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| Iraq |
| "Regards from President Bush." |
| 2003-12-15 |
| EFL: "My name is Saddam Hussein," the fallen Iraqi leader told U.S. troops in English as they pulled him out of a dank hole that had become his home. "I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate." U.S. Special Forces replied: "Regards from President Bush." "I got your negotiation right here, pal." The exchange, recounted by Maj. Bryan Reed, operations officer for the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division one day after Saddam’s capture was announced, suggested the Iraqi leader may be willing to tell U.S. intelligence what he knows. Of the most immediate importance would be any information on the insurgency that has taken the lives of nearly 200 American soldiers. He’s not going to talk without giggle juice. Saddam’s exact whereabouts Monday were unclear. U.S. officials said only he had been moved to a secure location. The Dubai-based Arab TV station Al-Arabiya said he was taken to Qatar, though that could not be confirmed. CENTCOM forward HQ is in Qatar, makes sense. The former dictator - one of the world’s most-wanted fugitives - was captured by Special Forces during a massive raid on a farmhouse near Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, according to Capt. Desmond Bailey. Troops from the 4th Infantry Division guarded the area while Special Forces found Saddam and pulled him out of the narrow hole. "We have him," they radioed to division commanders nearby, Bailey said. Saddam was then quickly taken away from the scene. "It’s Miller Time!" The tip off came from an individual who was arrested in Baghdad Friday and brought to Tikrit Saturday morning for an interrogation that made clear Saddam was in the area, according to Col. James Hickey, who led the raid. Soldiers were seconds away from throwing a hand grenade into the hole when Saddam surrendered, Hickey said. "Fire in the hole!" "Hey, wait, I give up!" The lack of communications equipment in Saddam’s cramped quarters indicated the ousted dictator was not commanding the resistance, Odierno said. He didn’t have a phone for fear of being traced. "He was just caught like a rat," said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, whose 4th Infantry Division troops staged the raid. "When you’re in the bottom of a hole you can’t fight back." In other news, rats protested being compared to Saddam. However, during his arrest U.S. troops discovered "descriptive written material of significant value," a U.S. commander told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity. He declined to say whether the material related to the anti-coalition resistance. They have already bagged another former big shot, name unknown, from a lead developed from evidence found here. Developing. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #20 #5Micheal I like"The Ace of Spades has been trumped". As for music:Rod Stewart,Barry Manilow and others of that type. When my son was about 6 years old,we were visiting Grandma.There were about 7 other kids about the same age,They all ran in the house to watch Barney.One of the adult cousins said you can't watch Barney anymore.Course all the kids started asking Why,How Come,etc. This Dumb-ass says"Because I killed him".Man talk about screaming crying and gnashing of teeth. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-12-15 5:58:34 PM |
| #19 OP, ouch, that hurt just thinking about it. What do you wanna know? |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-12-15 4:44:56 PM |
| #18 Have someone get an old-fashioned real slate blackboard, and have them drag their fingernails across it. Record it. Duplicate it. Duplicate part of it backwards. Run a background track of the same screeching fingernails ascending and descending the scale, getting louder and softer, ranging from about six dB to about 420 dB. Turn it on outside his cell, hit the "repeat" button, and walk away for a few hours. Go back, spoon up what's left, and interogate it. You'll get results. He'll tell you EVERYTHING, then start making shit up. If he stops or hesitates, reach for that "Play" button again. You won't need to actually touch it. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-12-15 4:40:23 PM |
| #17 Guys - you're all wrong - Barney, Wiggles, the entire "Golden Throats" CD, and even Kenny G can be explained away as hallucinations from the giggle juice but Yoko Ono, well, that is pure hell. |
| Posted by: Doc8404 2003-12-15 4:02:55 PM |
| #16 You guys are way too nice: If we make him watch the Democratic candidates' debates, he's singing like a nightingale within thirty minutes. "And then Chirac said to me..." |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-12-15 2:57:16 PM |
| #15 A few more: John Mayer, "Bigger Than My Body" (Worst. Keyboard. Riff. Ever.) Annie Lenox, "Pavement Cracks." Back to back to back episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh and Totally Spies. (Curse you, Cartoon Network!) |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-12-15 2:25:56 PM |
| #14 My vote is Wayne Newton singing "Tiny Bubbles" with an actual bubble machine for effect. Really, we have the time to try all of the suggested methods...why not just fund a reseach project from Saddams petty cash suitcase he was carrying? |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2003-12-15 1:55:47 PM |
