“They caught him like a mouse, in a hole that had become a trap: without firing a shot, without shedding blood, in the ‘Red Dawn’ of an Iraq finally free from the fear of the dictator’s return. They took an isolated man, without even a cell phone, now cut off from operational contacts with the Iraqi resistance, forced to change hiding place “every three hours”, wearing 750 thousand dollars in cash which perhaps was no longer enough to buy him the silence of his accomplices. Took Saddam Husseinthe deposed dictator of Iraq: a lonely man, who – according to those who saw him and spoke to him after his capture – retains arrogance about power: tired, lost, but not repentant (“I was a firm leader, but right”)”.
Thus began the piece with which, on Sunday 14 December 2003, from the Ansa office Washington, I talked about the capture of Saddam Hussein and tried to analyze its consequences. The rais had been arrested on the evening of the 13th, but the news had only begun to circulate the following morning, first doubtful, then certain.
An operation conceived on cinematic archetypes: ‘Red Dawn’, the name ‘Red Dawn’, taken from the 1984 film of the same name by John Milius, Dillinger’s, Big Wednesday, Conan; Wolverines, as in the film, the sites to be reclaimed in the city of Ad-Dawr. Task Force 121, an elite special operations force, acted with support from the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division commanded by Major General Raymond Odierno.
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There had been tips, he had been caught the day before Muhammed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit, the dictator’s trusted man; he spoke of Ad-Dawr and a farm south of Tikrit. However, the military found nothing at the two sites. But when they were about to declare themselves defeated once again by Saddam, who had been evading their searches for over eight months, despite being the number one target of the manhunt in Iraq, they discovered by chance a spider hole where the rais was hiding: he came out without putting up any resistance, “I am the president”, he said; “don’t shoot”.
Task Force 121 had already mounted 12 other unsuccessful raids, over 600 smaller operations. Around the president, the network of connivance was thinning. Some, deluding themselves, saw the signs of an evolution democratic of the invaded country. But it was only the effect of fear of the occupation or of the search for revenge, of attempts to save one’s skin or to gain merit in the eyes of the occupiers. It’s easy to talk about it now, with hindsight, knowing how things ended: at least 12 years of military occupation (and there are still American soldiers on the ground), insurrectionary guerrillas, terrorist actions, the birth ofIsis and years of attacks in Europe, a democracy that remains fragile and a country that fails to develop its potential.
But let’s go back to the story of that day, which reflects the spirit of the time – today I would be more cautious. “’It’s a good day,’ they say at the White House; and the Americans think so, who wake up in Washington with deep snow and the TVs already telling everything and showing that man with disheveled hair and a long beard, one of the Hitlers of the 20th century. A good day because a dictator brought to justice, that – says the president George W. Bush – which “he had denied to millions of Iraqis”, “is a good thing”. Bush had received the first information on Saturday evening from the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: he had immediately returned from Camp David to the White House – due to the snow, was the official explanation. At dawn, the president receives confirmation from the national security advisor Condoleezza Rice. At noon, 6pm in Italy, he speaks briefly: just over four minutes, to give two messages to the Iraqis and the Americans. He tells the Iraqis that the time of fear has passed, that the time of freedom has arrived. He reminds the Americans that the time of violence is not over: the mission in Iraq continues and remains dangerous: the boys at the front will not return now, they will continue to risk their lives day by day.
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Once Saddam was captured, the dome of the building was almost completely dismantled regime Iraqi. Decks of cards with the images of the “super-wanted” had been distributed: only 14 remain free, the aces were all captured or killed, like Saddam’s two sons, Uday e My husband, killed in Mosul after fierce resistance. Saddam doesn’t fight like his sons, he doesn’t defend himself, he doesn’t rebel: he lets himself be taken. The generals who command the operations in Tikrit demolish a myth: “he speaks, he collaborates”, they say. A video shows a doctor checking him for lice, examining his mouth and taking samples for DNA testing. James Woolsley, a former CIA director, explains why those images: the dictator comes publicly humiliatedit must appear finished.
Saddam was betrayed by a family member or by a praetorian guard attracted by $25 million bounty or by a branch of power at the top of the resistance. He was captured in his Tikrit, the city of the clan to which he belonged, where he felt safest. The arrest of the rais will not mark the end of the guerrilla war against the invasion nor will it be the triumph of justice: Saddam will be tried, sentenced to death, executed on December 30, 2006, all in a hasty and not always transparent manner. More than for his crimes, atrocious and criminal, there was a rush to get rid of him because he remained cumbersome.