Free Republic

Jerusalem -- It has been a great week for the United States and an extraordinary time to be in Israel. The amazing capture of the Butcher of Baghdad in a rat-hole near Tikrit was followed quickly by the surprise pronouncement of Libya's terrorist leader, Moammar Gadhafi, exposing his secret and well-developed weapons of mass destruction program and promising to dismantle it. While some have tried to downplay the importance of Saddam Hussein's capture and have misjudged the lessons learned from Gadhafi's sudden WMD surrender, both are geopolitically significant. These events are already sending shock waves worldwide. Their effect is especially...

PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A French lawyer known for his notorious clients said on Monday he would be ready to defend Saddam Hussein and that the former Iraqi leader must be presumed innocent at any trial. Jacques Verges, who has represented Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and international guerrilla Carlos the Jackal, said hiding Saddam away was against international conventions. U.S. troops captured the deposed leader on Saturday, but his whereabouts remain a mystery. "If he had to be prosecuted tomorrow, he would have to be presumed innocent," Verges told French radio station Europe 1, adding that Saddam should...

When Britain's doughty eighth army shattered the Nazi Afrika Korps at El Alamein in 1942, Winston Churchill said, "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Likewise, Saddam Hussein's capture in a squalid pit in Iraq doesn't mark the end of the American role in rebuilding that shattered nation. But it does finally end Saddam's tyranny while opening an opportunity to expand the international coalition that toppled the murderous despot from his throne. As British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday, "Let this be more...

President Bush Holds Press Conference Press Conference of the President Room 450 Eisenhower Executive Office Building 11:15 A.M. EST President George W. Bush holds a press conference in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building Monday, Dec. 15, 2003. White House photo by Paul Morse. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all. Please be seated. Thank you for coming to this, the last press conference of the year 2003. Before I begin, I do want to talk a little bit about a meeting I just attended. Rend Al-Rahim is here, she's the representative from the Iraqi government, the interim government, to the...

Almighty God, we are taught throughout Your Bible that You are a God of Justice. It is because of this that we pray this simple prayer. We believe that Saddam Hussein is a past murderer and that he is still involved in murder. We pray that out of Your Divine Justice that You would enable him quickly to be captured and brought to the Justice that You decree. We pray for your Divine intervention, Lord. Strip Saddam of his hiding places and of his support. We pray this in the name of eternal Justice, in the name of Jesus. Amen

At the White House on Sunday morning, President Bush's aides watching television finally saw images that they had been awaiting for months. Iraqis were dancing in the streets of Baghdad, celebrating the capture of Saddam Hussein. Bush's national security officials did not for a moment interpret the joy in Iraq as an indicator that bloody guerrilla warfare is about to end. Attacks against U.S. and other coalition troops can be expected to continue, but the end of Saddam's danger will make easier the occupation and pacification. And the political fallout will be profound. The joy at the White House on...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday that Saddam Hussein should be treated like any other prisoner of war and that it expected to be able to visit him. "The ICRC should have access to all persons protected by the Geneva conventions, including prisoners of war," the Swiss-based agency said in a brief statement. U.S.-led troops who toppled Saddam, 66, in April captured him on Saturday in a dirt hole near his hometown of Tikrit. The U.S. commander in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, said he was being accorded all the rights of a...

Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist. Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 12/14/03 - Tikrit, Saddam caught, Baghdad, Najaf, link to Atta BREAKING: Tikrit, Iraq - Saddam caught BREAKING: Baghdad - Bremer confirms capture of Saddam BREAKING: Baghdad - Letter found linking al Qaeda and Saddam BREAKING: Iraq - Iraqis cheer capture of Saddam BREAKING: Najaf - more mass graves QFN ==== YE OLDE QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS ========= Tikrit ========= OPERATION "RED DAWN" - Saddam's caputure by the 4th ID, at 8 PM on 12/13/03 in Tikrit. Three cheers for Teams Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2 Saddam was hiding in a 6x8 foot spider-hole. The...

