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A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated. Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh, of Lebanese descent, was quoted in the Saudi daily al-Medina Wednesday as saying Saddam was actually captured Friday, Dec. 12, 2003, and not the day after, as announced by the U.S. Army. "I was among the 20-man unit, including eight of Arab descent, who searched for Saddam for three days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- A secret intelligence unit created within the US Defense Department after the Sept. 11 attacks helped capture former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in December 2003, news reports said Monday. The unit, called the Strategic Support Branch, had a hidden hand in interrogations and identifying clues inside Iraq that narrowed the search for Saddam Hussein and led to his capture, the reports said. The unit's existence was first revealed by The Washington Post on Sunday. Quoting interviews with participants and documents it obtained,the Post said the Pentagon has created a previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic...

WASHINGTON - When U.S. troops pulled Saddam Hussein from a hole in the ground a year ago, the capture was described afterward as the work of a team of conventional and special operations troops. Nothing was said about an assist from an intelligence unit that the Pentagon created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to expand the military's ability to collect human intelligence — information from spies as opposed to listening devices or satellites. The unit's existence was revealed by The Washington Post on Sunday. Pentagon officials said Monday that the unit, called the Strategic Support Branch, had a...

Brunei Press Sdn Bhd. CAIRO (dpa)december 27, 2004 - A lawyer for Saddam Hussein has disputed the US version of how the former Iraqi dictator was captured a year ago, reports said Sunday. In an interview with the weekly al-Osbou magazine to appear Monday, Saddam's lawyer Khalil al-Duleimi said that the toppled dictator had described the US account of his capture as "a silly fabricated cowboy movie." Saddam was captured on December 13, 2003. US forces said the deposed leader was found hiding in a hole in the ground near a farmhouse in al-Dour, south of his hometown Tikrit. Al-Duleimi,...

10. Had a heartwarming reunion with the guy who deloused him. 9. Put his name in for that homeland security opening. 8. Ordered one of Carvel's delicious fudgy the goat cakes. 7. Rehearsed for his role as Fezziwig in prison production of "A Christmas Carol." 6. Same as every Monday: "CSI: Miami" and frozen pizza bagels. 5. Pampered his beard with VO5 Hot Oil Treatment. 4. Asked guards if he could stay up late to catch Ashanti on Letterman. 3. Counted his blessings that he ain't Bernard Kerik. 2. Waited 13 hours for visit from Uday and Qusay. 1. Compared...

The clinically precise raid that ended with the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein followed 12 failures, said the man who planned it. Army Col. James Hickey, commander of the 1st Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said groundwork for the raid began months earlier as the brigade fought its way north from Baghdad into Mr. Hussein's home turf. The brigade's assigned area included much of Mr. Hussein's power base – the birthplace of his ruling Baath Party and headquarters of the 1st Republican Guard. "Saddam Hussein's extended household was there – his cronies, his wife, his sons –...

The former ruler looked haggard, with a wild, graying beard and ratty hair. "He looked old and miserable," Samir says. When Samir called the man names, the ousted ruler retorted, "`Don't talk to me. I'm Saddam Hussein,'" Samir recalled. "I said, `You are nobody.'" Samir cherishes a photo of him helping pin Saddam to the ground. Before returning to the United States, Samir said his family told him to thank Bush for helping liberate Iraq. Last month, Samir got his chance. When Bush came to campaign July 20 in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Samir was just one...

New details of Saddam capture Pulled from spider hole, Saddam asks: "America, why?" Thursday, August 5, 2004 Posted: 1:46 AM EDT (0546 GMT) Saddam Hussein after his capture (CNN) -- After an extensive search of an Iraqi farm on December last year, U.S. Special Forces and a translator named Samir brushed aside leaves and dirt from one area of the farm, uncovering the spider hole where Saddam Hussein was hiding. "I grabbed him," Samir told CNN in a recent interview. "I was like I am not going to let him go." "I told him that if you're a real...

By Deanne Lane (KSDK) -- It's a world famous photograph, showing a man wearing military camouflage holding Saddam Hussein down on the ground. What few people knew, until now, that man lives in the St. Louis area. "I just told myself it can't be, no way," says 34 year old Samir. He's asked us not to use his last name, or identify exactly where he lives. Samir worked with the military as an interpreter. He was at the remote farm on December 13th, when U.S. forces discovered a secret hiding place. The next few minutes will feel like a lifetime...

How Saddam Hussein was captured BBC News Online looks at how the operation to capture former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein unfolded. SADDAM HUSSEIN'S HIDING HOLE 1050: Tip-off received, two targets identified and given codenames 1800: 600 troops move towards 'Wolverine 1' and 'Wolverine 2' 2000: Targets searched, Saddam Hussein not found 2030: Hole found, Saddam Hussein captured with no resistance Saddam Hussein was captured after a tip-off led American troops to a small, underground hole concealed next to farm buildings near the former leader's hometown of Tikrit. Soldiers were seconds away from throwing a hand grenade into the hole,...

