Revealed: who really found Saddam?

[Tinoire]

Revealed: who really found Saddam?

Saddam’s capture was the best present George Bush could have hoped for, and then Gaddafi handed a propaganda gift to Blair. But nothing’s ever that simple
By Foreign Editor David Pratt

<snip>

For 249 days there was no shortage of US expertise devoted to the hunt. But the Pentagon has always remained tight-lipped about those individuals and groups involved, such as Task Force 20, said to be America’s most elite covert unit, or another super-secret team known as Greyfox, which specialises in radio and telephone surveillance.

Saddam, of course, was never likely to use the phone, and the best chance of locating him would always be as a result of informers or home-grown Iraqi intelligence. On this and their collaboration with anti-Saddam groups the Americans have also remained reticent.

Enter one Qusrat Rasul Ali, otherwise known as the lion of Kurdistan. A leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Rasul Ali was once tortured by Saddam’s henchmen, but today is chief of a special forces unit dedicated to hunting down former Ba’athist regime leaders.

<snip>
Armed with the information, Talabani made a beeline for US administration offices in Baghdad, where deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz was based for a week’s stay in Iraq at the time.

The Kurdish leader and US military chiefs conferred and decided that PUK intelligence would go ahead and secretly surround the Zeidan villa and install sensors and eavesdropping devices. The Kurdish agents were instructed to prepare the site for the US special forces operation to storm the building on July 22.

<snip>

http://www.sundayherald.com/38816

[JailBush]

1. if true, this might help explain why the reward was paid to - uh, who WAS

it paid to?

I THOUGHT I had read earlier that the reward was paid to an employee of Haliburton. More recently, I read that Saddam Hussein was turned in by a member of his regime, who was in turn imprisoned, sans reward.

The latter version would be a convenient way of covering up the fact that Saddam was actually turned in by Kurdish forces. I hope SOMEONE is recording all the details in this twisted case, because I'd like to read the whole story - or stories - someday!

[Tuttle]

15. And who gets Bruce Willis' $1,000,000?

I'm sure Bill O'Reilly will be vigilant at insisting that Willis make the payment! Remember O'Lielly locking horns with George Clooney over the Red Cross payments to 911 victims' survivors? I expect nothing less than that level of tenaciousness in this case! (Funny how O'Liar never took the White House to task for stonewalling the 911 commission!)

It's time these Hollywood creeps put their wallets where their mouths have been!

Tut-tut

Anyone remember John Berdsford Tipton?

[mouse7]

17. Kurdistan Red Crescent?

Hmm... Does Willis write that check out to Kurdistan Red Crescent or Kurdistan Red Cross?

[Cush]

2. and the cracks emerge

still, it's good that they finally got the guy

[spychoactive]

6. he looked high when the grabbed him up...

kinda like watching 'cops' or something...

this administration is a fraud...

"it's like a koala bear crapped a rainbow inside my brain"

-howlin' mad-murphy

[Tinoire]

11. Welcome to DU Spychoactive!

:toast:

Caught you on another thread and looking forward to hearing more from you.

[grasswire]

3. never forget....

...that it was the Sunday Morning Herald that broke the PNAC story last year.

[maggrwaggr]

7. Which PNAC story was that?

refresh my memory?

[IndianaGreen]

8. Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President

Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President

By Neil Mackay
15 September 2002

A SECRET blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' even before he took power in January 2001.

The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a 'global Pax Americana' was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice- president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, was written in September 2000 by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: 'The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.'

The PNAC document supports a 'blueprint for maintaining global US pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests'.

http://www.sundayherald.com/27735

[tlcandie]

9. I've always been curious why W didn't sign this... any thoughts?

[DemBones DemBones]

10. I've wondered, too, but I just checked

the date given in the Herald article and it was September, 2000, which, if correct, would explain why W didn't sign it: he was in the midst of his presidential campaign and couldn't associate himself with it. There was no Bush administration at the time -- though Cheney WAS running for VP -- so their names wouldn't necessarily have gotten anyone's attention. For that matter, the "liberal" media has paid little attention to PNAC and painted efforts to expose their agenda as CONSPIRACY THEORY (cue laugh track.)

Need to check that 9/2000 date, though, at PNAC site, as I thought it was signed earlier. I may just be thinking that because of their letters to Poppy Bush and to Clinton.

[GRClarkesq]

23. Not sure what difference it makes

whether he signed it or not since he clearly endorses/promotes the PNAC worldview. Its not like their keeping it a secret.

[deminflorida]

4. Never mind the 30 million, who made off with the billions that

Saddam allegedly stole from the Iraq government? Follow the money trail, where does it lead? That's the big question.

[GRClarkesq]

24. Some news about this, see

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/21/1071941612644.html

[wabeewoman]

5. Wow!

Won't it be something if it does turn out the US had him for 3 months?? Funny how you can believe NOTHING this administration says....

[Rex]

12. I think their boy Ari was a test bed as to what they could get away with

in the mainstream media. Since no one EVER called the BFEE on their BS, they came to the conclusion that it didn't really matter if they lied or told the truth, Americans don't care enough to get out the pitchforks & torches. Now the BFEE runs around and says dam near anything...and still no one in the media calls em on it.