It took eight months. When it finally came, it was a surprise. Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody But there was jubilation in Washington and Iraq today as Saddam Hussein was captured, uninjured, without a shot being fired, while hiding in the basement of a house in his hometown of Tikrit. Both the U.S. and British government confirmed the capture, which came eight months after the fall of Baghdad. The U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, told a press conference that Saddam was arrested at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. About 600 coalition troops joined the operation. The U.S. forces also showed...

<p>Bush to address nation from White House at noon EST, 9am Pacific.</p>

NT

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 December 14, 2003Release Number: 03-12-32 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURED, IN COALITION CUSTODY Forces from the 4th Infantry Division, coalition forces and special operations forces captured former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, at approximately 8 p.m. local time yesterday in a remote farm house near Tikrit, Iraq. Operation “Red Dawn” was launched after gaining actionable intelligence identifying two likely locations near the town of Ad Dwar. The First Brigade Combat team of the 4th ID was assigned the mission to...

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — Saddam Hussein was captured based on information from a member of a family "close to him," Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno said Sunday. Odierno, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division that captured Saddam, said over the last 10 days soldiers have questioned "five to 10 members" of families "close to Saddam." "Finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," he said. About 600 soldiers under his command conducted the raid Saturday night in a farm near the village of Adwar, finding Saddam in a hole covered by Styrofoam and a carpet beside a...

Dean says capture of Saddam 'a day of celebration'The Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said Sunday he hoped the capture of Saddam Hussein will change "the course of the occupation of Iraq." The former Vermont governor has strongly criticized President Bush over his decision to go to war in Iraq, and his opposition has catapulted him to front-runner status in the race for the Democratic nomination. Dean deflected questions about how Saddam's detention Saturday might shape the race in the early primary contests. "I think this is a day to celebrate the fact...

STUNNED ARAB MEDIA REPORT SADDAM'S ARREST, WHILE PALESTINIANS TRY TO AVOID THE NEWS By Michael Widlanski Jerusalem 14 December 2003 1:30 PM Arab language media reacted quickly, though sometimes in a somewhat stunned fashion, to American reports that U.S. forces had captured former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, touching off celebrations in Baghdad. But the broadcast media of the Palestinian National Authority which has been very friendly to Saddam, tried to ignore the news, treating it as a marginal news item attributed to rumors linked to a scheduled American press conference in Iraq "An American military spokesman said there would be...

Kerry is on Fox News Sunday now showing what a complete idiot he is. This appearance will destroy him. He is showing that he is tone deaf to the capture of the butcher of Baghdad and ... anyhting else. I feel Wallace eviscerated him by simply asking trenchant questions and letting the buffon pompously insist that at this moment of triumph, bush should sieze the opportunity to adopt Kerry's entire --internationalize with our "traditional" allies. He says the news is "terrific" but he shows thaqt he hates it. Kerry denies the facts. Wallace pointed out a speech last week where...

Saddam Hussein wasn't responsible for 9/11 12/15/2003 SO SADDAM Hussein has been captured. We will now hear the Bush administration and a sycophantic press endlessly tell us that this justifies all our actions in Iraq in the war on terrorism. They'll leave out a few pesky facts. Saddam Hussein is not Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks; there's no evidence Hussein had anything to do with them.Iraq's ties to Al Qaeda were made up by the Bush administration. US intelligence told Bush in October 2002 there were no ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda...

Arab Americans in southeastern Mich. celebrate Saddam's capture The Associated Press 12/14/2003, 9:42 a.m. ET DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Alaa Alkhafaji dashed out from behind the counter and turned up the sound on the television. A reporter on Al Jazeera then confirmed what Alkhafaji was just told: Saddam Hussein had been captured in Iraq. Alkhafaji, his eyes still wide with amazement, began dialing the telephone at the Alzawraa Cafe in Dearborn. He wanted to break the news to everybody he knew. Elsewhere in this heavily Arab Detroit suburb, residents took to the streets in celebration as they did eight months...

