Saddam's Bolt-Hole Has To Go, Say Americans

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 1-26-2004 | Jack Fairweather

[blam]

Saddam's bolt-hole has to go, say Americans

By Jack Fairweather in Baghdad
(Filed: 26/01/2004)

Iraqis have reacted with a mixture of bemusement and annoyance to plans by the US military to fill in the spider hole where Saddam Hussein was captured.

The spot marking Saddam's humiliating seizure has been guarded round the clock by American troops since the former dictator surrendered without a fight in December.

It was the second time he had hidden at the farmhouse in the village of ad Dawr, on the outskirts of Tikrit - the first was in 1959 after a botched assassination attempt on the then president, Abdul Karim Qassim.

Now military commanders fear it will become a tourist attraction and hordes of Iraqi tourists will descend on the site once the high level of security is relaxed by the Americans.

So far the hole has only been visited by Coalition Provisional Authority officials, journalists and several hundred soldiers who consider a picture of the hole a must-have souvenir.

A military spokesman said: "The site is an area of active combat operations. The last thing we want is people roaming around with cameras."

Yesterday few Iraqis expressed a wish to visit the hole - viewed with a mixture of joy and shame over Saddam's meek surrender.

Ali Hassan Hadi, a shopkeeper on Baghdad's main commercial street, said: "I wish they had buried Saddam in the hole when they found him. Now I think they should just put up a sign saying, 'Here a very evil man hid from his enemies and then gave up without a fight'."

Mohammed Karim, a spokesman for the Committee for Prisoners and Missing Persons, said: "This place does not belong to the Americans. They must leave it to the Iraqi people to decide how we remember the evil deeds of this man."

No tourist agency was available for comment although Fwad Hassan, a former travel agent, said: "Are the Americans mad? No one does tourism any more in this country because of the security situation."

The fate of the hole ultimately rests with the Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi Governing Council. An IGC spokesman said yesterday: "The sooner that hole is filled in, the sooner local farmers can return to work there."

[nwrep]

I suggest the DNC move their headquarters there after the election.

[Texas Eagle]

Mohammed Karim, a spokesman for the Committee for Prisoners and Missing Persons, said: "This place does not belong to the Americans. They must leave it to the Iraqi people to decide how we remember the evil deeds of this man."

A good point, actually.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I suggest the DNC move their headquarters there after the election.

ROFL!

I don't think Saddam was loved by his people!

[Consort]

A previous thread said it was going to be dismantled, brought here, and reassembled.

[dirtbiker]

I suggest the DNC move their headquarters there after the election.

After the next elections, the DNC will be hard pressed to fully staff such spacious accommodations......

[Thor_Hammar]

The U.S. military is concerned that Saddam's bolthole will become an attraction for tourists? Saddam is worried that his butthole will become an attraction for other prisoners.

[txhurl]

1959? Wow... he was a problem 8 years before I was even born. How old must he have been then, 45 years ago? 15? Why was he there?

[paul in cape]

I say the Smithsonian should dig it up and put it next to the Unabomber's shack.

Hey, I have an idea; maybe we should check the hole for Algore's book, complete with underlined passages!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Couldn't they just turn it into a latrine?

[SandRat]

The fate of the hole ultimately rests with the Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi Governing Council. An IGC spokesman said yesterday: "The sooner that hole is filled in, the sooner local farmers can return to work there."

Turn it into a privy hole, erect an out house over it and call it the "Saddam Shi**er."

[cake_crumb]

We should leave it alone. It's up to the Iraqis what they want to do with it. Maybe it'll make a nice tourist site. They can put the Saddam Memorial Outhouse over it.

[demlosers]

"The sooner that hole is filled in, the sooner local farmers can return to work there."

Furthermore, we don't need the crazy Saddamites set up a shrine for their fallen loser. Just like Hitler's bunker - destroy it.

[Cicero]

I say box it up and ship it to Lake Havasu, Arizona, next to London Bridge.

[Viking2002]

Hey, fellas, before you fill it in, put Saddam back in it. Then back up the concrete mixer. :-)

[The KG9 Kid]

It's their friggin' hole in the ground. Who cares?