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Saddam's spiderhole becomes focal point for revenge attacks
The Times (UK) ^
| 1/31/04
| Stephen Farrell
Posted on 01/30/2004 6:05:19 PM PST by saquin
FROM across the Tigris the chants begin, rising until they are audible around the spiderhole where the dictator was caught: Saddam, Saddam will live for ever. He is the leader for us.
Around the shaft Iraqi guards sprint for the sandbags, their lieutenant shouting Withdraw! Withdraw! before firing a warning round into the air.
This is al-Dawr, the loyalist Tikriti town where a month after Saddams capture on December 13, his last refuge has become a focus for Baathist attacks. US soldiers want to fill in the hole to stop it becoming a shrine.
With graffiti already appearing on the farmhouse walls and curious local people trying to sneak in, its destruction cannot come soon enough for the handful of Iraqi Civil Defence Corps paid £2 a day to protect it.
It has become a place for Saddams followers to take revenge on us, Sergeant Kassim Abed Sharif sighs as he shows off a landmine planted by regime loyalists to blow up his men. There have been more than 20 attacks since we took over from the Americans a month ago. His relatives and cousins fire mortars at us, they shoot at us and they send death threats to our homes.
Corporal Samir Salman points to a blue symbol painted on the gatepost, clearly pre-dating Saddams capture. It is, he says, the code used by Saddams Fedayin to mark a strategic location and tipped off pro-US forces months ago that the farmhouse was regime-friendly.
They should destroy it now. There are so many tasks that are worth risking our lives for; we could be downtown stopping car bombers, not here protecting a hole, Sergeant Sharif says.
In this, he has support from the family of Qais Nameq al-Douri, the former Saddam palace guard who owns the land.
His wife, Khalida, insisted yesterday that the 7ft by 2ft by 3ft spiderhole was not a place of concealment but a shelter dug by her husband and his brothers all under arrest because they feared US chemical weapons.
Mrs al-Douri protests ignorance of the mysterious blue sign, suggesting that it was painted by the Americans. But, catching a glimpse of the symbol in The Times reporters notebook, her six-year-old daughter blurts out, That was the one put up by . . .
Shut your mouth, her aunt hisses. Unfazed, the farmers wife continues, saying they had no idea that their fugitive President was hidden beneath their outhouse.
Let them fill it in and be finished with this silly business . . . Let us make it a farm again.
TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraq; shrine; spiderhole
1
posted on
01/30/2004 6:05:20 PM PST
by
saquin
To: saquin
Saddam,the spiderman! Come on out of your hole!
2
posted on
01/30/2004 6:11:06 PM PST
by
tessalu
To: saquin
Yada, yada. They need to fill in the hole. They need to protect the hole. How about building one of these over the hole and doing both?
To: Vigilanteman
LOL!!!
4
posted on
01/30/2004 6:13:49 PM PST
by
Ben Chad
To: saquin
Sounds like a potential sick, twisted Iraqi Graceland. Where people gather to pay their respects, buy cheap mugs, shampoo, and
autographed 8x10 glossies of their hero. ...Hmmmmmmm...
Saddam Has Left The Bunker
To: saquin
They should destroy it now. There are so many tasks that are worth risking our lives for; we could be downtown stopping car bombers, not here protecting a hole, Sergeant Sharif says.
Yep. He has avery good point.
6
posted on
01/30/2004 6:16:01 PM PST
by
Peace will be here soon
(Beware, there are some crazy people around here !!! And I could be one of them !!)
To: saquin
Mrs al-Douri protests ignorance of the mysterious blue sign, suggesting that it was painted by the Americans. But, catching a glimpse of the symbol in The Times reporters notebook, her six-year-old daughter blurts out, That was the one put up by . . . Shut your mouth, her aunt hisses. Unfazed, the farmers wife continues... That's the way these people are. Busted in a lie, and she is unfazed. That is their worldview. There is no shame in trying and getting busted in a lie; you just continue on, ignoring it like it never happened.
7
posted on
01/30/2004 6:26:39 PM PST
by
gg188
To: Peace will be here soon
Such a good point, in fact, shall we shout to whoever made the decision NOT to destroy it (and someone did):
Pull your head out!?
8
posted on
01/30/2004 6:43:20 PM PST
by
Indie
(Never disrespect the power of an adversary.)
To: saquin
Pour in a few buckets of pig guts, blow it up, then fill and level what is left, while adding more pig guts.
Level the surrounding building while they are at it.
9
posted on
01/30/2004 6:47:39 PM PST
by
Richard-SIA
(Nuke the U.N!)
To: Richard-SIA
I like the pig idea.
10
posted on
01/30/2004 6:59:03 PM PST
by
FreedomCalls
(It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
To: saquin
Provide a well advertised notice, then JDAM the entire area.
11
posted on
01/30/2004 7:10:38 PM PST
by
upchuck
(Help Stop Animal Overpopulation - Spay/Neuter Your Pets and Any Weird Friends Too...)
To: Vigilanteman
How about building one of these over the hole and doing both?Only if we can throw Saddam back down in it first.
Hmm, actually that would be a good idea for a bunch of Rats I can think of as well.
12
posted on
01/30/2004 7:15:20 PM PST
by
CFC__VRWC
(AIDS, abortion, euthanasia - don't liberals just kill ya?)
To: saquin
Don't fill it end, reinforce it properly. Its easier if the people that you want to kill come to you than it is to go out and ferret them out.
13
posted on
01/30/2004 7:19:41 PM PST
by
Growler
To: saquin
Last I heard of this the 4th ID was going to excavate the entire hole (hehe) and relocate it back to Fort Hood.
Anybody know?
14
posted on
01/30/2004 7:20:22 PM PST
by
Happy2BMe
(U.S. borders - Controlled by CORRUPT Politicians and Slave-Labor Employers)
To: Happy2BMe
Last I heard of this the 4th ID was going to excavate the entire hole (hehe) and relocate it back to Fort Hood.
Anybody know?
I heard the current Iraqi leadership put the axe on that move. I would expect someone in power has plans to make it a tourist attraction , and will try to cash in on it.
They sealed up Hitlers bunker. I say wire it up and blow it to H***.
15
posted on
01/30/2004 7:47:21 PM PST
by
Peace will be here soon
(Beware, there are some crazy people around here !!! And I could be one of them !!)
To: saquin
Sounds like a job for...........DAISY CUTTER!!!!!
16
posted on
01/30/2004 7:51:16 PM PST
by
SW6906
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