RE: [Futurework] How was Saddam captured alive?

[Karen Watters Cole]

The national media made much of the disorientation Saddam reportedly displayed when he was removed from the dugout; one reported that he had hit his head, another mentioned that in the ‘year before the war’ he was not really involved in daily dictatorship and ‘more interested in the long novels‘ he supposedly wrote. Another report speculated that he appeared to be relieved to have been caught and chatty. In the afternoon the media frenzy died down but by evening when the CBS Sunday news show 60 Minutes regularly appeared, it was reported that from his initial interrogation nothing of interest had been gained, that he maintained his innocence of all charges, just your ordinary everyday dictator, so to speak. As I write this, the only commentary I’ve scanned is from David Ignatius, writing from Amman, who suggests the image of a bearded Saddam looking more like a befuddled homeless man had the effect of a broken voodoo spell throughout the Arab world.   See A Step Toward Mission Accomplished @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A447-2003Dec14.html “For the United States, Hussein's capture offers a new start for an Iraq policy that in recent weeks looked as if its wheels were coming off. It shows the power and panache of the U.S. military, whose competence many Iraqis had begun to doubt. But the Bush administration shouldn't be popping too many champagne corks in the expectation that resistance to U.S. occupation will now end. Instead, resistance could actually intensify. "Now it's no longer about Saddam bouncing back into power, it's about resisting U.S. occupation," said political analyst Labib Kamhawi. The Baath Party, free of Hussein's baggage, may also find new energy. That was the theme of a recent series of articles in the Arabic daily Al-Quds al-Arabi by Salah Omar Ali, a prominent Baathist rival of Hussein. Certainly, the Baathists won't just fade away without Hussein. They will continue doing what they know best, which is running a ruthless, clandestine organization. A key challenge for the U.S.-led coalition will be to renew its outreach to Sunni Muslims, who in recent months have moved toward open revolt. "The Americans need to be talking to the Sunni tribal leadership, to reassure them that the Sunnis are an active and equal part of the new Iraq," argues Ali Shukri, a former top Jordanian military officer who for decades helped manage Jordan's secret contact with Iraqi tribal leaders.”