Saddam's Capture: Just Another Bush Lie? + 2 extra reads.

FPF: For interesting Sunday reading 2 Extras below

The account of American troops capturing Saddam and pulling him from his subterranean hovel has turned out to be just another Bush lie.

By Mike Whitney

03/12/05 - Sergeant Nadim Abou Rabeh, who participated in the operation that netted Saddam, was quoted in the Saudi newspaper "Al-Medina" saying that the Iraqi leader was actually captured the day before and that "the public version of his capture was fabricated."

The entire event was apparently choreographed by a Pentagon public relations team.

"I was among the 20 man unit who searched for Saddam for 3 days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced," Rabeh admitted. (UPI )

"Not in a hole"? You mean Saddam actually stood up and faced American Marines?

"WE CAPTURED HIM AFTER FIECE RESISTANCE DURING WHICH A MARINE OF SUDANESE ORGIN WAS KILLED," he said.

Uh, oh. This could be trouble. After all, the American version presented Saddam as trembling coward cringing in his spider-hole afraid to face the American warriors. Now, Rabeh is saying that he stood and fought "like a man". This is not the image that the Washington spin-meisters wanted to convey. They wanted to humiliate the deposed tyrant by showing him recoiling from the American ubermenschen.

That way they could show the virtuousness of the invasion and bolster the importance of the White House chicken-hawks who follow the campaign from their bunkers on the Potomac.

Unfortunately, the entire story turned out to be bogus. Saddam may be a genocidal maniac, but anyone who knows the details of his personal history, knows he's no coward. He scaled the ranks of the Ba'ath party through audacity, coercion and treachery. No one gets to the top spot on the Ba'ath food chain through squeamishness.

The portrayal of Saddam as disoriented and fearful is pure performance-art; just like the suggestion that he was living underground is probably just a sham. (That part always seemed fishy)

Most likely, he was drugged and dumped in the "spider-hole" to meet the requirements of (Bush's) Hollywood production team. In fact, members of the Kurdish Peshmerga, who were operating in the vicinity at the time, disputed the administration's sketchy narrative from the get-go.

Their story was much more consistent with Sergeant Rabeh's.

So, we can add another fairytale to the Bush chronicle of deception. The Saddam capture will feature prominently along with the other wartime fictions like Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch, the phantom WMDs, and the toppling of Saddam's statue in Fidros Square. Every one of these was skillfully fashioned by a Bush PR team trying to maximize public approval by creating a storybook narrative. It's 100% baloney.

The whole incident smacks of Rumsfeld's "Strategic Information" program; a new department entirely devoted to stage-managing events like Saddam's arrest. Apparently, the War Dept wants to downplay the daily carnage by orchestrating phony "docu-dramas" for the folks at home. Well, they'd better turn it up a notch.

Bush's clumsy vaudeville may be designed to draw more support for the war, but box-office flops like this can really take a chunk out of one's credibility.

[and end]

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state.
He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com

FPF-fwd.: Information Clearing House

Url.:http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8248.htm

Extra 1:

Bush Ordered Attack on Sgrena and Calipari

Nicola Calipari was already 220 yards inside Baghdad Airport's security perimeter when he received an incoming call on his cell phone. Calipari said "Yes?" and instantly recognised the positive ident trap.

As Deputy Chief Calipari cursed & threw himself across Giuliana Sgrena to protect her, the kill team from Langley fired more than 300 bullets at their car.
Full story - Url.: http://www.vialls.com/italy/sgrena.html

Extra 2:

The pain of the war: ''That's me, a marine, a murderer of civilians’' - Full story - Url.: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8249.htm

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/4f6u
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/5zmhl
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

The Dutch author this far has worked abroad 4 decades for international media as a foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism ! - At present 'Persona non Grata' in Holland :-)

He who travels far will often see things
Far removed from what he believed was the Truth.
When he talks about it in the fields at home,
He is often accused of lying,
For the obdurate people will not believe
Inexperience, I believe,
Will give little credence to my song.

'Journey to the East' - Hermann Hesse

'The war in Iraq is illegal' says United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

A 55' seconds 'sound bite' concerning the US-Israeli 'Dogs of War' - 'bringing democracy' everywhere. Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5u98v

Former PM 'Wim Kok' and other Dutch Govt's Warcriminals in Court - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/662pp -

Sued: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Over U.S. Torture Policies - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/3tgo3
It can and must be done!

Help the troops come home! Url.: http://www.bringemhome.org - We need them badly to fight our so called 'governments' - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

HR

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Saddam and secret deal —Kat Hak Sung, Sun Mar 13 17:59