No Spider Hole?

[Stevious]

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, March 9 (UPI) -- A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated.

http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/03090002aaa01c9a.upi&Sys=print&Fid=FRONTPAG&Type=&Filter=Front

:wtf:

[SheepyMcSheepster]

1. interesting

[spooked911]

2. I wouldn't be surprised if the spider hole story was a myth

They were waging a psy-ops campaign to degrade his image, and the idea that he was hiding in a small hole fit with that.

There was also some controversy bacj when it happened about the picture of the place with the spider hole-- the fruit on the trees wasn't at the right stage for the time of year.

So, probably it was a convenient myth.

[On the Road]

3. God, I Hate Fabrications

Now I don't know what to believe.

[benburch]

5. Believe that Bush will lie...

even if it would be easier to tell the truth!

[Skip Intro]

4. Does it really surpise anyone here?

All in all its just another lie in the web.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. A lot of us DUers...

called the whole capture story bulshit from the start.

Word at the time had Hussein captured by the Kurds and handed over to CF in a deal that gave them a guaranteed larger role in the new Iraqi government.

The whole spider-hole thing was a big stinker -- a nice piece of US propaganda, just like the statue felling in the square.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Plus Remember The Timing...

The manchild's popularity numbers were starting to fall...most of it with the way he was handling the invasion, plus he needed to ram through another suplemental to fund this plunder...he had to come up with a PR coup...and many of us who were out here at the time saw that for what it was, and never believed the corporate media line.

All one has to do is remember Jessica Lynch to know to what lengths this regime would go to fabricate a story, glorify the military, Commander Bunnypants and push a totally bogus story until Lynch, bravely, said that wasn't the case. Then she was trashed...hopefully back to a life where she's out of the limelight and recovering from the scars of this misadventure.

I heard the Kurd story as well and remember Chalabi shooting his trap that Saddam had been captured several weeks before the hidey hole thing.

Regarding the fruit. IIRC (and sorry, don't have time to Google back), the picture of Saddam being yanked out...which supposedly was taken in August, showed trees that only fruit in the Spring...thus no way this could have occured.

[bullimiami]

7. i never believed it

whether this story is fact or not I think the whole spider hole business, the drugged and shabby saddam, the mouth exam, all of it was a big fat propaganda lie.

[BlueEyedSon]

8. No kidding....?

[FloridaPat]

10. The other story was that some group of Iraqi's had captured him

and put him in the hole. Then told the US for the bounty money that was available. And something doesn't quit ring true with this story. Awful small well hole for the desert. I don't see the troops taking him alive in a shoot out. Too embarassing to Bush family.

Not that I believe the official story either.

[Igel]

11. MIght be true, might not be. Obviously.

The overwhelming role of Arabs (albeit Americans) is suspcious. I could make up a rationale for it, but it's suspicious.

It means that Americans didn't catch and humiliate an Arab leader, and there's no reason for anybody to be in the least thankful for (Crusader) American troops, who can now be portrayed as solely evil.

Instead Arabs captured him in a dignity preserving shootout that showed both Saddam's bravery and that of the Arab(-American) troops, in which even one gave his life on behalf of the Iraqi people.

On the other hand, it also allows them to claim that the Crusader Americans cruelly deprived the Arab(-Americans) of the honor they were due, and falsely lied in order to humiliate an Arab.

Wow, ascribing negative face to the adversary while both playing the victim *and* ascribing negative face to your own ethnicity. Might be true, but it plays a little too precisely into what al-Jazeera readers want to read.