Leading analysts and political commentators agree the capture of Saddam Hussein represents a coup for the US but questions remain about its repercussions. Mustafa Alani, analyst at Royal United Services Institute in London: "There will be a reduction in operations sponsored by former regime loyalists, but this is not the full story because they are not the only group involved. It won't affect those by Iraqi or Arab mujahidin and might increase them because those who did not want to be branded as supporters of Saddam might now join a resistance with a more nationalist dimension. For the Americans, after...

<p>Every Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, the fate of Hideki Tojo comes to life in Japan. The United States declared Tojo, briefly a prime minister, a war criminal and he was hanged after a two- year trial, along with a half dozen other leaders. But the executions hardly settled their legacy as the U.S. had intended.</p>

There is a famous scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy's little dog, Toto, pulls the curtain back, and the illusionary wizard is revealed to be a small and insignificant human being, whose power came solely from the fear he was able to engender in the imagination of those he held in thrall. I thought of this scene Sunday morning when, alerted by a friend's phone call at 7:30, I turned on my TV and saw the unforgettable video of the former dictator of Iraq. It was not the first time that I had seen his face, of course....

Iraqi Kurdish ruler: Saddam Hussein captured in Tikrit (Sky News)

<p>Joy to the World They thought that we would rue it. They doubted we'd do it. But now they must admit it, that succeed we did.</p> <p>First, let's just be happy. Let's feel a burst of joy.</p> <p>Let's not be boring people who Consider the Implications. Let's not talk about the domestic political impact. For just a day let's feel the pleasure history just handed us.</p>

Having been awakened by a phone call that Saddam had been captured, the first thing that jumped into my mind was "City Line Avenue". It was payback time for all the left wing looney tunes for their snarky remarks and unfounded wacko charges. At about 9 am, I took up my position outside the local NBC affiliate and across from the ABC affiliate there on City Line Avenue. That the stations were there was just a bonus, the main reason is that the intersection sees thousands of cars per hour. It's a main traffic artery west from Philadelphia to the...

Saddam Hussein had pledged not to be taken alive, a top Iraqi military man claimed before the his old boss was captured without a fight hiding in a "spider hole" in a rural farmhouse near Tikrit. Discussing Saddam's capture with WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, former Green Beret-turned-Fox News military analyst Bob Bevelacqua recounted a conversation he had with a two star Iraqi general during a recent trip to Iraq. "Saddam Hussein had personally told this guy that he was going to blow his brains out before the Americans got access to him," Bevelacqua said. Hussein had two AK-47s and a...

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Paul Bremer watches the video of Saddam Hussein going through his medical examination shortly after his capture while it was being briefed to the media gathered at the Iraqi Forum in Baghdad, Dec. 14, 2003. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Steven Pearsall ‘WE GOT HIM’ 4th Infantry Captures Saddam Near Tikrit By Jim Garamone / American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2003 — With three words – “We got him” – Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III announced at a press briefing in Baghdad today that U.S. forces had captured Iraqi dictator Saddam...

  PM: Shadow of Saddam lifted of Iraq In a statement at Downing Street, the Prime Minister said where Saddam Hussein's rule meant terror, division and brutality 'let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people in Iraq'.Read the statement in full below. The shadow of Saddam is finally lifted from the Iraqi people.  We give thanks for that, but let this be more than a cause simply for rejoicing.  Let it be a moment to reach out and to reconcile.  To the Sunnis whose allegiance Saddam falsely claimed I say there is a place for...

WASHINGTON — On Saturday night, I stuffed myself on lamb chops and potato pancakes at a holiday party at the home of Don and Joyce Rumsfeld. Along with other media bigfeet, I chatted up Rummy and C.I.A. chief George Tenet, both of whom were in on the secret of the capture of Saddam a few hours before. Neither man even hinted at a thing. So much for being a Washington Insider. After the news broke Sunday morning, I asked a source in Iraq to speak to members of the Governing Council who had spent a half-hour with the prisoner after...

