Back on topic, I'm thrilled with the capture, especially considering how smoothly the operation went.

The fact that we caught him alive is probably the best thing that could have happened. Now many of his supporters are angry with him, claiming he should have committed suicide. Rather than giving himself for the Cause, as he would certainly expect of his followers, he surrendered to save his own skin.

Hopefully this will help halt his supporters...at least to a degree. Last time I checked about 50% of the Iraqis were overjoyed by the disappearance of such a brutal dictator, but who knows, the numbers may be higher now that the fear of him coming back and punishing his opponents has dissolved.

Now if we could only stabilize the country as quickly and peacefully as possible...it doesn't really matter if you supported the war in the beginning anymore. I'm a pretty hard-core pacifist myself, actually. But now that we've become involved, it's our responsibility to help get this country back on its feet. We can't just abandon them after destroying their government.

Great news! I hope that he is tried in his own country by his own countrymen and if found guilty is sentenced to his own countries penalties.But then I also hope that if his own countrymen find him not guilty he is tried in Iran,etc etc etc.

But a scaled down version of a DNA test is not 100% accurate. When DNA testing is used to prove guilt or innocence in a murder case, they perform a complete test. They do not use a scaled down version.

Considering that they've supposedly captured Saddam, shouldn't they be 100% accurate? Why the rushed test? A few days wouldn't make a difference...

I am sure he will be provided with a trial of some kind. Hopefully the Iraqis will get to decide his fate. The decision should rest with those he brutalized. But a question that is hard for me to answer is,,

How do you have a trial for such a known murder and torturer with 30 years of crimes, without looking fake.
I mean is there anyone in the world that is not absolutely certain of hs crimes? He was so sure of himself he even kept records.
The only thing in Saddam's favor in a trial is the lengthy of the witness list. It could take years just to hear testimony from a small portion of his victims and their families.
And just what kind of punishment could fit his crimes? A man who told his followers to fight to the death but who gave up with out a shot fired.

Please excuse my ignorance but I was wondering will the Soldiers who found him get to share the 25 million dollars reward money? I think that would be rather nice.
So far they haven't said who ratted Saddam out but if no one did then who gets the reward?
Or maybe they could put the reward money towards helping the Iraqi people?
Just curious.
PF

But Kuu what if it was not his sons?
I am sure that our own Lisa will be convinced if the proper test prove him to be Saddam. But there will always be those that will refuse to believe regardless of proof.
PF,, as I understand it the information came from a detainee in custody and therefor there will be no reward given.
Jax

Iraq war commander General Franks said in April that they had DNA of Saddam Hussein. Don't know how they got it and how they made sure it was Hussein's though...

Jax, Thank you for taking the time to be so polite as to answer my question. I appreciated it. It's nice to see manners.
Thank you.
PF

What does the US have to gain from a fake Saddam? The real one could just release a videotape, and the political cost would be immeasurable. Use your brain. Look at the man. Look at that "I'm busted" look in his eyes! I have long predicted that this would happen, anything that the US does will always be called false by the cynics. Which is more likely, that the US spent millions cloning Saddam, or that the US spent millions catching him? Some posts in this thread remind me of the idiotic, asinine arguments that the US staged the 9/11 event just so the government could steal our freedoms.

I wasn't accusing the US of foul play, but I was just wondering how they're ever going to be sure, because Saddam has played so many tricks already.

The only way I'd buy it that that man is Saddam is if an individual or team of doctors, who are NOT US government related performed the tests and they themselves released the results.

The doctors could come from a neutral country, say....Switzerland.

Also, there was a question as to what the US government would gain from using a fake Saddam. Well, considering the fact that a lot of US citizens were becoming disillusioned about the war, and considering that a lot of US citizens were beginning to question the reason behind the war and why our men and women are still there when we supposedly won the war in Iraq, the fake was used to boost morale in the United States and in Iraq.

The US government needed to prove to the Iraqis why it was necessary to destroy their land and property. The US government probably felt that the Iraqis would welcome them with open arms after seeing Saddam captured.

Answering another post:

The man in custody does not have one thing that Saddam had...teeth. I have a picture from the Philadelphia Daily News that shows Saddam smiling, with teeth showing (grant it, not much, but they are still showing). The picture of the man in custody with his mouth wide open and with his mouth being probed by a doctor does not have any teeth. The man's mouth is WIDE open, yet no teeth show. (check it out with your own mouth being wide open and teeth will show)

It has not been said whether or not Saddam has false teeth or his real teeth.