This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

[GRClarkesq]

22. It would be

but I think the angle of this story is that the Kurds captured Saddam and then negotiated with the US. The Kurds get domestic political advantage and the US got media spin/credit for the capture.

I have not seen any stories suggesting the US had Saddam, except for Maddy in the FAUX green room.

[TheWebHead]

13. surprised they didn't mention the spam

that was in Saddam's hut.. pretty hard to obtain item in a muslim dominated nation, but more likely plentiful with the U.S. military.

[psychopomp]

16. Yeah, what's up with that?

That and the Mars bars; way too easy, this one.

[xchrom]

14. this is another example

of how hard the left is gong to have to work in this country to change the media.
yes, change -- we can no longer afford to leave that nest of vipers and their whore employees alone.
the media must pay for their sins -- especially the sin of attempting to brainwash the masses.

[mouse7]

18. Guardian can't break all the stories.

I guess The Sunday Herald is filling in for the Guardian during the holidays so that our friends at the Guardian can enjoy the holiday season at home with their loved ones... sorta like Heidi Collins covering the holiday morning shifts at CNN.

mmmmm... Heidi Collins...

[robbedvoter]

19. The money quote:

"
“It’s mutually worth it to us and the Americans. We need assurances for the future and they need the kudos of getting Saddam,” admitted a Kurdish source on condition of anonymity

[Gman]

20. Once again, the truth is making its way out

no matter how hard they try to keep it in.

[BlueEyedSon]

21. Please vote on Yahoo for this story

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031221/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_saddam_britain_031221040020

Saddam was held by Kurdish forces, drugged and left for US troops

[thissideup]

25. Wasn't the Herald sued for calling Tom Cruise gay?

Those English tabloids are worthless for real news.

[0007]

26. I don't think the Herald is a tabloid!

[grasswire]

27. this is the second newbie...

...trying to paint the SMH as a tabloid today.

Ffffffft.

Rove really needs to find better help.

[0007]

29. Karl Rove needs to be pitied. But not by me.

Leave that for the other one to figure out.

[IndianaGreen]

28. The Herald is Scottish, not English!

Sean Connery would be upset if you were to call him English to his face!

Gay slur earns Cruise $17m

January 16 2003

Tom Cruise has won $17 million damages against a former "erotic wrestler" who claimed he had been the actor's gay lover.

Cruise - then married to Kidman - sued Chad Slater, a former "erotic wrestler" known professionally as Kyle Bradford, for $US100 million ($A170.91 million) in damages in 2001 after Slater made the claim to a French magazine.

But the Top Gun star later requested a $US10 million ($A17.09 million) judgment after Slater defaulted on the suit last year, effectively throwing in the legal towel and threatening to file for bankruptcy should Cruise pursue the case.

"Tom is very, very pleased," his lawyer Ricardo Cestero said today following the judgement in Los Angeles Superior Court that provided the latest twist in a story that made headlines around the globe.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/16/1042520710832.html

Saturday, 1 December, 2001, 06:10 GMT

Cruise gay claims dropped

Hollywood film star Tom Cruise said he was "pleased" after a publisher retracted his claim to possess a video tape showing him engaged in homosexual acts.

The actor dropped a $100m lawsuit against publisher Michael Davis after the retraction, which was approved by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1686039.stm

[Tinoire]

31. Worthless...

When I want worthless I go to Fox or Freeper web-sites. Lots of swill there.

The Sunday Herald- a tabloid! Haha, THAT is funny. Someone should tell Rove he's confused.

[Judi Lynn]

30. Excellent article. So interesting!

It's really too bad the details don't resemble the ones we've been given, but surely _Bush would want the truth to be told.



Here's one from Australia:

We got him: Kurds say they caught Saddam
By Paul McGeough, Herald Correspondent in Baghdad
December 22, 2003


(snip)
Washington's claims that brilliant US intelligence work led to the capture of Saddam Hussein are being challenged by reports sourced in Iraq's Kurdish media claiming that its militia set the circumstances in which the US merely had to go to a farm identified by the Kurds to bag the fugitive former president.

The first media account of the December 13 arrest was aired by a Tehran-based news agency.

American forces took Saddam into custody around 8.30pm local time, but sat on the news until 3pm the next day.
(snip/...)

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/21/1071941612613.html

[Tinoire]

32. Excellent! I've really been annoyed

at having to type his name out and using * just doesn't make me comfortable because too many people don't understand what it stands for. You have the perfect solution! Thanks :)

[IndianaGreen]

33. From the same Sidney Morning Herald (about the Scottish Herald)

The Western media in Baghdad were electrified by the Iranian agency's revelation, but as reports of the arrest built, they relied almost exclusively on accounts from US military and intelligence organisations, starting with the words of the US-appointed administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer: "Ladies and gentlemen: we got 'im".

<snip>

A Scottish newspaper, the Sunday Herald, quoted from an interview aired on the PUK's al-Hurriyah radio station last Wednesday, in which Adil Murad, a member of the PUK's political bureau, said that the day before Saddam's capture he was tipped off by a PUK general - Thamir al-Sultan - that Saddam would be arrested within the next 72 hours.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/21/1071941612613.html