The search for Saddam Hussein was almost as much a hunt for a man who helped hide, feed and protect Iraq’s former dictator as for Saddam himself. The name of the man is a U.S. military secret. All commanders will say is that he is a big-bellied, middle-aged man whose family is close to Saddam — and that on Saturday afternoon, the fat man sang. A short while later, in an operation dubbed "Red Dawn," U.S. soldiers nabbed their quarry.
| Did he have one of those hats? When I was in Norway, many years ago, I wanted to get one of those helmets for my child. Couldn't find one... |
During a media tour Monday of the ramshackle site where Saddam was captured late Saturday near the city of Tikrit, the man who led the search explained how U.S. forces were tipped off to a farm where Iraq’s most-wanted man was found hiding in a hole. Army Col. James Hickey of the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team said his brigade had been staging raids in and around Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown, for eight months in an attempt to find top members of the former regime and end attacks on U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies by pro-Saddam insurgents. As he led reporters down a dirt road toward the small farm compound that was Saddam’s last hide-out, Chicago native Hickey, 43, gave the first detailed explanation of how Saddam was tracked and captured. The former leader’s last minutes in hiding were far more dangerous and dramatic than initial reports of his surrender suggested.
| It's often more dangerous and dramatic than the initial reports — and usually more prosaic to the guys who actually did it. Newspapers need dangerous and dramatic for story content. Troops like prosaic because it results in fewer missing appendages... |
Saddam may have saved his own life by surrendering quickly. Soldiers were prepared to toss a grenade into the tomb-like crawl space where he was discovered, Hickey said. But then Saddam, speaking in English, identified himself as "the president of Iraq" and said he wanted to negotiate.
| "Yes! I am His Excellency the President of Iraq! This is my palace! I am prepared to consider your offers!... Yes, yes. I know I look like a bagman and I'm covered with flies and shit... But I have my dignity... Don't you throw that grenade, young man!" |
U.S. soldiers guarding the site said they were surprised to find Iraq’s former leader, a man who built himself elaborate, marble-floored palaces, living in a concrete hut with few possessions, no communications equipment and no indoor plumbing. |