AHH!!!! They caught Saddam!

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-14-2003
AHH!!!! They caught Saddam!
24
Sun, 12-14-2003 - 7:56am

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


U.S.: 'We got him'
Saddam captured in Tikrit



Sunday, December 14, 2003 Posted: 1244 GMT ( 8:44 PM HKT)


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.


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


I hope this means things will start to calm down over there now!  My husband still has to go back there next year, so perhaps this will mean things will be less volatile?  Happy Holidays?

Miffy

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 10:13am
They must have some awesome DNA testing facilities at hand then...because they announced it less than 24 hours after they stated he had been caught.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 10:48am
Same here, but I have a feeling that he may be dead already (lets hope so) as he was quite sick 27 months ago when he went on the run, and has not been able to get to a hospital for any treatments for his kidney problems, or is it his liver.
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 10:59am
Some credible sources have also put him & what's left of his leadership in Iran which is where the Saudi bombing were planned from.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 11:14am

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Saddam%20World


Monday, December 15, 2003 · Last updated 7:24 a.m. PT


World leaders urge fair trial for Saddam


By COLLEEN BARRY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


BERLIN -- Both American supporters and opponents of the war in Iraq stepped up pressure Monday for Saddam Hussein to be tried in his homeland, indicating the death penalty could be considered.


British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said the Iraqi people suffered most under Saddam's rule and should be the ones to try the captured despot, rather than an international tribunal such as the U.N. court in The Hague Netherlands which has been dealing with alleged war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.


"It was people inside Iraq who were gassed. The mass graves inside of Iraq are full of Iraqis," Blair's official spokesman said, briefing reporters on customary condition of anonymity. "It is just that his fate should rest with Iraqis."


Blair has been President Bush's staunchest ally in Iraq. On Sunday he hailed news of Saddam's capture, saying it could mark the start of a new era for the country.


Blair's spokesman said Britain would have to accept a decision by Iraqis to execute their former leader, despite strong British opposition to capital punishment.


"Our position on the death penalty is that we do not support it. Were that to be the outcome, that would be something we would have to accept," he said.


Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, who sent troops to fight the war, said he supported the death penalty for Saddam. "If it were imposed, absolutely," he told Australian television's Nine Network.


U.S. officials were focusing on interrogating Saddam and said they still have not decided what to do with him. One option was to try him before a special Iraqi tribunal established just days ago.


A Shiite Muslim member of the Iraqi Governing Council, Mouwafak al-Rabii, said Saddam could be put on trial in the next few weeks and face execution if convicted.


The Arab world, which largely opposed the war, offered a more muted response. The Jordanian Bar Association said Monday that lawyers should step forward to defend Saddam.


"The Jordanian Bar Association considers President Saddam Hussein as the head of the resistance to liberate a dear part of our occupied Arab land," said the bar's president, Hussein Mejali. He urged the world, and Arab leaders in particular, to provide Saddam with "the legitimate protection he deserves as a leader of a liberation movement against occupation."


Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov, whose country opposed the war, said Moscow hoped the detention would lead to stability in Iraq. He said only Iraqis could decide Saddam's fate.


"And for this, it is necessary that Iraq's sovereignty is restored and that self-sufficient and sovereign Iraqi state institutes resume work," Fedotov was quoted by the Interfax news agency.


The European Union said Saddam "should now be judged in a fair trial, according to the rule of law," the EU presidency said in a statement issued on behalf of the 15 governments.


The statement said there was "wide understanding" that trials of alleged war criminals should take place before a domestic court in the country concerned.


The Malaysian government said the Iraqi people should decide how Saddam is brought to justice on accusations of gross human rights violations.


Iraqis should "be given the right to decide on the manner and procedure of bringing Saddam Hussein to face justice," said Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, head of both the Non-Aligned Movement of 116 international law," Abdullah added.


World leaders were quick to welcome the announcement Sunday that Saddam had been caught a day earlier and without a struggle as he hid in a dirt pit in a farmyard near his hometown of Tikrit.


But they also cautioned the road to peace in Iraq still was dangerous and Saddam's capture was not likely to end the insurgency that has killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers.


An Indonesian sentenced to death in last year's Bali bombings agreed, saying Muslim militants would continue the fight against America.


"Even if 1,001 Saddam Husseins were arrested it would not weaken our struggle," Ali Ghufron shouted to reporters as he left a court on the resort island.


German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose ties to America suffered deep strains because of his opposition to the military action, congratulated Bush on the capture and greeted the news "with much happiness."


"I hope that his arrest will support the efforts of the international community to rebuild and stabilize Iraq," Schroeder said Sunday in a letter to Bush.


French President Jacques Chirac, another war opponent, also hailed Saddam's capture.


"It's a major event that should strongly contribute to democracy and stability in Iraq and allow the Iraqis to master their destiny," Chirac said Sunday, according to his spokeswoman.


Saddam, 66, had been on the run since his regime was toppled by U.S.-led forces in April.


Stocks rallied across the Asia-Pacific region Monday as traders bet Saddam's capture could mark a turning point in the Iraq conflict.


In Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda agreed the arrest was "great news," but cautioned it would not necessarily lead to peace.


"The problem, however, is terrorism. I don't think the arrest of Saddam Hussein can stop all terror attacks," Fukuda said.


Reaction in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation and a fierce critic of the war, was more skeptical. "The arrest has not really changed how we feel about the situation in Iraq," Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 11:23am
I think a court made-up of Iraqis would be fair, because the crimes were commited in Iraq against Iraqis.

cl-Libraone

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 11:43am

ITA!!



iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 12:05pm
It was reported on the news last night (the British news agencies are carrying the report) that the CIA is in posession of a hand written memo from one of Hussein's top intelligence people which basically states that Mohamed Atta was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, who had been living in Iraq for years, and training terrorists. Nidal was killed by Hussein last year.... (Gee, I wonder why). If this can be confirmed, can anyone say smoking gun?
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 1:01pm
I've been following that story for a few days, too. If the memo is authenticated, things will get very interesting because it also says that Iraq has taken delivery of a shipment of something that was too sensitive to name from Niger.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 12-16-2003 - 6:52am

Daughter wants international trial for Saddam.


http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=423153&section=news



Saddam Hussein's daughter Raghad says she and her sisters want an international trial for their father who was caught by U.S. troops this week.


"He should not be tried by the (Iraqi) Governing Council which was put in place by occupiers," Raghad Saddam Hussein told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television on Tuesday by telephone from Jordan.

"We want an international, fair and legal trial," she said, adding that his family would appoint a lawyer to defend him.

cl-Libraone

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 12-16-2003 - 7:15am

Israel planned to kill Saddam after 1991 Gulf War.



Israeli commandos planned to assassinate Saddam Hussein at his uncle's funeral after the 1991 Gulf War, but the mission was aborted after five soldiers were killed in training, officials say.


Military censors lifted an 11-year-old ban on reporting the plan on Monday, allowing newspapers to publish details of the aborted 1992 mission just days after the ousted Iraqi leader was captured by U.S. forces in Iraq.


More.................


http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ZGSBBY2CEI4FSCRBAEKSFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=423142&section=news

cl-Libraone

 


Photobucket&nbs