Just announced on Fox.

AGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 14 — The wild gray beard was gone, and he sat on a metal army cot, just awake from a nap, in socks and black slippers. He was not handcuffed. He did not recognize all his visitors, but they recognized him. That was the purpose of the visit: to help confirm that he was, in fact, Saddam Hussein. What came next in the Sunday afternoon meeting, according to people in the room, was an extraordinary 30 minutes, in which four new leaders of Iraq pointedly questioned the nation's deposed and now captured leader about his tyrannical rule....

<p>The capture of Saddam Hussein boosted confidence among Americans polled Sunday, most of whom agreed the Iraqi war was worth fighting and the search for weapons of mass destruction would be successful.</p> <p>The respondents also were confident that Iraq would establish a stable government and that the United States would find al Qaeda terror leader Osama bin Laden.</p>

ATHENS - Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein could be offered a deal in which he would give his captors information on if and how he hid weapons of mass destruction and if he smuggled some of them into Syria. In exchange, he would face life imprisonment and not be executed for war crimes, senior Iraqis attending a conference here on the future of the region have hinted. Saddam was captured, alive and well, on Saturday near his hometown of Tikrit. U.S. troops found him hiding in a subterranean hole. He did not resist. The Iraqi figures also said that, even...

TRAITOR MP George Galloway last night claimed Saddam’s capture was a SETBACK for Iraq, as it may lead to fresh violence.The loudmouth rebel — who has twice met the tyrant — said: “Tony Blair will be having a laugh now — but I doubt very much if it will be the last laugh.”He added: “This will not stop the Iraqi resistance. If anything, it may set the resistance free from the cloud of Saddam Hussein and transform it into a purely national resistance movement.”Galloway, 49 — on a visit to Egypt — was booted out of the Labour Party for...

The 20-day ground offensive that ended with the fall of Baghdad April 9th to US forces was characterized as much by the level-headed courage of the men who fought it as by its speed and brilliance of execution. Its signature finish - the felling of Saddam Hussein's statue in downtown Baghdad - was celebrated in the streets of the city by thousands of Iraqis who drew that day the first breaths of freedom they had breathed in three decades. Yet, for those standing in the streets of the city that bright April day, it was clear that the war...

For months, coalition forces have searched for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Yesterday they found him. The capture of Saddam Hussein is fabulous news for Iraq, for the region, and for the world. We celebrate with Iraqi people, who are understandably elated at the capture of the tyrant who continued to destabilize their nation, even from the "spider hole" he was discovered cowering in. We do not know, of course, to what degree Saddam himself pulled the strings behind those killing American forces, and the Iraqis and international contingents who are helping Iraq launch its new future. Saddam may well...

Now our children are free Free at last ... Iraqi kid's face lights upas he waves torn picture of SaddamPicture: TERRY RICHARDS From NICK PARKERwith British forces in Basra GLEEFUL Iraqi Tawfik Abdul Baki summed up the joy of his countrymen when he said: “He’s never coming back. The war is really over and we can start our lives again. Our children are free.” I joined 50-year-old construction worker Tawfik and thousands of revellers as the southern city of Basra was filled with tears and dances of joy and wild celebratory gunfire. Grubby children laughed as they tore up...

<p>In the future, the United States will see more events like Saddam Hussein's capture, Donald Miller, a history professor at Lafayette College, said Sunday.</p> <p>In previous wars, the United States put a priority on defeating enemy nations, not capturing enemy leaders, Miller said.</p>

BAGHDAD, Dec. 14 -- Early Sunday morning, after his bushy beard had been shaved off and he had caught some sleep on an Army cot, Saddam Hussein received his first Iraqi visitors. They were four senior Iraqi political figures, invited by American officials to the high-security detention center in Baghdad for the purpose of confirming Hussein's identity with their own eyes. [...] "It was surreal," said Mowaffak Rubaie, a Shiite Muslim member of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council who fled the country in 1979 after being arrested and tortured by Hussein's secret police. [...] "We asked him, 'What if we give...

