Free Republic

TIKRIT, Iraq -- Col. James Hickey is in his element: M-16 in hand, doors off his Humvee, roaring out of his base in a cold rain onto the hazardous highways of "Saddam country." Middle-aged commanders in charge of 4,000 soldiers don't need to roam the roads like this, least of all the Army colonel who just netted the biggest quarry in Iraq. But Hickey's bare-knuckles approach may be precisely what made him the man behind the capture of Saddam Hussein The 43-year-old Chicago native who found Hussein is not an Ivy League Arabist with an intimate knowledge of his secretive...

ADWAR, Iraq - American forces began last July to assemble the evidence and intelligence that led to Saddam Hussein's weekend capture in a spider-hole dug into a farmyard near his hometown, the U.S. commander who led the raid said Monday. Col. James Hickey, 43, also said Special Forces soldiers were seconds from pitching a hand grenade into Saddam's tiny underground refuge when the fugitive dictator's hands appeared above ground in surrender. "He was assisted out of the hole," said Hickey, commander of the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. Saddam was armed with a pistol, but chose to surrender, identifying himself...