Searching Iraq: A Journalist's Diary Dec. 15..Saddam Capture

[tlcandie]

http://electroniciraq.net/news/1260.shtml

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I went to Ad Dour once, where Saddam was caught on 14 December 2003, when I was embedded with the US military as a photographer for a news agency.

The 4th Infantry Division -- the Army division taking the credit for Saddam's capture -- raided a farm September 24th, 2003 on a tip that there was a large weapons cache. The Army began by raiding about 20 homes, separating the men and women and then combing through the houses. After their search of the houses turned up only a shotgun and one AK-47, they went to the farm.

The highlight of the village raid was when the soldiers roughed up and then arrested some ragged old man who the locals said was 'senile'.
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I thought what a brilliant place to hide. Nearby farming community to watch your back, fig and lime trees to sustain you, a million places to hide and bury weapons and a maze of dirt paths to make a quick get-away. I wonder..... could he be here? Or is this some other pocket of resistance? Perhaps an ex-general? There must be a million places like this in Iraq. Saddam would have been smart to have created many places like this. Every ruler needs a get-away a retreat. I brushed the idea aside even though I had the intuition the the local community was a bit pro-Saddam. With the way the Americans bullying around Iraq, pointing guns at everything and everyone, destroying the houses they raid who wasnt a little pro-Saddam? But damn, what a great hiding place.

But what about that senile old man back in the village. Couldnt they at least give the guy a shave? His hair and beard were going crazy. When I first saw him I thought, wow he looks like Saddam, but he is too old and he is too skinny. And surely the Army would know it if Saddam was right under their nose. Well, I knew that would be giving them too much credit.
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About the author: Jamal A. Wilson grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and became interested in photography in 1986 while at high school. He later studied at the School of Journalism and Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University. Covering the Clinton White House for Agence France Press, Jamal became interested in what he terms "the so-called Middle East Peace Process" and, in 2000, visited Palestine and Iraq. On 11 September 2001, Jamal was one of the first journalists to photograph the burning Pentagon. He subsequently opposed waging war on Afghanistan and believes that "the Clinton and Bush administrations lied about so-called weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." Jamal is currently taking photographs in Iraq and says, "My heros are Scott Ritter and Nelson Mandela."

Link to Wilson's website: http://www.gturn.com/

Picture from his site:

[xchrom]

1. humiliating that old man

does the best job i've ever seen of summing up our presense in iraq.