| #13 Raj -- Leonard Nimoy, "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" For that matter, ANYTHING off the "Golden Throats" CDs. Buddy Ebsen doing "Your Cheatin' Heart"; Mae West covering "Twist and Shout"... Top it off by showing Incubus, the ground-breaking William Shatner horror movie with 100% Esperanto dialog! |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-12-15 1:40:18 PM |
| #12 Mike, Spot, etc., my nomination: William Shatner covering the Beatles' Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Top that... |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-12-15 1:17:41 PM |
| #11 Tibor -- We'll never know if any US soldier would have said those words. Their best chance to do so would have been after capturing Adid in Somalia and avenging their comrades, but we all know they never got that chance and we all know why. Fortunately W. doesn't subscribe to Bill's "Cut-n-Run" strategy. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-12-15 1:02:14 PM |
| #10 Someone knows the Arabic for "Fi have the means to make you speak" and tell it with a strong german accent? Thinking about it he would be more frightened if the guy spoke with a Tikriti accent. |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-12-15 12:40:53 PM |
| #9 One might suppose that a fugitive dictator with $750,000 in walk-around cash might also be carrying a list of his off-shore bank account numbers? |
| Posted by: roger dodger 2003-12-15 12:14:29 PM |
| #8 Imagine for a minute that Bill Clinton had actually sent US soldiers to track down terrorists and/or tyrants. Do you think a US soldier would have ever uttered these words: "President Clinton sends his regards"? Not a chance. Spot - I'm with you on the Wiggles. |
| Posted by: Tibor 2003-12-15 11:51:41 AM |
| #7 I'm still curious about that general who suddenly expired under questioning about a week ago. Wonder if he talked? Wonder if he's making a new life in Boise. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-12-15 10:43:22 AM |
| #6 The Metallica might not work on Saddam. I'll bet Barney will; though. Heh. That video was invaluable psyops. I'm with OS on this. It's going to improve cooperation among those 'Deck of Cards' (at least the ones we have in custody). I think it's also going to improve intelligence incoming from the Iraqi population who will also no longer fear his retribution. Not to mention totally demoralizing all those who saw him as a hero for 'standing up to America'. |
| Posted by: Kathy K 2003-12-15 10:27:29 AM |
| #5 Saddam Hussein...a man who gives new meaning to the term "ace in the hole" |
| Posted by: Michael 2003-12-15 10:20:03 AM |
| #4 My son tortures me with the Wiggles (if you don't know, don't ask). Where's Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch when you need them? |
| Posted by: Spot 2003-12-15 10:19:58 AM |
| #3 Spook: If I'm not mistaken, they'll also be treating him to such musical favorites as the "Barney" theme and the greatest "hits" of Metallica. |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-12-15 10:11:31 AM |
| #2 You will not see anythign for a while. They havent gotten him cleaned up, happy, well fed. Which will be followed by sleep deprivation, 24*7 bright lights in his closed cell, time disorientation (waking him at odd hours telling him its morning, advancing the days, then dragging them out, etc), altering his food to nothign but bland tasteless stuff. All this can be done without the "giggle juice" - he will break but will not know he has broken. He will talk and eventually willingly spill what he knows. It takes time. And time we have plenty of, now that we have him. The quicker big impact is what everyone else seems to have missed: the other mooks they have got to see him doing the perp walk thru the High Value prison in Baghdad. This will open a lot of those "Deck of Cards" mouths, because now they know, this is their LAST chance to make a deal and tell what they know. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2003-12-15 9:53:20 AM |
| #1 Update: American officials said interrogations of Saddam, whose current location was unknown, will focus first on getting intelligence on the the insurgency that has taken the lives of nearly 200 American soldiers. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Saddam was not helping. "He has not been cooperative in terms of talking or anything like that," Rumsfeld told CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday. But U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the 1st Armored Division told The Associated Press in Baghdad that the first round of Saddam's questioning and documents in a briefcase found with him was "connecting the dots" in intelligence on the insurgency. Since Saddam's capture, U.S. Army teams from the 1st Armored Division have captured one high-ranking former regime figure - who has yet to be identified - and that prisoner has given up a few others, Hertling said. All the men are currently being interrogated and more raids are expected, Hertling said. "We've already gleaned intelligence value from his capture," Hertling said. "We've already been able to capture a couple of key individuals here in Baghdad. We've completely confirmed one of the cells. It's putting the pieces together and it's connecting the dots. It has already helped us significantly in Baghdad." Hertling said: "I'm sure he was giving some guidance to some key figures in this insurgency." |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-12-15 9:39:47 AM |