What I can't figure out is WHY a "lot of US citizens were beginning to question the reason behind the war". Did they all of a sudden forget that there are terrorists out there in the world determined to kill as many Americans and American supporters that they can? That there are people out there that hate the United States of America and the freedoms that we have and that we have long fought for and maintained? As for becoming disallusioned, our great President Bush stated that this war was not going to be won overnight. He specifically mentioned that it may take years, and that the American people should not forget the evils that this man (Saddam) is and was capable of doing.

I, for one, am glad that we did not leave Iraq when Pres. Bush haters thought we should. Had we left, Sadam would not have been captured.

Obviously he has false teeth. Other than the teeth thing, I challenge you to look at any photo of Saddam and the recent photos of the captured Saddam, and using your heart and head, see if you can honestly say that you don't believe that it is him, rather than naysaying the US just for the sake of naysaying the US. Where was your outrage and disbelief when Saddam was murdering his people and lying to the world?

And as I said before, faking Saddam would be far too dangerous to attempt. If the real Saddam surfaced, it would be an international embarrassment beyond almost anything the United States has ever experienced. It would be far easier to fake a nuclear bomb or a stockpile of anthrax or nerve gas, and the risk would be far lower. We haven't done that yet, so why would we fake Saddam now?

Also, there is the question of his briefcase, the contents of which have led to a bunch of new arrests. Why would a double carry that?

Congrats to Dubyaman - this singular act could revitalise his popularity (well, at least who cares about Bread when Pride is at stake?)
Anyway, my question is , "isn't the showing of Saddamn Hussein on Television, and getting inspected by a medical practioner NOT against the Geneva Convention? I don't why but I believe that it amounts to significant humiliation of a PoW.
Well, after all the hue and cry that was raised during the war over the showing of U.S PoW; this act of U.S seems 'surprising'.

My goodness this thread is insane. Bush compared to a mass murderer who has been responsible for entire missing towns and rape rooms. People sure that the evil Bush administration has faked Sadaam's capture (I guess DNA evidence isn't good enough for most people). I haven't seen anything this off the wall in the forums in a while. But then, I've been gone for awhile, and just popped back in. Guess I better pop back out before too long.

Hello Skylarb,, good to see you. Why don't you tell us what you think of the capture.
Personally I think it is great that ND feels free enough to state an unpopular opinion here.

Jax

"Sam's Tikriti Shwarma Palace", a lavish Middle Eastern restaurant on Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue, has been doing a land-office business since throwing its doors open to the public seven months ago.

Proprietor "Sam" Hussein, a bear of a man with a bristling mustache, jet-black hair, and a ready grin, is new to the New York restaurant scene, having emigrated from his native Iraq when the war ended. "Sam" greets every customer personally and treats all and sundry to his special brand of Middle Eastern humor. I dropped by the other day and "Sam", with a fiendish glint in his eye, asked me, "What do you call 5,000 dead Kurds?" When I told "Sam" I didn't know, he clapped me on the back and said "A GOOD START!" When I groaned, Sam good-naturedly pointed out that he had "killed" at Halabja with this very same line. (I told him it probably depended on the audience).

The shwarma is extraordinarily good, as is the kibbeh. The baba ghanouj is out of this world and Sam's hummus must be tasted to be believed. Hummus is of course made from garbanzo beans, and Sam's version of the famous Middle Eastern staple may tend to leave you, for lack of a better term, a little flatulent after the meal, but Sam, ever the obliging host, is always ready with a few charcoal tablets should you need them. "We call them Weapons of Gas Reduction," Sam says with a wink.

Sadly, some of the desserts can be a bit pedestrian. The baklava tends to be a bit soggy and overly sweet. Stick with the Middle Eastern fruit dishes, though, and you can't go wrong. Sam's own dessert concoction, "British Man-Dates", is already justifiably famous all over trendy, yuppified Brooklyn Heights and Carroll Gardens

Sam's is always crowded, and more than a bit noisy, too-- the industrial shredders in the back room are usually humming loudly, churning out reconstituted meat for gyros and kefta kebabs. But this latest addition to the "Downtown Brooklyn Renaissance" is still highly recommended.

But on the other side of the coin, just think what an ego boost it would be if we could manage to scare off everyone who does not see things our way. What harmony we could have.

Jax.

Lucky for me that I don't scare very easily!