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Jerusalem -- It has been a great week for the United States and an extraordinary time to be in Israel. The amazing capture of the Butcher of Baghdad in a rat-hole near Tikrit was followed quickly by the surprise pronouncement of Libya's terrorist leader, Moammar Gadhafi, exposing his secret and well-developed weapons of mass destruction program and promising to dismantle it. While some have tried to downplay the importance of Saddam Hussein's capture and have misjudged the lessons learned from Gadhafi's sudden WMD surrender, both are geopolitically significant. These events are already sending shock waves worldwide. Their effect is especially...

PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A French lawyer known for his notorious clients said on Monday he would be ready to defend Saddam Hussein and that the former Iraqi leader must be presumed innocent at any trial. Jacques Verges, who has represented Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and international guerrilla Carlos the Jackal, said hiding Saddam away was against international conventions. U.S. troops captured the deposed leader on Saturday, but his whereabouts remain a mystery. "If he had to be prosecuted tomorrow, he would have to be presumed innocent," Verges told French radio station Europe 1, adding that Saddam should...

When Britain's doughty eighth army shattered the Nazi Afrika Korps at El Alamein in 1942, Winston Churchill said, "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Likewise, Saddam Hussein's capture in a squalid pit in Iraq doesn't mark the end of the American role in rebuilding that shattered nation. But it does finally end Saddam's tyranny while opening an opportunity to expand the international coalition that toppled the murderous despot from his throne. As British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday, "Let this be more...

President Bush Holds Press Conference Press Conference of the President Room 450 Eisenhower Executive Office Building 11:15 A.M. EST President George W. Bush holds a press conference in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building Monday, Dec. 15, 2003. White House photo by Paul Morse. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all. Please be seated. Thank you for coming to this, the last press conference of the year 2003. Before I begin, I do want to talk a little bit about a meeting I just attended. Rend Al-Rahim is here, she's the representative from the Iraqi government, the interim government, to the...

Almighty God, we are taught throughout Your Bible that You are a God of Justice. It is because of this that we pray this simple prayer. We believe that Saddam Hussein is a past murderer and that he is still involved in murder. We pray that out of Your Divine Justice that You would enable him quickly to be captured and brought to the Justice that You decree. We pray for your Divine intervention, Lord. Strip Saddam of his hiding places and of his support. We pray this in the name of eternal Justice, in the name of Jesus. Amen

At the White House on Sunday morning, President Bush's aides watching television finally saw images that they had been awaiting for months. Iraqis were dancing in the streets of Baghdad, celebrating the capture of Saddam Hussein. Bush's national security officials did not for a moment interpret the joy in Iraq as an indicator that bloody guerrilla warfare is about to end. Attacks against U.S. and other coalition troops can be expected to continue, but the end of Saddam's danger will make easier the occupation and pacification. And the political fallout will be profound. The joy at the White House on...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday that Saddam Hussein should be treated like any other prisoner of war and that it expected to be able to visit him. "The ICRC should have access to all persons protected by the Geneva conventions, including prisoners of war," the Swiss-based agency said in a brief statement. U.S.-led troops who toppled Saddam, 66, in April captured him on Saturday in a dirt hole near his hometown of Tikrit. The U.S. commander in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, said he was being accorded all the rights of a...

Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist. Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 12/14/03 - Tikrit, Saddam caught, Baghdad, Najaf, link to Atta BREAKING: Tikrit, Iraq - Saddam caught BREAKING: Baghdad - Bremer confirms capture of Saddam BREAKING: Baghdad - Letter found linking al Qaeda and Saddam BREAKING: Iraq - Iraqis cheer capture of Saddam BREAKING: Najaf - more mass graves QFN ==== YE OLDE QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS ========= Tikrit ========= OPERATION "RED DAWN" - Saddam's caputure by the 4th ID, at 8 PM on 12/13/03 in Tikrit. Three cheers for Teams Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2 Saddam was hiding in a 6x8 foot spider-hole. The...