December 15, 2003 -- CHRISTMAS came early for President Bush. Nothing could have validated his Iraq policy more than capturing Saddam Hussein, trapped like a rat down a hole. It showed the war is being won; the jubilation of Iraqis showed they truly do feel liberated; and the news will ease the fears of military families just before the holidays. Even anti-war Democratic front-runner Howard Dean - whose presidential bid soared when he angrily attacked Bush over Iraq - said, "This is a great day . . . for both the American military and the American people and for the...

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talks to 60 Minutes in his first interview since Saddam's capture.  (CBS) President Bush got the first word that U.S. Forces believed they had Saddam in custody from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Secretary Rumsfeld talks to Lesley Stahl about what the capture of Saddam Hussein means for the future of American presence in Iraq and what it also means for the Iraqi people. Lesley Stahl: Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for joining us this evening. I guess the big question today is, does the capture of Saddam Hussein now mean, Mission Accomplished? Secretary Rumsfeld:Well, certainly...

Al Gore must be thinking life is pretty unfair about now. After dominating the news by endorsing Howard Dean, thereby making a play for the pro-Saddam wing of the Democratic party, he is unceremoniously swept aside by the news that U.S. soldiers have captured Saddam Hussein. Oh well. Unless your approach to investing is to buy high, sell low, and make up the difference in volume, you probably shouldn't take financial advice from the guy who recently asserted that the war in Iraq is a "quagmire" and the worst foreign-policy mistake in the history of the United States. Of course...

WASHINGTON (AP)- First, find out whether Saddam Hussein knows of any impending guerrilla attacks planned against U.S. troops or Iraqis. Then ask where Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and other remaining senior regime officials and insurgent leaders are hiding. Get Saddam to paint a picture of the resistance - if he knows much about it, which some U.S. officials doubt. Down the road, when his interrogators have perhaps established a rapport with him, or perhaps even broken his will to resist questions, try to answer the many unresolved questions about Iraq's efforts to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and ties to...

By RONALD O. RICHARDS Monday, December 15, 2003 - Page A16 Los Angeles, Calif. -- The capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein does nothing to change the fact that he was no threat to the United States, that he had no weapons of mass destruction, that his brutal regime was for years supported and armed by the United States and that the government of President George W. Bush out and out lied to the American people about the reasons for going to war. It does nothing to change the fact that Mr. Bush went to war in violation of...

"caught like a rat."

December 15, 2003 -- WHEN U.S. administrator Jerry Bremer stood before the microphone yesterday morning and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," he was sending an important message to America and the world. One way or another, Bremer was saying, America will get the job done. We didn't get Saddam by dropping daisy-cutter bombs on him in March and April. We didn't get him when we killed his sons over the summer. But we kept at it with determination and resolve. It is certainly true that determination and resolve are necessary in the completion of a difficult task. But...

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...

Less than 48 hours after he was taken into custody, U.S. military officials say that Saddam Hussein's capture has already produced an "intelligence windfall" of new information on Iraq's insurgent movement. Speaking to reporters Monday morning, Brig. Gen. Mark Hurtling said, "Intelligence stemming from Saddam's arrest has led soldiers to capture several other top regime figures and uncover rebel cells in Baghdad." The new information came from a briefcase of documents that the deposed Iraqi dictator was reportedly carrying when he was caught, according to MSNBC. Hurtling told reporters that, based on the find, U.S. officials now believe Saddam was...

Sunday, December 14th, 2003 We Finally Got Our Frankenstein... and He Was In a Spider Hole! -- by Michael Moore Thank God Saddam is finally back in American hands! He must have really missed us. Man, he sure looked bad! But, at least he got a free dental exam today. That's something most Americans can't get. America used to like Saddam. We LOVED Saddam. We funded him. We armed him. We helped him gas Iranian troops. But then he screwed up. He invaded the dictatorship of Kuwait and, in doing so, did the worst thing imaginable -- he threatened an...