U.S. Denies Reports Top Aide of Saddam Captured

[gWbush is Mabus]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=1&u=/nm/20031202/ts_nm/iraq_ibrahim_denial_dc_2

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - The U.S. military denied reports that Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most wanted man in Iraq (news - web sites) after Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), had been captured in a raid on Tuesday.

"He was definitely not captured in today's mission," Major Doug Vincent of the 173rd Airborne Brigade told reporters who accompanied troops on the raid in Hawija, near Kirkuk.

Earlier, several high-level sources in Iraq's Governing Council said they had been informed that Ibrahim was killed or captured in the operation, which began early on Tuesday and was still going on in the evening.

The U.S. military said last month Ibrahim was directly involved in coordinating attacks on U.S. troops and put a $10 million price on his head. A reward of $25 million is still on offer for information leading to the capture or death of Saddam.





I see a pattern of war stories that are pushed and pushed and pushed by the media, and then retracted (by some) the following day or two.

[veganwitch]

1. i thought he was captured/killed

thats what the news was telling me earlier.

good gravy.

how do we expect this administration to control iraq when it cant even control the news about iraq.

[phillybri]

2. That pattern's been going on since the war started....

Remember the daily "WE FOUND WMD!" alerts on all the networks that turned out to be crap?

[leftchick]

3. which means he probably was indeed captured and or killed.....

Of course they will keep him on ice and roll him out at just the right moment. Perhaps when the next embassy is bombed or helicopter is shot out of the air.......

[jimbo fett]

4. If they admit they have him then they can't torture him.

They have to keep it secret so that no one will know about their tactics to "extract" information from their prisoners. That's the lesson they learned at Gitmo. They stopped sending them there because there was too much scrutiny.

[DemNoir]

5. It had its intended purpose

People heard it driving in to work this morning. They will never hear it wasnt true.

[lumpy]

6. Is anyone taking count of all the

retractions that the military has put forth? Sometimes I'm thinking that some of these people don't even exist.

[Mistress Quickly]

7. Truth be told

it was some appointed Iraqi Governing Council members who announced it, not the military.

All the stories I heard/saw were "maybe" "possibly" "could be" which in plain speak, means "Hey look at the train wreck that almost happened, but didn't"

[arcane1]

8. close enough for the talking heads, anyway

dny all they want, but the shitheads on tv will talk about the possibility, if nothing else, and get a whole news cycle out of it :eyes:

[qanda]

9. Is this the same guy who was dying of cancer?

eom