It took eight months. When it finally came, it was a surprise. Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody But there was jubilation in Washington and Iraq today as Saddam Hussein was captured, uninjured, without a shot being fired, while hiding in the basement of a house in his hometown of Tikrit. Both the U.S. and British government confirmed the capture, which came eight months after the fall of Baghdad. The U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, told a press conference that Saddam was arrested at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. About 600 coalition troops joined the operation. The U.S. forces also showed...

<p>Bush to address nation from White House at noon EST, 9am Pacific.</p>

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NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 December 14, 2003Release Number: 03-12-32 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURED, IN COALITION CUSTODY Forces from the 4th Infantry Division, coalition forces and special operations forces captured former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, at approximately 8 p.m. local time yesterday in a remote farm house near Tikrit, Iraq. Operation “Red Dawn” was launched after gaining actionable intelligence identifying two likely locations near the town of Ad Dwar. The First Brigade Combat team of the 4th ID was assigned the mission to...

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — Saddam Hussein was captured based on information from a member of a family "close to him," Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno said Sunday. Odierno, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division that captured Saddam, said over the last 10 days soldiers have questioned "five to 10 members" of families "close to Saddam." "Finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," he said. About 600 soldiers under his command conducted the raid Saturday night in a farm near the village of Adwar, finding Saddam in a hole covered by Styrofoam and a carpet beside a...

Dean says capture of Saddam 'a day of celebration'The Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said Sunday he hoped the capture of Saddam Hussein will change "the course of the occupation of Iraq." The former Vermont governor has strongly criticized President Bush over his decision to go to war in Iraq, and his opposition has catapulted him to front-runner status in the race for the Democratic nomination. Dean deflected questions about how Saddam's detention Saturday might shape the race in the early primary contests. "I think this is a day to celebrate the fact...

STUNNED ARAB MEDIA REPORT SADDAM'S ARREST, WHILE PALESTINIANS TRY TO AVOID THE NEWS By Michael Widlanski Jerusalem 14 December 2003 1:30 PM Arab language media reacted quickly, though sometimes in a somewhat stunned fashion, to American reports that U.S. forces had captured former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, touching off celebrations in Baghdad. But the broadcast media of the Palestinian National Authority which has been very friendly to Saddam, tried to ignore the news, treating it as a marginal news item attributed to rumors linked to a scheduled American press conference in Iraq "An American military spokesman said there would be...

Kerry is on Fox News Sunday now showing what a complete idiot he is. This appearance will destroy him. He is showing that he is tone deaf to the capture of the butcher of Baghdad and ... anyhting else. I feel Wallace eviscerated him by simply asking trenchant questions and letting the buffon pompously insist that at this moment of triumph, bush should sieze the opportunity to adopt Kerry's entire --internationalize with our "traditional" allies. He says the news is "terrific" but he shows thaqt he hates it. Kerry denies the facts. Wallace pointed out a speech last week where...

Saddam Hussein wasn't responsible for 9/11 12/15/2003 SO SADDAM Hussein has been captured. We will now hear the Bush administration and a sycophantic press endlessly tell us that this justifies all our actions in Iraq in the war on terrorism. They'll leave out a few pesky facts. Saddam Hussein is not Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks; there's no evidence Hussein had anything to do with them.Iraq's ties to Al Qaeda were made up by the Bush administration. US intelligence told Bush in October 2002 there were no ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda...

Arab Americans in southeastern Mich. celebrate Saddam's capture The Associated Press 12/14/2003, 9:42 a.m. ET DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Alaa Alkhafaji dashed out from behind the counter and turned up the sound on the television. A reporter on Al Jazeera then confirmed what Alkhafaji was just told: Saddam Hussein had been captured in Iraq. Alkhafaji, his eyes still wide with amazement, began dialing the telephone at the Alzawraa Cafe in Dearborn. He wanted to break the news to everybody he knew. Elsewhere in this heavily Arab Detroit suburb, residents took to the streets in celebration as they did eight months...