SADDAM CAPTURED
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captain static
- Posts: 2438
- Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2002 6:05 pm
All news has it's spin. The Australian story does not have all of the facts but is closer to the truth. My views come from intelligence sources not from the media. Lateralus has good insight into the situation. The Kurds definitely hate Saddam more than anyone. After all he did gas them. If you are following the situation at all, you will know that the Kurdish card is very important to determining the future of Iraq and us getting our troops out.
"Be responsible for your actions and sensitive to the concerns of other visitors and land managers. ... Your reward is the opportunity to climb in one of the most beautiful areas in this part of the country." John H. Bronaugh
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jeffers_mz
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2002 7:23 pm
Both the leader of the KDP and the PUK have had interviews aired on Al Jazeera since Saddam's capture, and neither make any claim what-so-ever that Kurds were involved in the capture, beyond observation.
US forces captured a person of high interest, a distant family relation to Saddam known as "the fat man", who broke under interrogation and delivered the location of Saddam.
When the US military arrived at the location, they were noticed by peshmerga forces in the area for the purposes of surveillance, part of a much larger operation covering much of Northern Iraq. The peshmergas were present when Saddam was captured, but did not actively participate in the hunt.
The US forces relayed the news regarding Saddam's capture up the chain of command, which chose not to report the capture to the media.
The PUK peshmergas who witnessed the activity reported the capture to Talibani, leader of the PUK, via cellphone, who happened to be on his way to Teheran, Iran at the time. Talibani chose to make the capture public once he arrived in Teheran, and his report was echoed by the Iranians he talked to in the same time frame.
At that point, he perhaps overstated the involvement of the peshmergas in the actual capture, not untruthfully in that they were there, but ambiguously, in that he did not mention that they did not participate other than as observers. He later corrected this during the Al Jazeera interview, the precise relevant text of the interview being:
"[Begin recording] [Talabani] We contributed to trailing and pursuing Saddam Husayn when he used to go from one place to another. We provided the coalition with important information about these places.
However, the arrest was carried out by American hands. The American forces carried out the arrest and none of the peshmerga members took part in the arrest. Therefore, this report is regrettably false. It
could be meant to justify the low spirits of the former president and the shock on his face following the arrest so as to say that he was drugged. He was not drugged because four members of the Iraqi
Governing Council met him and he was fully conscious and traded insults with them.
[Al-Jazirah correspondent in Moscow Akram Khuzam] Why was the PUK given the right to announce the arrest of the former president, Saddam Husayn?
[Talabani] The truth is that no one gave it the right. We were one of the parties hunting down the ousted president. A PUK surveillance unit was present in the area. On the night of the arrest, it seems that a
member of this unit learned about the arrest. He telephoned us and told us about the arrest of the former president, Saddam Husayn. We asked him to confirm the report because it was important news. He
came back after one hour and confirmed that the news was true. I was on my way to Iran. When I met with an Iranian journalist, he asked me about the latest news. I told him: I have important news for you,
which is the arrest of Iraqi president Saddam Husayn. The Americans had confirmed to us the truth of this report before I left for Iran."
Saddam's supporters, angry at the ease of his capture and embarrased at his disheveled appearance, and Bush detractors, have siezed on the ambiguity of Talibani's earlier report to construct a wide variety of conspiracy theories, from the idea that the Kurds caught Saddam, drugged him and left him in the hole, to the theory that Saddam was actually captured in August, and that both Bush and Rumsfeld met with him during their respective visits.
What else is new?
US forces captured a person of high interest, a distant family relation to Saddam known as "the fat man", who broke under interrogation and delivered the location of Saddam.
When the US military arrived at the location, they were noticed by peshmerga forces in the area for the purposes of surveillance, part of a much larger operation covering much of Northern Iraq. The peshmergas were present when Saddam was captured, but did not actively participate in the hunt.
The US forces relayed the news regarding Saddam's capture up the chain of command, which chose not to report the capture to the media.
The PUK peshmergas who witnessed the activity reported the capture to Talibani, leader of the PUK, via cellphone, who happened to be on his way to Teheran, Iran at the time. Talibani chose to make the capture public once he arrived in Teheran, and his report was echoed by the Iranians he talked to in the same time frame.
At that point, he perhaps overstated the involvement of the peshmergas in the actual capture, not untruthfully in that they were there, but ambiguously, in that he did not mention that they did not participate other than as observers. He later corrected this during the Al Jazeera interview, the precise relevant text of the interview being:
"[Begin recording] [Talabani] We contributed to trailing and pursuing Saddam Husayn when he used to go from one place to another. We provided the coalition with important information about these places.
However, the arrest was carried out by American hands. The American forces carried out the arrest and none of the peshmerga members took part in the arrest. Therefore, this report is regrettably false. It
could be meant to justify the low spirits of the former president and the shock on his face following the arrest so as to say that he was drugged. He was not drugged because four members of the Iraqi
Governing Council met him and he was fully conscious and traded insults with them.
[Al-Jazirah correspondent in Moscow Akram Khuzam] Why was the PUK given the right to announce the arrest of the former president, Saddam Husayn?
[Talabani] The truth is that no one gave it the right. We were one of the parties hunting down the ousted president. A PUK surveillance unit was present in the area. On the night of the arrest, it seems that a
member of this unit learned about the arrest. He telephoned us and told us about the arrest of the former president, Saddam Husayn. We asked him to confirm the report because it was important news. He
came back after one hour and confirmed that the news was true. I was on my way to Iran. When I met with an Iranian journalist, he asked me about the latest news. I told him: I have important news for you,
which is the arrest of Iraqi president Saddam Husayn. The Americans had confirmed to us the truth of this report before I left for Iran."
Saddam's supporters, angry at the ease of his capture and embarrased at his disheveled appearance, and Bush detractors, have siezed on the ambiguity of Talibani's earlier report to construct a wide variety of conspiracy theories, from the idea that the Kurds caught Saddam, drugged him and left him in the hole, to the theory that Saddam was actually captured in August, and that both Bush and Rumsfeld met with him during their respective visits.
What else is new?
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