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Scott Ritter, formerly the top United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, has long argued that claims that Saddam Hussein possessed biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programmes were massively exaggerated. His public campaign against the US-led invasion of Iraq made him a hated figure of the American right, which still demonises him as an apologist for the ousted Baghdad regime. Now, at the very moment when the absence of weapons of mass destruction in post-Saddam Iraq should make Mr Ritter feel vindicated, he faces new questions about his relationship with Baghdad after he quit his UN job in 1998. Mr Ritter...

SHOW: CNN CROSSFIRE 19:30 pm ET November 12, 1997; Wednesday 7:30 pm Eastern Time Transcript # 97111200V20 JOHN SUNUNU, CROSSFIRE: Senator Kerry, in fact, in spite of the administration claiming it has restored unanimity, that has not occurred. All the strength of this resolution had to be pulled out of it get any votes at all other than our own. Isn't this exercise actually counterproductive in sending a signal to Iraq that the coalition still remains frayed? SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D), MASSACHUSETTS, FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Well, John, you're correct that this resolution is less than we would have liked. I...

Friday, January 16, 2004 Iraq's deposed leader Saddam Hussain will be tried in an Iraqi court by Iraqi judges, senior member of the Iraqi Governing Council Mohammed Bahr Al Oloum said. He criticised the US decision to designate the former Iraqi leader, captured by American forces in December, as a prisoner of war. He said the council has protested the decision. "He is not a prisoner of war. He is a war criminal," he told Gulf News on the sidelines of a lecture he gave in Bahrain Wednesday night. "The man was not captured during the war; he was caught...

<p>January 12, 2004 -- It's the all-new Baghdad Bob - he's cleaned up his act, dyed his hair and he's back on the air. Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi minister of disinformation who became famous for his absurd daily reports that Iraq was winning the war, has popped up on Arab television as a commentator - as these new exclusive photos show.</p>

A study of television news coverage of the war in Iraq says ABC’s World News Tonight was the most antiwar — far more than CBS, NBC or Fox. — USA Today, September 9 Antiwar? What are we to make of that word, exactly? For starters, it brings to mind a twelve-year-old study on press coverage of the Catholic Church by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, the same outfit that did the study mentioned above. The findings then: press coverage is anti-Catholic. The center, which works to maintain a neutral image, did not use exactly those words but did...

Saddam Spit on a G.I. As He Was Handcuffed; U.S. Soldier Punched Back

THE RAT TRAPPart 1: How Saddam may still nail BushBy Pepe Escobar BAKU - The Christmas blockbuster from the Pentagon studios was a dream. This was the new Roman Empire at its peak - better than Ridleys Scott's Gladiator: a real, captive barbarian emperor, paraded on the Circus Maximus of world television. The barbarian was not a valiant warrior - but a bum. He was not hiding in a nuclear-proof bunker armed to his teeth - he was caught like "a rat" in a "spider hole". He was nothing but a pathetic ghost taking a medical for the world to...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The name of Saddam Hussein has been removed from the list of descendants of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, the head of the union of Ashrafs, who guard the genealogical tree, told AFP. Al-Sherif Najeh Mohammed Hassan al-Faham al-Aaraji admitted that the ousted dictator had been able to cheat despite the great value and honour attached to the line which is guarded in Baghdad. "Saddam had forced the origin experts to falsify his genealogical tree so that it went back to the Prophet," he said. "We will inform all the experts, and particularly those who yielded to Saddam and...

<p>The capture of Saddam Hussein was praised by the Democratic presidential candidates yesterday, but most took the opportunity to reiterate what they see as President Bush's failed Iraqi policy or take shots at front-runner Howard Dean, who opposed the war.</p>

<p>At first I thought I was dreaming. I was half asleep and only turned on the TV for a weather report. Snow and an accompanying "wintry mix" had been forecast for the Washington area, and I was concerned about not being able to shop for family Christmas presents.</p>

1) "Saddam Rat Caught" By: Best of Latin America The Clinic, Santiago, Chile December 14, 2003 2) "Saddam Captured" By: Mike Keefe The Denver Post December 14, 2003 3) "The Glory of Saddam By: Jeff Parker Florida Today December 14, 2003 4) "Saddam Captured" By: Best of Latin America Cagle Cartoons, El Universal, Mexico City December 14, 2003 5) "Saddam Skin Rug" By: Daryl Cagle Slate.com December 14, 2003 6) "Saddam Captured" By: Jeff Parker Florida Today December 14, 2003 7) "Santa Saddam" By: Best of Latin America The Clinic, Santiago, Chile December 14, 2003 8) Emad Hajjaj, Ad-Dustour Newspaper,...

ATHENS - Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein could be offered a deal in which he would give his captors information on if and how he hid weapons of mass destruction and if he smuggled some of them into Syria. In exchange, he would face life imprisonment and not be executed for war crimes, senior Iraqis attending a conference here on the future of the region have hinted. Saddam was captured, alive and well, on Saturday near his hometown of Tikrit. U.S. troops found him hiding in a subterranean hole. He did not resist. The Iraqi figures also said that, even...

Saddam is talking, but he isn't cooperative. New details on his capture and his first interrogation Saddam Hussein was captured on Sunday without a fight. But since then, according to a U.S. intelligence official in Iraq, the fallen dictator has been defiant. “He’s not been very cooperative,” said the official, who read the transcript of the initial interrogation report taken during the first questioning session. After his capture, Saddam was taken to a holding cell at the Baghdad Airport. He didn’t answer any of the initial questions directly, the official said, and at times seemed less than fully coherent. The...

I thought we could get this started before the British papers go out to press..

Dec. 14, 2003 -- Following is a chronology of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's capture by U.S. forces, Saturday, Dec. 13, according to U.S. military officials and NPR reports: 10:50 a.m. Saturday: U.S. military officials receive intelligence that Saddam Hussein may be hiding in one of two locations near the town of Adwar, about 10 miles south of his hometown of Tikrit. About 600 soldiers from the First Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division along with coalition Special Forces units are assigned to kill or capture Saddam. About 6 p.m. Saturday: Under cover of darkness, the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec 14, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The interim Iraqi government said Sunday it wants to try Saddam Hussein before a special tribunal, but a human rights group voiced deep concern about the legitimacy of the newly established panel. The United States reserved judgment. Iraq's new leaders want Saddam to face the tribunal they established last week specifically to hear cases involving leading members of the Saddam regime accused of genocide and other crimes against humanity. "We will deal with Saddam Hussein," said Adnan Pachachi, a member of the 25-seat interim Governing Council. "He was an unjust...

2003-12-14 12:19:16 ET Football Cuts Into Rather's Coverage. Rather had another bizarre moment after a break in CBS's coverage of the speech of President Bush on the capture of Saddam Hussein. In the middle of speaking, the president's words were cut off. He was interrupted by a live shot of the St. Louis Rams football field, which ran for six seconds. The game had yet to start, and the stadium was only partially filled. Background noise could be heard, and through it all, the bottom of the screen said: "CBS News Special Report: Saddam Hussein Captured." When it became clear...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former President Clinton praised the capture of Saddam Hussein and said the ousted Iraqi president finally will answer "for decades of tyranny and murder." "I am glad he was captured alive so he can be brought before the bar of justice," Clinton said Sunday in a statement. Clinton saluted U.S. troops, who found the bearded and disheveled former dictator in an underground hide-out on a farm near his hometown, Tikrit. Clinton also congratulated his successor in the White House. "Saddam Hussein's capture is a tribute to the skill and bravery of our troops and the good...