington colleagues.
But it wasn't until just before 10am - 14 hours after the capture of "HVT" - that the news started to spread around the globe after a briefing by Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani.
The Americans deliberately kept a lid on their secret because of the widespread disbelief that had greeted their announcement in July declaring that Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay had been shot dead.
The announcement yesterday morning followed a carefully calculated plan designed to dispel any doubt among Iraqis or others that the prisoner was Saddam.
According to reports in today's New York Times, the public relations mission was codenamed "HVT1" - for High Value Target No 1 and was devised by the Pentagon during the summer and approved by President Bush.
It said that Iraqis should have a role in the announcement and that the images should be broadcast around the world as quickly as possible to guard against conspiracy theories spreading through Iraq.
When Saddam's sons were killed news leaked out before their identities could be confirmed and Iraqis didn't believe what they were told. In the end the Americans had to release pictures of their bullet-riddled bodies, but not without heavy reconstruction and heavy make-up to make them look like they had when they were alive.
Gary Thatcher, who helped devise the plan for the Pentagon, said: "I think it's fair to say that we didn't expect the degree of scepticism that we found Uday and Qusay were killed," he told the New York Times.
He said he came up with two plans - one to be used if Saddam was captured alive, the other if he was found dead or killed himself on discovery.
The priority was to speed up the process of identification by DNA and ensure that pictures of him could be made public as soon as possible.
"Baghdad is a place that feeds on rumours," said Mr Thatcher. "Our goal was to quickly affirm the truth of the situation, and that meant being able to quickly prove it."
Jalal Talabani, a former president of the Iraqi Governing Council and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, broke the news just after 9am UK time, first telling reporters in Iraq and at the Iranian News Agency of the discovery. However, the details were still sketchy.
Back in the UK the traditional battle over who was first with the news went into full swing this morning with ITV News claiming they broke the story at 9.56.30am while Sky News announced it pipped it by a more than minute breaking the story at 9.55am.
At 10.04am, Associated Press and Press Association snapped with unconfirmed reports that Saddam was captured or killed near his home town Tikrit.
And according to plan to include the Iraqis, the first confirmation came from various sources including the Iraqi interim foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari who was quoted confirming a "very important" person in Tikrit has been captured.
At 10.44am, Arabiya TV was reporting that Paul Bremer confirmed it was Saddam andat 11.03am, the Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi followed suit in another interview with Reuters.
At 12pm, the media plan came full circle - with a joint US-Iraqi press conference unveiling the sensational pictures of Saddam at news briefing by Paul Bremer 12pm. "Obviously you have to choose carefully," Mr Thatcher told the New York Times. "You don't want an image that in any way allows him to be built up as a martyr or allows him to appear heroic."
By then news channels around the world were providing unbroken coverage.
"The image of him undergoing a physical examination for lice in the hair and having his tongue pushed down with a tongue depresser is about as routine as it gets, which showed basically that he was an ordinary mortal, was not superhuman, that he was no longer a threat," said Mr Thatcher.
He claimed that showing the pictures of Saddam undergoing examination were not in breach of international law because he had not been formally charged.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.