The Hunt for $addam

Stories on the details of the hunt for Saddam should be plentiful for a while. This one from Newsweek contains what will likely be among the first of many embellishments of the "official" version:

The Special Forces commando had already pulled the pin. He was primed to toss the grenade into the "spider hole," a Vietnam-era nickname for lethal hiding places. But the man cowering inside did not use the pistol resting in his lap. He raised both hands in submission and, speaking in English, announced, "I am Saddam Hussein, I am the president of Iraq and I'm willing to negotiate."

As the story was later told, one of the Special Forces operators looked down at the disheveled, bearded, seemingly dazed man and replied, "President Bush sends his regards." And coming out of the hole, Saddam accidentally bumped his head. But a knowledgeable U.S. official told NEWSWEEK that it didn't quite happen that way. In fact, as Saddam was being handcuffed, he began to struggle with his captors. He spat at the soldiers. One of the commandos decked him, either with a punch or a rifle butt. (The military later tidied up the story of his capture for popular consumption.)

So ended one of the biggest and most maddening manhunts in history. The Americans had tried and failed to kill Saddam Hussein with laser-guided 2,000-pound bombs at the beginning and toward the end of the invasion of Iraq last spring. He had slipped out of Baghdad as American forces were advancing on the Iraqi capital in early April and vanished. Offers of a $25 million reward and all the secret listening devices of American technology had failed to find the Butcher of Baghdad. In the end, the capture of the man known to the military as High Value Target 1 (HVT-1) or Black List 1 (BL-1) required drudgery, patience and a bit of luck.

The tale is a good one; though we'll surely never know the full truth. Details like the "punch in the face" sound urban-legendary, with a special resonance to the "if it ain't true, it oughta be" aspect of this one. Who wouldn't have wanted to throw that punch, at the slightest twitch of the captive? The 'spit' detail, of course, provides ample justification, right?

Still I note the obligatory "failure" references in the third paragraph. Nice balance there, Newsweek. Am I reading too much into that? The London Times (their version is subscription only; Fox has an excerpt here) seems to want to hint at the "cost" aspect too.

LONDON ? The potted palm looked strangely familiar to Nada Yunis, a 36-year-old Iraqi businesswoman.

She suddenly realized as she watched Saddam Hussein on TV that he was sitting in her living room.

<...>

As she watched the latest pictures of Saddam talking to senior aides, she recognized the orange curtains. The aides were sitting on her dining room chairs, and the palm stood where she had left it.

It was as close as anyone would come to identifying Saddam's precise location.

The next day, a CIA informant claimed to have spotted the elusive president entering another Mansur compound only half a mile from Yunis' home.

Within 45 minutes, an Air Force B-1 bomber demolished the compound with four precision-guided bunker-busting bombs.

"Just in case he didn't die before, let's have him die again," joked a U.S. intelligence official.

Of course, Saddam was not dead.

And it would take eight frustrating months and one of the world's most expensive manhunts to track him down to a hole in the ground.

World's most expensive manhunt? Was the whole thing about the president getting the guy that tried to kill his dad? We haven't dusted that one off lately have we?

No, surely I'm overreacting. All the coverage of the fall of Saddam is celebratory, isn't it? And the closing paragraphs of the London Times story are meant to point out the eternal flame of human hope, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that said hope is misplaced right?

Not everyone believes this is really happening, however. Diehards say Saddam is free. Awja, his home town, is gripped by the rumour about a little girl who was walking in the street crying last week.

A black BMW pulled up and the man inside asked: "Why are you crying?" She said she was crying because her president was captured. He laughed, and she recognised the laugh. It was Saddam. He gave her money for sweets, and said: "Stop crying, go to school, and be sure I will never be captured."

What a heartwarming tale. Just in time for Christmas!