SADDAM HUSSEIN FINALLY BUSTED!! quote: "We got him"

TIKRIT, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. forces have captured Saddam HusseIn in a late night raid in his hometown, according to the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

"Ladies and gentleman, we got him," L. Paul Bremer announced Sunday. The announcement was greeted with cheers from the audience.

Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez showed video of Saddam, who had graying hair and a long beard, undergoing a medical examination after his capture.

Several Iraqi journalists stood up and shouted "Death to Saddam" after the video was shown.

Sanchez said the former leader was not injured and has been "talkative and cooperative," after 4th Infantry Division and special operations forces nabbed him at a "rural farmhouse."

"Today is a great day for the Iraqi people and the coalition," Sanchez said.

Not a single shot was fired in "Operation Red Dawn," carried out based on intelligence gathered over several months, Sanchez said.

"This is very good news for the people of Iraq," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement Sunday. "It removes the shadow that has been hanging over them for too long of the nightmare of a return to the Saddam regime. This fear is now removed." (Blair reaction)

A senior U.S. official told CNN's Dana Bash in Washington that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told President Bush Saturday afternoon (EST) of the likely capture.

In Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqis flooded the streets, firing guns into the air, singing, dancing and throwing candy into the air -- celebrating the apparent capture of the man who had ruled their lives with terror and repression for more than three decades.

The raid was based on intelligence that Saddam was at a particular location in the area, the officials said.

Video following that raid -- exclusively shot by CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh -- showed a group of U.S.-led coalition soldiers patting each other on the back -- apparently in celebration -- and taking group photos in front of a military vehicle.

The 66-year-old longtime Iraqi leader was number one on the coalition's 55 most wanted list, and his evasion has been a political sore spot for the U.S. administration. (Saddam profile)

The Iraq war began on March 19 when U.S. forces launched a "decapitation attack" aimed at the Iraqi president and other top members of the country's leadership.

Hours later, a defiant Saddam wearing a military uniform appeared on Iraqi television to denounce the U.S.-led military campaign as "criminal" and to say his countrymen would be victorious.

At least a dozen audiotapes believed to have been recorded by Saddam, 66, have been released since he was forced out of power by the coalition forces during the Iraq war. The most recent was broadcast in November.

His sons Uday and Qusay -- also on the coalition's most wanted list -- were killed in July, after U.S. forces stormed their hideout in Mosul.


U.S. troops celebrate in Tikrit, after a raid that captured a man believed to be Saddam Hussein.
Initial hopes that their father would soon be found faded in the months following that raid.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, has been dogged by reporters wanting to know the status of the search for Saddam.

"It is difficult to find him," Sanchez said, at a press briefing earlier this month. "Given that I haven't found him killed him or captured him, and I need the Iraqi people's help, and together we will find him, we will capture him, we will kill him."

The announcement comes on the same day that 20 people were killed and 32 wounded by a car bomb outside an Iraqi police station west of Baghdad, an Iraqi police officer told CNN.

Sixteen policemen were among those killed in Sunday's explosion at Khaldiyah, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Iraqi capital, the officer added. (Full story)

-- CNN Senior Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre and CNN Baghdad Bureau Chief Jane Arraf contributed to this report

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/14/sprj.irq.main/index.html

wow, so the American forces can find Waldo... What was it that Sadam did again? I mean apart from take the spotlight away from that other bearded fellow? Anyhoo, good news I suppose...

if only they gave the same ammount of effort on finding war criminals like karadzic and mladic...


saddam looks like karl marx with the beard...

saddam down

bin laden to go

What was it that Sadam did again?

Murder hundreds of thousands of his own citizens; launch wars of aggression against his neighbors killing hundreds of thousands; steal money and livlihood from and oppress citizens that weren't killed; possessed, created and sought to further acquisition of weapons of mass destruction in violation of UN resolutions; fund, train, assist and further support terrorism; violate terms of cease fire between the Iraq and the Gulf War Coalition...but other than that...what did he do...

Last edited by benji on Mon Dec 15, 2003 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

i dont know why, but i think they look very similar. oh yeah: hooray for the capture!

Yay, now only if bush aka war monger could capture Bin-Laden...

Btw, I knew he looked like someone, good going James.

He looks like osama without the supermodel lips.

This = overshadowed by Saddam coverage:

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 by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day 'work programme' Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad.

In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta 'displayed extraordinary effort' and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be 'responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy'.

...

The second part of the memo, which is headed 'Niger Shipment', contains a report about an unspecified shipment — believed to be uranium — that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... altop.html

I was very surprised by the news when I first heard it this morning. I felt certain that Hussein was either dead or long gone without a trace.

To think David Letterman, Jay Leno and the rest have been joking about the chances of finding Saddam, referencing the seemingly impossible task in several jokes and sketches these last few months. Turns out it wasn't impossible after all.

