Peering into underground darkness, a clutch of elite American soldiers glimpsed a man with his hands up.
He crouched in the dank chamber and called to them frantically in English: “I am Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq. And I am willing to negotiate.”
One stunned U.S. soldier replied, “President Bush sends his regards.”
After eight months of frustrating searches, false leads and mounting doubts about the chance of finding the deposed Iraqi president, a phalanx of heavily armed U.S. troops made their historic discovery.
But until Hussein raised his hands and spoke, the soldiers were only moments away from unleashing a grenade or a burst of rifle fire to clear the mysterious underground passage.
U.S. soldiers and commanders returned to the site Monday, 9 miles south of Tikrit, and detailed the sudden confluence of intelligence and opportunity that netted the most wanted man in Iraq in a bloodless nighttime raid that lasted less than an hour.
They also told how they almost missed the key clue to the “spider hole” where Hussein was hiding.
“The combat plan was about stealth and speed,” said Col. James Hickey, a 43-year-old Chicago native who oversaw the 600 troops involved in the raid, as head of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team.
Their mission was to grab the man known as “High-Value Target Number One.”
American forces had worked toward that goal since the first U.S. bombs dropped on Iraq in March. They had detained or killed hundreds of Hussein’s friends and associates, including 41 of the 55 most-wanted former members of the regime. They had ringed Al-Awja, the village of his birth, in razor wire to monitor everyone who entered and exited. And still, he remained at large.
But the push to capture Hussein had abruptly accelerated over the last 10 days, as a series of raids in Samarra and Baghdad led U.S. troops to a pivotal member of Hussein’s tribal and family circle. Interrogated for hours in Tikrit on Saturday, the man described by commanders as a prominent landowner–with intimate knowledge of Hussein’s movements–had given up enough information to narrow the search to two farms on the banks of the Tigris River.
The Washington Post reported that a senior officer in Hussein’s Special Security Organization who was seized Friday in Baghdad was brought along on the U.S. search and eventually led troops to compound where Hussein was hiding.
The Americans already had scrutinized satellite photos of the farm, and for months, the soldiers had familiarized themselves with digitally altered photos of Hussein with a long beard. Some even carried the image in their wallets. They knew to look for a tattoo on his left hand.
As night fell Saturday, only the top commanders and Special Operations troops knew the high stakes of their mission. For most of the soldiers who would support the main assault force and secure the farm from all sides, it was just another raid.
But Hickey, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, had a hunch. Early that evening, without saying a word, he stowed a celebratory cigar in his Humvee.
The armada of Humvees and helicopters reached the site at 8 p.m., descending on Al Dawr before most of its 38,000 residents knew what was happening. The troops headed to the simple farms along the banks of the Tigris, first to the farmhouse they had dubbed Wolverine I. They came up empty and turned north to the second site known as Wolverine II, but also found nothing.
They focused next on a mud-brick shack nearby, part of a ragged farm spread over 5 acres of fallow brown fields and tall barren sunflower stalks. It was littered with trash, rusted chicken wire and junked farm equipment. The shack was flanked by pens of turkeys, chickens and a lone brown-and-white cow.
They immediately found two men. One fled, but both were captured. One was believed to be the owner of the farm and a close associate of Hussein’s, said Maj. Brian Reed, 36, of Philadelphia, the brigade operations officer. Neighbors identified the owner as Qais Namiq.
Through the green glow of his night-vision goggles, Capt. Desmond Bailey, 31, watched roughly two dozen Special Operations troops sweep swiftly into the enclosed compound that included the shack. Bailey, of Wetumpka, Ala., and his troops were the closest soldiers to the shack, other than the Special Operations forces inside.
“We’re at the objective,” Bailey heard over the radio, as troops poured through the gray metal gate of the compound.
Inside, soldiers scoured the two-room structure, with a bed on one side, and a rough kitchen on the other.
They were about to leave when they noticed a pale fiber mat protruding from beneath a pile of bricks in front of the shack. They tugged and uncovered a foot-thick block of Styrofoam with nylon handles attached. They lifted the Styrofoam to find the hunched figure of Hussein inside.
`We pulled him out of a hole’
“We’ve got possible contact with the target individual,” came the taut voice over the radio. “We pulled him out of a hole.”
In minutes, soldiers slipped a plastic hood over the bearded and dazed former dictator. Troops found a pistol in his clothes.
In a field in front of the shack, Staff Sgt. Joey Womack, 30, got the order to set up a helicopter landing site. They have found someone, he thought, and his mind flashed to his wife’s predictions.
“She’s the kind of person who can guess the ends of movies before she sees them, and she always had a feeling about it,” he said. “She always said: `You guys are going to find him. I know it.'”
A helicopter that had been circling in the night sky dropped down onto the field 100 feet from the hole. Bailey watched as two Special Operations members escorted Hussein across the rutted field, his head covered and his loose flowing clothes whipping in the wind of the helicopter’s rotor.
The soldiers bundled him into the aircraft and it lifted off in an instant, banking hard over the Tigris until it faded from view. The operation was concluded without a single gunshot.
In the light of day, soldiers and reporters inspected the last refuge of Saddam Hussein, which remained largely undisturbed: A sprightly poster of Noah’s Ark hung on the wall; sausage links slung over a palm branch dried in the winter wind; a crate of oranges sat undisturbed; a pair of white boxer shorts lay in their unopened package. He had kiwis and coconut candies, a gas cooking ring and a can of roach killer. Soldiers already had removed two assault rifles and $750,000 in U.S. $100 bills.
`Crime and Punishment’ found
On a table beside Hussein’s bed were books. Most were novels or poems. One book stood out: an Arabic translation of Feodor Dostoevski’s “Crime and Punishment.”
His underground hiding place, not much bigger than a coffin, showed signs of careful construction: eight heavy wood slats supported the roof; a fluorescent light hung on the left side and an electric exhaust fan was installed on the right. The space was not tall enough to sit upright, but was long enough for a grown man to lie flat.
Commanders don’t know how long Hussein stayed at the shack. Perhaps as little as three hours, they say, or maybe much longer.
“We expected something more elaborate, more well-constructed,” Hickey said. “What we found surprised me.”
As the world reacted to the dramatic capture, Hickey’s thoughts Monday were squarely on what it would mean for his men, and the insurgent attacks they have weathered for months. It is a “good, solid step forward,” he said, but it is too soon to know what effect it will have.
“We’ve done huge amounts of damage to them up here. It’s a really a finite group now,” he said.
For all the soldiers involved, the raid was a milestone in their long, difficult tours in Iraq. For Womack, the thrill was rivaled by thoughts of what still lies ahead. He knows that the capture of Hussein would not bring them home any sooner.
“It’s time to move on to the next thing. We’ve still got several months left here,” he said.
For Capt. Jonathan Velishka, 29, the success brought particular comfort: Four men in his group of more than 200 have been killed in Iraq, and the capture of Hussein brought some feeling that the costs of war have been worth it.
GIs `should be proud’
“What I tell my men is that this is one of the most significant events in modern times. It’s probably on par with Hitler’s demise,” he said Monday at the farm. “They should be proud, but they have to stay vigilant.”
After eight wearying months in one of Iraq’s most dangerous regions, Velishka is savoring a boost of encouragement.
“When we landed in Kuwait, you could see that fire in their eyes,” Velishka said, recalling their arrival last winter. “And it’s good to see that glow in their eyes again.”
