#Saddam hussein capture photo trial#

#Saddam hussein capture photo trial#

authorities have not yet determined whether to hand him over to the Iraqis for trial or what is status would be. Saddam was being held at an undisclosed location, and U.S. officials went to great length to keep it quiet until medical tests and DNA testing confirmed Saddam's identity.ĭNA tests confirmed Saddam's identity, said the president of Iraqi Governing Council, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim. Though the raid occurred Saturday afternoon American time, U.S. Iraqi journalists in the audience stood, pointed and shouted 'Death to Saddam!' and 'Down with Saddam!' Then the video showed a picture of Saddam after he was shaved, juxtaposed for comparison with an old photo of the Iraqi leader while in power. Saddam touched his beard during the exam. Saddam, with a thick, graying beard and bushy, disheveled hair, was seen as doctor examined him, holding his mouth open with a tongue depressor, apparently to get a DNA sample. 'The Iraqi people can finally be assured that Saddam Hussein will not be coming back - they can see it for themselves,' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.īush planned a midday address to the nation on the capture, McClellan said.Įager to give Iraqis evidence that the elusive former dictator had indeed been captured, Sanchez played a video at the news conference showing the 66-year-old Saddam in custody. The White House said Saddam's capture assures the Iraqi people that the deposed leader is gone from power for good. He seemed defiant, trying to find excuses for the crimes in the same way he did in the past.' The official added: 'He didn't seem apologetic. 'He answered, 'Those are mobs.' When we told him about the mass graves, he replied, 'Those are thieves.'' 'When we told him, 'If you go to the streets now, you will see the people celebrating,'' Abdel-Mahdi said.

'He was unrepentant and defiant,' said Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a senior official of a Shiite Muslim political party who, along with other Iraqi leaders, visited Saddam in captivity. Sanchez, who saw Saddam overnight, said the deposed leader 'has been cooperative and is talkative.' He described Saddam as 'a tired man, a man resigned to his fate.' defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Saddam admitted his identity when captured. The tunnel was roughly in the middle of the compound.Ī U.S. The entrance to the hide-out was under the floor of a small, walled compound with a room in one corner and a lean-to attached to the room. A pipe to the concrete surface at ground level provided air. Bricks and dirt camouflaged the entrance.Ī Pentagon (news - web sites) diagram showed the hiding place as a 6-foot-deep vertical tunnel, with a shorter tunnel branching out horizontally from one side. The cellar was little more than a specially prepared 'spider hole' with just enough space to lie down. Saturday in a walled farm compound in Adwar, a town 10 miles from Tikrit, said Lt. Saddam was one of the most-wanted fugitives in the world, along with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network who has not been caught despite a manhunt since November 2001, when the Taliban regime was overthrown in Afghanistan (news - web sites). In the latest attack, a suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside a police station Sunday morning west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 more, the U.S. commanders have said that while in hiding Saddam played some role in the guerrilla campaign blamed on his followers. Washington hopes Saddam's capture will help break the organized Iraq (news - web sites) resistance that has killed more than 190 American soldiers since President Bush (news - web sites) declared major combat over on May 1 and has set back efforts at reconstruction. In the capital, radio stations played celebratory music, residents fired small arms in the air in celebration and passengers on buses and trucks shouted, 'They got Saddam! They got Saddam!' Paul Bremer told a news conference Sunday, eight months after American troops swept into Baghdad and toppled Saddam's regime.

Saddam Captured Hiding in Hole Near Tikrit.

White House: Capture Good News for Iraqis.

Many Arabs Skeptical on Saddam's Capture.forces battling an insurgency by the ousted dictator's followers.

Saddam Hussein Captured Alive Near Tikritīy HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press WriterīAGHDAD, Iraq - Without firing a shot, American forces captured a bearded and haggard-looking Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in an underground hide-out on a farm near his hometown of Tikrit, ending one of the most intensive manhunts in history.