Saddam Hussein was finally betrayed by a relative who was one of his closest bodyguards, a BBC programme reveals. Panorama reports that after eight months on the run, the hiding place of the ousted Iraqi leader was given away by an aide known as "the fat man". The programme, to be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday, says Mohammed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit gave away the secret after being arrested and interrogated. Saddam Hussein was captured on 13 December near his home town of Tikrit. Mr Musslit was a loyal lieutenant of Saddam Hussein. He was one of the people who...

Baghdad – Saddam Hussein failed to anticipate the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and even after hostilities had started, deluded himself that he was winning the war and could clinch a negotiated settlement through French and Russian mediation. According to newly uncovered secret documents, the former Iraqi regime never contemplated its imminent defeat and continued to function normally under Saddam's direct control, even as American tanks were closing in on Baghdad. While much has been made about intelligence failures in the West, it seems that Saddam's own senior officials, diplomats and spies offered him such a warped vision of the outside...

Special Dispatch Series - No. 663 February 16, 2004 No.663 Editor of Egyptian Journal: 'We Should Feel Humiliated that Saddam's Fall Came at the Hands of the U.S. and Britain... The Arabs Should Have Been the Ones to Bring Him Down' Dr. Osama Al-Ghazali Harb, the editor in chief of the Egyptian quarterly Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya magazine and board member and advisor to the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, published a column in the most recent issue of Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya. The article praised the capture of Saddam Hussein and denounced Arabs and Muslims who lament it and propagate...

  Singer dedicates ‘Hey Saddam’ to Soldiers on line By Lee Elder NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Army News Service, Feb. 4, 2004) -- Like many Americans, country songwriter Dave Gibson was glued to the television and the Internet the Sunday morning when the world learned of Saddam Hussein’s capture. “I thought to myself, ‘Somebody ought to write a song about this,’” said Gibson, a former front man for the famed country act, the Gibson/Miller Band. So he picked up his guitar and started playing it. The song was done in two hours. The result of Gibson’s efforts was “Hey Saddam,” a...

UJA, Iraq - U.S. authorities on Wednesday prepared to demolish Saddam Hussein's five palatial homes in the village where he was born, having stripped them of expensive marbles, tiles and valuable furniture. The 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, based in Tikrit, received permission from coalition authorities Tuesday to go ahead with the demolition in Uja village, said the commander, Lt. Col. Steve Russell. For the past couple of months, contractors hired by the U.S. forces have been removing valuable materials from the homes including hand-cut Italian bricks and polished marble tiles, Russell told reporters taken on a tour of the...

Evil tyrants are nothing new to the region of Babylon, present-day Iraq. One of the most vicious in history was Nebuchadnezzar (sixth century BCE), the Babylonian king who built the most powerful nation in the world by ruthlessly attacking and annexing neighboring countries.The Tenth of Tevet (January 4, 2004) commemorates the day when Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. The Babylonians eventually destroyed the First Temple, slaughtered 100,000 Jews, rounded up the rest and sent them into exile.Whenever Nebuchadnezzar made a conquest, he used the stolen wealth to build monuments to his own glory. It was in his capital city that...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- When the news broke last month that Saddam Hussein had been captured -- disheveled and disoriented, hiding in a dark hole in the ground -- it was hard to overstate the magnitude of the shockwaves that reverberated around the world. World leaders and regular citizens across the globe felt an exhilarating sense of satisfaction knowing that this ruthless dictator would finally answer for his heinous crimes. It didn't take long for pundits here in the states to begin theorizing about the political fallout from this long-awaited event either. The most elementary political calculus tempts us to chalk...

A couple on here i hadnt seen.

When the U.S. 4th Infantry Division pulled Saddam Hussein from his hole in the ground on December 13, 2003, the Iraqi dictator was meek, bizarrely offering to negotiate with the U.S. By contrast, Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary general who strained every sinew to stop the war of liberation and now aims to thwart U.S. postwar plans, remains thoroughly defiant. Yet if there is one person on the international stage who deserves to be called to account for his conduct over Iraq, it is Kofi Annan. Missing from the debate on how and where Saddam should be tried has been...

<p>BAGHDAD — Attacks against coalition forces in Iraq have dropped 22% in the four weeks since Saddam Hussein's capture, military records show. U.S. military officers say the decline in attacks, after months of growing intensity, is the first proof that Saddam's capture and recent U.S. offensives have dampened, but not eliminated, resistance to the occupation.</p>