Saddam not captured by Americans or British!

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

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1514&u=/afp/iraq_saddam_britain&printer=1

LONDON, (AFP) - Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) 
was captured by US troops only after he had been 
taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and 
abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover 
him, a British Sunday newspaper said.

Saddam came into the hands of the Kurdish 
Patriotic Front after being betrayed to the group 
by a member of the al-Jabour tribe, whose 
daughter had been raped by Saddam's son Uday, 
leading to a blood feud, reported the Sunday 
Express, which quoted an unnamed senior British 
military intelligence officer.

The newspaper said the full story of events 
leading up to the ousted Iraqi president's 
capture on December 13 near his hometown of 
Tikrit in northern Iraq (news - web sites), 
"exposes the version peddled by American spin 
doctors as incomplete".

A former Iraqi intelligence officer, whom the 
Express did not name, told the paper that Saddam 
was held prisoner by a leader of the Kurdish 
Patriotic Front, which fought alongside US forces 
during the Iraq war, until he negotiated a deal.

The deal apparently involved the group gaining 
political advantage in the region.

An unnamed Western intelligence source in the 
Middle East told the Express: "Saddam was not 
captured as a result of any American or British 
intelligence. We knew that someone would 
eventually take their revenge, it was just a 
matter of time."


***********************************************************************************************
December 21, 2003
Who captured Saddam Hussein?
Well, the cat is out of the bag so to speak. 
Saddam Hussein was captured by Kurds, not US 
forces. Here is the story as best I can determine 
by looking through a number of articles (see full 
list at end of this post).

Hussein was betrayed to the Kurds by a member of 
the al-Jabour tribe because Hussein's son Uday 
had raped a daughter of the tribe. Saddam had 
previously paid 7 million pounds in blood money 
to the tribe with the warning that he would wipe 
out the entire tribe if it ever came out. (Sify 
report)

He was then handed over to the Kurdish Patriotic 
Front who negotiated a deal with US forces for 
political power before drugging and abandoning 
Hussein for pickup. Ultimately he ended up in the 
hands of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) 
led by Jalal Talabani (Aljazeera)

Hussein could not escape the hole in which he was 
recovered because the entrance had been sealed.

The following is extracted from the article by 
Paul McGeogh from the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) 
We got him: Kurds say they caught Saddam.
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.

However, in the early hours of Sunday, a Kurdish 
language wire service reported explicitly: 
"Saddam Hussein was captured by the Patriotic 
Union of Kurdistan. A special intelligence unit 
led by Qusrat Rasul Ali, a high-ranking member of 
the PUK, found Saddam Hussein in the city of 
Tikrit, his birthplace.

"Qusrat's team was accompanied by a group of US 
soldiers. Further details of the capture will 
emerge during the day; but the global Kurdish 
party is about to begin!"

The head of the PUK, Jalal Talabani, was in the 
Iranian capital en route to Europe.

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".

US officials said that they had extracted the 
vital piece of information on Saddam's 
whereabouts from one of the 20 suspects around 
5.30pm on December 13 and had immediately 
assembled a 600-strong force to surround the farm 
on which he was captured at al-Dwar, south of 
Tikrit.

Little attention was paid to a line in Pentagon 
briefings that some of the Kurdish militia might 
have been in on what was described as a "joint 
operation"; or to a statement by Ahmed Chalabi, 
head of the Iraq National Congress, which said 
that Qusrat and his PUK forces had provided vital 
information and more.



What is truly interesting is not just the US 
claim of capturing Saddam Hussein, but the 
claiming of an elaborate operation that ended 
successfully (much like the scripting of the 
rescue of Jessica Lynch). Not only did that 
elaborate operation not work (if it existed at 
all), but the Kurds had him trapped in a hole 
while the US got the media apparatus together for 
the "dramatic" events.

What is also worrisome, but not unexpected, is 
the virtual silence of the US and British press. 
ABC News Online was the only US-based news I 
found, and it was a copy of the Agence French 
Press report.

News Sources Reporting the Story
I have put an * beside those reports offering the most detail

** We got him: Kurds say they caught Saddam, McGeogh, Sydney Morning Herald

** Saddam: Betrayed, drugged and traded Aljazeera

** Saddam was captured by Kurds, not US Sify.com

** Revealed: Who Really Found Saddam? Pratt, Sunday Herald/Scotland

Saddam held by Kurds, drugged and left for US troops: report ABC News Online

Kurds claim Saddam capture News.com.au (12/22/03)

Kurds Seized Saddam First, Novinite/Bulgaria

'Revenge for rape behind Saddam capture'

Report: ''Saddam capture - not result of American 
or British intelligence'' Al Bawaba.com

Saddam was held by Kurdish forces, drugged and 
left for US troops Arab Times/Kuwait

Kurds claim Saddam capture The Australian (12/22/03)

Kurds claim Saddam capture Herald Sun/AU (12/22/03)

Saddam was held by Kurds and left for US troops: 
ReportHindustan Times (copy of AFP report)

Saddam was held by Kurdish forces, drugged and 
left for US troops Channel News Asia (AFP report)

Kurds claim Saddam capture The Advertiser/AU (12/22/03)

** Kurds, Not U.S. Captured Saddam: Report Islam Online/UK

Saddam was held by Kurdish forces, drugged and 
left for US troops Kurdish Media (AFP report)


Revealed: Who Really Found Saddam? Infoshop News (Pratt article)


Kurds, Not U.S. Captured Saddam: Report Palestinian Chronicle

** ‘Kurdish forces nabbed & drugged Saddam’ The Statesman/India

Kurds nabbed Saddam first? Today Online/Singapore (AFP report)

Saddam Captured by Kurds; US Troops Get Photo Opp Conspiracy Planet

Added links
Kurdish fighters 'drugged' tyrant Gulf Daily News/Bahrain

Saddam hld by Kurds, left for US troops Newind Press/ India

Saddam was held by Kurdish Forces, drugged and 
left for US troops China Daily/China

'Saddam was held by Kurdish forces, drugged and 
left for US troops' Daily Star/India (AFP report)


A report has surfaced which, if true, adds some 
missing details about how Saddam Hussein came to 
be in his "spider hole"... Morons.org

Saddam captured by Kurds (I'm really sure the 
North-American free press will report this any 
day now) Vive le Canada

The Saddam Hussein Capture, A Hoax? Rice, Al-Jazeera

Did Kurds Dupe Bush's Brass; or Did Bush Sell Out 
Iraqis to Kurds as Part of Saddam Handover Deal? 
Kall, OpEdNews

How was Saddam Really Captured: A Journalistic Review Sorenson, Republicons.org

Widespread Claims Kurds Got Saddam First Scoop

TruthOut link to AFP release

Village Voice link to AFP report
Posted by Rowan Wolf at December 21, 2003 08:35 AM

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