As the raids eat away at Saddam's support network, it has become increasingly difficult for guerrilla leaders to find foot soldiers willing to attack U.S. forces — driving the amount paid for a successful attack as high as $5,000 from $1,000, said Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, citing Army intelligence.
"He is clearly moving three or four times every single day," Odierno told a news conference at his headquarters in one of Saddam's former palaces. "From some of the raids we've done there are indications that somebody has been moving through there — somebody extremely important."
Saddam is likely being protected by a network of tribal and family supporters who are helping him move around, Odierno said.
The manhunt for the ousted Iraqi president is now focusing on a certain kind of terrain and building — in both rural and urban areas — that Saddam can exploit for security purposes, Odierno added, declining to elaborate further.
Or this:
Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division narrowly missed capturing a high-ranking official in Hussein's former government in a raid late Sunday night, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, commander of the 1st Battalion of the division's 22nd Infantry Regiment. Weapons were seized in the raid, however, and nearly two dozen Iraqis were detained for questioning about attacks on U.S. forces and the whereabouts of Hussein, Russell said.
"The ring is closing," he said, adding that Hussein was "a desperate, losing foe. Each day we step forward, his fate is sealed."
Tikrit has been the focus of the continuing search for Hussein, and military officials here said there have been at least two credible "Elvis sightings," their term for glimpses of the former Iraqi leader. "Based on intelligence that's way above our level, we believe that we have been close on one or two occasions," Aberle said.
I guess these generals are making things up too.
What is the evidence he's dead? Just because he hasn't done an interview? What good would that do him? It would be next to impossible if he's moving every couple of hours as reported anyway. He's obviously alive, as his sons were until we found them.
Wrong. But neither of us will convince the other. Time will show who is right, I expect.