YES!!!!!!!!!!!
Saddam Hussein has been captured in Tikrit!
"He was wearing a fake beard and laboratory tests have proven his identity beyond any doubt," said the statement.
U.S. officials said only that the U.S. military captured a man in the basement of a building in Tikrit during raids seeking Saddam and that initial efforts to verify his identity indicate he is the deposed Iraqi dictator.
"It certainly looks good," one senior U.S. official said, cautioning more scientific testing, possibly DNA, was being done early Sunday morning to try to confirm the identity.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) welcomed Saddam's capture.
"This is very good news for the people of Iraq (news - web sites). It removes the shadow that has been hanging over them for too long of the nightmare of a return to the Saddam regime," he said in a statement released by his office.
Saddam was trapped in a cellar, dug a hole and buried himself as U.S. soldiers moved into the house where he was hiding, an Iraqi official said Sunday.
Yes! And the Iraqi governing council already has a war trimes aparatus set up to deal with him.
MORE: I'd gotten up early to head to church, where I play the drums for our early service. The snowstorm had cancelled the service, so I'm watching the capture press conference now. The "fake beard" doesn't look fake. He looks like the Unabomber, but I suppose if you put a scraggly beard on just about anyone of Saddam's age they would too. Everyone seems uniformly relieved and boistered by the capture. The Iraqis are jubilant, actually shouting "Death to Saddam" in Arabic at the screen when the captured Saddam appears on it. The press keeps asking the same question--how and when will Saddam face trial?--over and over, though the CPA doesn't yet have an answer and keeps saying so. They're showing video of the rat hole Saddam was found in, and video of him submitting to examination by an Army doctor. One minor point of misgiving--I love seeing the video of Saddam. It's that little bit of visual proof I needed to finally believe the story. But it worries me a little that we're showing it repeatedly. I understand the reason for it, but it's just asking for criticism from the Amnesty Internationals of the world, who are just looking for an excuse to criticize us. They'll accuse the CPA of exploiting Saddam. Ditto the US left, which after muttering "I guess that's a good thing" will quickly try and find some way to deflect due credit from the CPA and the Bush administration. They'll also probably argue that there's no way that Saddam could have been orchestrating the fedayeen and terrorist forces fighting our troops from his little hole in the ground. What role Saddam had in that remains to be determined; it's possible the hole was his last-ditch bunker, and that he was in fact running the fedayeen from nearby or somewhere else. It's also possible he had no significant role in the terror campaign against the coalition. I highly doubt that, though.
In related news, there are reports that Mohammad Atta trained with Abu Nidal's organization in Iraq. Could today turn out to be the most significant turning point on the war since May? It looks like it.
The message Saddam's capture sends to other terrorist kingpins, state sponsors and the like is unmistakable: You may be living the high life today, you may rule your petty kingdom with an iron hand, but if you raise your hand against the US, we will take it all away from you. We will hunt you down. We will reduce you to the life of a common animal, and then we will dug you up, put you on trial and you will meet justice.
MORE: Saddam may have been turned in by his second wife. When caught, he didn't resist even though US troops found a couple of AK-47s with him (the hard left will probably say "See--Saddam was a peaceful man after all. Bush even lied about how bad he is.") The way in which Saddam was captured may also say something about WMDs. Saddam Hussein was able to hide for 8 months in a little hole or in a series of little holes (we don't know yet), though he needed sympathizers in order to survive. That took at least a small network of operatives, and the hole he ended up in was small, but large enough to hold a small stock of WMDs (vials, shells, etc). It's possible his WMD stocks are similarly stored, in little caches around the country. You can bet one of the first questions our interrogators aksed him was "Where are the WMDs?" Maybe now we'll have a final answer.
MORE: What does this mean for the anti-coalition terror campaign? My best guess is that we'll see a short-lived orgy of violence, but the indigenous fedayeen will evaporate within a few weeks. The foreign elements may try to intensify their efforts, but the water they swim in will begin to dry up as the Iraqi people gradually turn finally away from the past. I think we're going to see the beginning of the end pretty soon, though I could obviously be wrong.
MORE: A couple of other stray thoughts. Saddam obviously didn't hide in that hole for 8 solid months. It's too small, and the video shows no facilities--food, etc. He had help, possibly the whole town of Tikrit took turns shuttling him around to keep him one step ahead of us. Tikrit will be a town to watch for the next few weeks.
Why have no world leaders who criticized the war used a little face time to give us an attaboy? They have all offered statements, but nothing on camera yet.
Jacques Chirac is probably worried sick over what Saddam will say if he decides to talk.
Algore may have given Joe Lieberman the best holiday gift possible when he endorsed Dean. Dr. Dean's two main issues--the economy and the war--have been devastated in the past week. Lieberman has been one of just two Dems who have been consistently supportive of the war while running for president. Look for Lieberman to surge, or at least give it a very good shot. Look for Dean to be a bit put on his heels. Algore has once again shown that he may be the unluckiest man on earth--win the popular vote but lose the election; endorse the one candidate most hurt the great news of Saddam's capture. Smooth, Al. Real smooth.
I like President Bush's instincts on all this. He reportedly felt that announcing Saddam's capture from Iraq was the way to go, since in his judgement it was a military matter. It also let the Iraqi governing council appear for the first time to have some say in events, important to changing the view that they're just puppets of the occupation. Bush will get his moment on all this, but he was right to let events transpire from the scene first and not leap for the nearest camera to claim credit for heroic action taking place on the other side of the world. I guess it's his famous modest at work, and at such a time as this. It speaks well of his character.
MORE: Considerettes has a rundown of lefty reaction to Saddam's capture. He gives 'em the fisking they deserve.
Note to lefty bloggers--if you ever wonder again why rightie bloggers question your patriotism, let today be a case in point. The US did absolutely the right thing in all respects today. We caught a very bad man without harming anyone or anything around him. Our leadership from the top down showed a remarkable restraint in the face of incredibly good news, and our troops acted with bravery and patience that I suspect none of you believed possible (at least the latter). And most of you chose to find the little slivers of possible negativity and play that up. It shows that you can't--may not be capable of--simply enjoying a good day for what it is, and letting the politics wait for another day. You always insist that somewhere in any good thing must be a bad thing, either because America did it or because the president happens to be from the wrong party. Get over yourselves--you'll be happier.
America had a good day today, a very good day. Enjoy it.