Troops Want to Fill in Hole Where Saddam Was Caught

Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | Friday, January 23, 2004 | By C. Bryson Hull

[Momaw Nadon]

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - The hole in which U.S. soldiers found former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein hiding could be filled in to prevent it becoming a "shrine," a U.S. military spokesman said on Friday.

The U.S. 4th Infantry Division, which captured Saddam at a farm in central Iraq last month, has asked for permission to destroy the hole and the nearby mud hut which were his last refuges.

"In order to avoid making it a tourist attraction and/or a shrine, we believe the best course of action is to eliminate it," 4th Infantry Division spokesman Master Sergeant Robert Cargie said.

Cargie that cautioned no decision had been made by military commanders in Baghdad, nor by the Iraqi Governing Council. Both will have a say in the final course of action, and destroying it is just one option, Cargie said.

The spokesman declined to discuss other possibilities and the U.S. military in Baghdad had no comment.

About 600 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division and special forces captured the bearded and bedraggled Saddam inside the 2.6 meter (8 foot)-deep hole. It was large enough only for one person and equipped with just a strip light and fan.

Nearby was a small mud hut Saddam had also used, in which soldiers found two beds, a refrigerator containing lemonade and hot dogs and an open box of Belgian chocolates.

Cargie said the unit that had guarded the hole against looters and souvenir hunters since Saddam's December 13 capture turned over security this week to the U.S.-trained Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division still patrol the area.

A wealthy Iraqi arrested by U.S. forces provided the tip-off that led to Saddam's capture.

The hole is on a farm in the village of Al Dawr beside the Tigris River, about 9 miles south of Saddam's adopted hometown and onetime power base at Tikrit, where the 4th Infantry Division is based.

[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[Kenton]

Use it as a septic tank.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

They should allow a shrine to be built there. Then, on Saddam's birthday, when there are a few thousand visitors, it should be firebombed. A Daisy Cutter would do a nice job.

[Frank_Discussion]

It would fill up quickly that way!

;-)

[Sofa King]

Better idea:

Stuff Saddam back into it, THEN fill it up. With cement.

[Momaw Nadon]

Maybe the hole should be filled with pigs and covered with dirt.

[theDentist]

Is there any indication that people are coming to see it (other than the Press)?

[Teacher317]

Filled or not, if some want to treat it as a shrine, they will. Would anyone here be discouraged from worshipping simply because someone else didn't want you to and they changed the look of the location?

[camle]

not a septic tank, a latrine for use by our troops.

[elbucko]

Fill it in, compact it, "doze" the area for at least 10 acres. In short, leave no trace. Nothing for tourists, nothing for fanatics. No consecration, no desecration. Just nothing but sand.

[Doohickey]

Erect a latrine on top of it.

[AAABEST]

I say build a chruch there and begin the next Crusade, but that's just me.

[Dixiekraut]

Actually....my brother E-mailed me an interview with an Army engineer who said that that's precisely what that "hole" was...a sewer/septic tank.The engineer stated that he had seen many like it when he was in Iraq.

[N. Theknow]

Troops Want to Fill in Hole Where Saddam Was Caught

Homewreckers!

[HIDEK6]

What? Destroy Saddam's hole? I wanted to open up a B & B there with a sign out from saying, "Saddam Slept Here."

Next thing you know, we'll want to blow up all the Buddhas.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Fill it with pig offal, then pave it.

[Enterprise]

"Troops Want to Fill in Hole Where Saddam Was Caught"

Are they asking for donations?

[GROOVY]

geez I had the opposite idea. I think they should feature the hole and promote it. Everyone should see how low Saddam had sunk, living in a rat hole. That is humiliating to Saddam.