Thank god Saddam got Captured. Oh and ANdrew when can i use my sig again?

Last edited by Old School Fool on Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

i think it's nice that they found him, although i wonder if it's one of his many look-alikes (think about it...)


Old School Fool: how about when you learn not to make a post that just sais "WooO! HOO!"
(you also asked andrew a question, but why not do that in a PM?)

if only they gave the same ammount of effort on finding war criminals like karadzic and mladic...

Tony I'm sure they'll pay attention to that region once there's a profit to be made Nah just kidding *cough*. Those guys probably aren't a threat to America.

Murder hundreds of thousands of his own citizens; launch wars of aggression against his neighbors killing hundreds of thousands; steal money and livlihood from and oppress citizens that weren't killed; possessed, created and sought to further acquisition of weapons of mass destruction in violation of UN resolutions; fund, train, assist and further support terrorism; violate terms of cease fire between the Iraq and the Gulf War Coalition...but other than that...what did he do...

oh, that! I don't see the problem with all that.

I'm sure they'll pay attention to that region once there's a profit to be made

its sad but its the truth...

It's about freakin time! I hope we(the US) torture him for 3 years straight. Let everyone he ever hurt come punch him in the face(with brass nuckles on). Then inject liquid fire(is there a such thing?) into his body.

That would make you much better than him. (Y)

Dahl, didn't they confirm it's the real Saddam with DNA tests? They had taken samples few years back with court papers right?? Anyways, I think it's the real deal, because I believe in DNA. (shame on kobe!!)

hmm. i did not know that... oh well then

I believe in DNA

didn't they confirm it's the real Saddam with DNA tests?

Yes, they did. In the beginning they didn't 100% know it was Saddam, but the DNA results confirmed that it was.

It would be bad-ass for them to put him on a televised trial in Washington D.C...

Then they could find him guilty of crimes against humanity and sentence him to life without parole in a maximum security prison.

They got the DNA from Jordan/Syria, a mistress and his family members...

I hope we(the US) torture him for 3 years straight

I don't. I hope we go through with this Iraqi tribunal. They will take care of things.

Tony I'm sure they'll pay attention to that region once there's a profit to be made Nah just kidding *cough*. Those guys probably aren't a threat to America.

its sad but its the truth...

I don't believe the United States is in charge of the Balkans...is it not the United Nations or at least NATO? I know the U.N. at least has all these rules and regulations that "peacekeeping forces" have to follow. Like they can't leave a certain perimeter armed and such.

Of course I could always talk about how the "International Community" (L) mass murders and dictators...

Give saddam the DEATH PENALTY!

Now that thats outta my system I must say where will we get Osama is he dead or is he in a damn hole growing a 40 Foot Beard and humping rocks? We gotta find Osama!

Well...depends on who you believe...if you believe our intelligence he is in the tribal border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan...if you believe Mansoor Ijaz, who's totally awesome, he's shaved and is in Iran...

We also need to get Mullah Omar...Ayman al-Zawahiri...Bashir Al-Assad...Mohammed Atta (if he isn't Khalid Shaikh Mohammed or wasn't killed)...Abu Musab al-Zarqawi...Sheik Hassan Nasrallah...Yasser Arafat...Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah...Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser...Abdul Rahman Yasin (though he might have been found in Iraq...or was that Ramzi Yousef?)...Muhammad Atef...etc.

mohammad.

now why the hell do you got Arafat on there?


(i don't know about most of the others )



+ Rahman hasn't been found yet... at least i don't think so

Because Arafat is a terrorist leader...he needs to be a taken out...he is the biggest thing holding up any sort of "peace" process. He rejected the Israeli offer that gave Arabs 98% of what they wanted (if they're the ones that just want a state and not total eradication of the Jews) and instead started the Fatwah.

Mullah Omar - Former Taliban leader.
Ayman al-Zawahiri - al Qaeda's new number two...traveling with Usama in Iran according to reports
Bashir al-Assad - Syria's head of state
Mohammed Atta - is not Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and died on 9/11, he didn't just plan as 9/11 mastermind, he was a hijacker too!
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - Head of Al-Tawheed...might be a key link between Usama and Saddam
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah - Head of Hezbollah
Yasser Arafat - Head of the Arabs who want a 23rd state and want to push the Jews into the sea to get it
Abdullah Ahmed Abdulla, Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser, Muhammad Atef - involved in various attacks on the United States...Khobar Towers...Embassies...
Abdul Rahman Yasin - Still loose, was in Iraq, after working with them to attack the World Trade Center
and since I only had Arabs in my list when you ignore "etc." and people complained...
Kim Jong Il - Head of North Korea...not a happy camper...
Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khomeini - Head of Iran...the world's foremost terrorist state...
Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir - Why not? He's not a pleasant fellow.
and also throw in all these people...the World's Most Dangerous Terrorists