Saddam's spiderhole becomes focal point for revenge attacks

The Times (UK) ^ | 1/31/04 | Stephen Farrell

[saquin]

FROM across the Tigris the chants begin, rising until they are audible around the spiderhole where the dictator was caught: “Saddam, Saddam will live for ever. He is the leader for us.”

Around the shaft Iraqi guards sprint for the sandbags, their lieutenant shouting “Withdraw! Withdraw!” before firing a warning round into the air.

This is al-Dawr, the loyalist Tikriti town where a month after Saddam’s capture on December 13, his last refuge has become a focus for Baathist attacks. US soldiers want to fill in the hole to stop it becoming a shrine.

With graffiti already appearing on the farmhouse walls and curious local people trying to sneak in, its destruction cannot come soon enough for the handful of Iraqi Civil Defence Corps paid £2 a day to protect it.

“It has become a place for Saddam’s followers to take revenge on us,” Sergeant Kassim Abed Sharif sighs as he shows off a landmine planted by regime loyalists to blow up his men. “There have been more than 20 attacks since we took over from the Americans a month ago. His relatives and cousins fire mortars at us, they shoot at us and they send death threats to our homes.”

Corporal Samir Salman points to a blue symbol painted on the gatepost, clearly pre-dating Saddam’s capture. It is, he says, the code used by Saddam’s Fedayin to mark a strategic location and tipped off pro-US forces months ago that the farmhouse was regime-friendly.

“They should destroy it now. There are so many tasks that are worth risking our lives for; we could be downtown stopping car bombers, not here protecting a hole,” Sergeant Sharif says.

In this, he has support from the family of Qais Nameq al-Douri, the former Saddam palace guard who owns the land.

His wife, Khalida, insisted yesterday that the 7ft by 2ft by 3ft spiderhole was not a place of concealment but a shelter dug by her husband and his brothers — all under arrest — because they feared US chemical weapons.

Mrs al-Douri protests ignorance of the mysterious blue sign, suggesting that it was painted by the Americans. But, catching a glimpse of the symbol in The Times reporter’s notebook, her six-year-old daughter blurts out, “That was the one put up by . . .”

“Shut your mouth,” her aunt hisses. Unfazed, the farmer’s wife continues, saying they had no idea that their fugitive President was hidden beneath their outhouse.

“Let them fill it in and be finished with this silly business . . . Let us make it a farm again.”

[tessalu]

Saddam,the spiderman! Come on out of your hole!

[Vigilanteman]

Yada, yada. They need to fill in the hole. They need to protect the hole. How about building one of these over the hole and doing both?

[Ben Chad]

LOL!!!

[small voice in the wilderness]

Sounds like a potential sick, twisted Iraqi Graceland. Where people gather to pay their respects, buy cheap mugs, shampoo, and autographed 8x10 glossies of their hero. ...Hmmmmmmm...

Saddam Has Left The Bunker

[Peace will be here soon]

“They should destroy it now. There are so many tasks that are worth risking our lives for; we could be downtown stopping car bombers, not here protecting a hole,” Sergeant Sharif says.

Yep. He has avery good point.

[gg188]

Mrs al-Douri protests ignorance of the mysterious blue sign, suggesting that it was painted by the Americans. But, catching a glimpse of the symbol in The Times reporter’s notebook, her six-year-old daughter blurts out, “That was the one put up by . . .” “Shut your mouth,” her aunt hisses. Unfazed, the farmer’s wife continues...

That's the way these people are. Busted in a lie, and she is unfazed. That is their worldview. There is no shame in trying and getting busted in a lie; you just continue on, ignoring it like it never happened.

[Indie]

Such a good point, in fact, shall we shout to whoever made the decision NOT to destroy it (and someone did):

Pull your head out!?

[Richard-SIA]

Pour in a few buckets of pig guts, blow it up, then fill and level what is left, while adding more pig guts.

Level the surrounding building while they are at it.

[FreedomCalls]

I like the pig idea.

[upchuck]

Provide a well advertised notice, then JDAM the entire area.

[CFC__VRWC]

How about building one of these over the hole and doing both?

Only if we can throw Saddam back down in it first.

Hmm, actually that would be a good idea for a bunch of Rats I can think of as well.

[Growler]

Don't fill it end, reinforce it properly. Its easier if the people that you want to kill come to you than it is to go out and ferret them out.

[Happy2BMe]

Last I heard of this the 4th ID was going to excavate the entire hole (hehe) and relocate it back to Fort Hood.

Anybody know?

[Peace will be here soon]

Last I heard of this the 4th ID was going to excavate the entire hole (hehe) and relocate it back to Fort Hood.
Anybody know?

---

I heard the current Iraqi leadership put the axe on that move. I would expect someone in power has plans to make it a tourist attraction , and will try to cash in on it.

They sealed up Hitlers bunker. I say wire it up and blow it to H***.

[SW6906]

Sounds like a job for...........DAISY CUTTER!!!!!