Saddam hussein capture reactions1/7/2023 Second, Saddam appeared not to be seeking protection from the men on the deck of cards. First, if Abid was to be believed, Saddam Hussein was alive. This was bad news for the war effort for two reasons. The trusted aide, who some called “Saddam’s Shadow,” told interrogators he and Saddam’s two sons had parted ways with the dictator a while back, after Saddam became convinced they could survive longer if they separated. But hopes that Abid could lead the United States to Saddam were quickly dashed. “Captured Iraqi May Know Fate of Saddam,” the Associated Press declared. Newspapers trumpeted his mid-June capture as the war’s biggest feat. Abid, a ubiquitous presence behind the dictator in pre-war photos, had controlled access to Saddam during his years in power. He wasn’t anyone on the deck of playing cards depicting the regime’s 55 most-wanted members, and the coalition troops had much bigger priorities than hunting down bodyguards.Ĭonsider the case of Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Khatab, Saddam’s trusted personal secretary and the Ace of Diamonds. Nobody was particularly worried about the guy next to the dictator, a heavyset man in a brown striped shirt and sunglasses. When grainy footage of the Butcher of Baghdad’s last promenade surfaced 10 days later, most analysts were preoccupied with determining whether it was authentic. At the time, American intelligence officers didn’t know whether Saddam had survived a hailstorm of 2,000-pound bombs and Tomahawk missiles fired at the beginning of the war. Marines in Baghdad tore down a 40-foot-tall bronze statue of the Iraqi dictator. Not long after-possibly that same day, just a few miles away from where Saddam went on his celebratory walk-U.S. When he reached a white sedan, Saddam climbed onto the hood to survey the sea of loyalists. Someone handed Saddam a bewildered baby, which he hoisted up in the air a few times and handed back. It was April 2003, and Saddam Hussein cheerily greeted his subjects as a few bodyguards tried to keep the crowd at bay. Traffic had slowed to a crawl in Baghdad’s Azamiyah district as drivers stopped to ogle the president.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |