How did the US confirm Saddam's identity so quickly?

[kskiska]

Although DNA profiling usually takes anything from a couple of days to several weeks, if the pressure is really on the analysis can be whizzed through in a matter of hours. It could certainly be done within the 15 hours or so the Americans had between finding Saddam in his hole and telling the world that they had "got him".

"That's pretty fast but not inconceivable," says Alec Jeffreys, the geneticist at the University of Leicester who invented the DNA fingerprinting technique. "In very, very rough terms you could probably do it in five to six hours from start to end."

Several factors will have helped the Americans fast-track the analysis. "The first thing to say is that they would have been ready for this," Jeffreys says. "They will have known that if and when Saddam was captured they were going to have to do a DNA test on him. It's even possible that this wasn't the first person they tested and that they captured others who turned out to be wrong."

(snip)

Jeffreys says that the short amount of time between Saddam's capture and the triumphant press conference suggests that samples weren't flown back to the US for analysis and instead that the work was done locally, perhaps at one of the handful of decent labs in Kuwait. The military could also have its own portable facility - perhaps on a nearby aircraft carrier, or even a fully mobile field laboratory. "You can get portable ones, you can put them in the back of a truck," Evison says. "If anyone's likely to have one it will be the American armed forces."

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,12977,1108859,00.html

[Wink]

1. Don't forget....

They were able to compare present day samples of Saddam's DNA with the ones removed from Rumsfelds nose back in the 80's.

[LosinIt]

That wasn't fair, I almost spit coffee all over my keyboard/monitor

wasn't expecting that one.

[grannylib]

19. I agree, I just hurt myself seriously, laughing at this...hee hee!!

[Turley]

7. You have earned

your handel. Good'n.

[0007]

10. Hilarious!

[havocmom]

12. they dusted several high level maladministration officials for prints

and inked up the fingers of the derelict in the hole for compairson.

[Robb]

14. Nice one! nt

[maggrwaggr]

2. or maybe ..... they had him for quite a while before announcing it!

something you'd never think of if you were used to swallowing what the admin tells you.

Me, I've learned to spit, not swallow, when it comes to this prez

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[truthisfreedom]

3. or maybe, you might wonder why the guy has jet-black hair and a grey beard

has he had time to dye it in his hidey-hole? methinks not. something is amiss... his hair should be grey, with a line at the 9-month mark from the last time he dyed it.

[Muesli]

4. And isn't the beard a bit too long?

I never grew a beard, but is that huge piece of roadkill on his chin the result of only nine months growth?

[qanda]

9. The first reports were

That he had a fake beard. Whatever happened to that story? Also, remember the tape of him mourning his son's death? He was completely shaved then. I didn't know beards could grow that fast.

One more thing, didn't they have Tikrit completely blocked off? How was he able to come and go without being discovered?

Just a few questions I have...

[laruemtt]

33. i agree this whole thing was staged

but DH has black hair (with a tiny bit of gray) and a gray beard, and he doesn't touch up anything!

[dbt]

5. Because the US KNEW where he was from Day One!

They know where bin Laden is at this moment also. They have known where he was since Day One. Watch for him to be "captured" just in time for the PugFest in New York City next year!

Both of these Bad Guys have been worth more to the Regime alive than dead--so far. Both of them will be really, most sincerely, dead before they can tell half of what they know about the BFEE.

:argh:
dbt

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Because when Saddam popped out of his hidey hole

He said, "Hi, I'm Saddam Hussein." Otherwise it would have taken months for the US to get a positive ID.

[loudnclear]

11. In perfect English too!

He is truly a brilliant man

[smirkymonkey]

15. LOL...!!

:)

[BiggJawn]

8. They checked his driver's license....

And he said "Mad-ass, I'm Saddam" when they pulled him out of his hole. (doesn't work as well as "Madam, I'm Adam")

[bspence]

13. Here are some more reasons:

Saddam:

1) Looked just like Saddam, even with the beard
2) He said he was Saddam
3) He was hiding in a super small hole, which only someone who's guilty of something would do
4) They found documents relating to pro-Saddam operations in the house
5) They found $750,000 USD in the house, not something one of his doubles would have had

I mean, did we really need tons of evidence? He could have also answered some easy questions that only the real deal would have known about.

[smirkymonkey]

16. Probably the same way

they identified the September 11 hijackers so quickly.

Magic super powers, of course.

[Whoa_Nelly]

17. Were there already samples of SH's DNA

available for comparison to be able to make a concrete match??

When he was "captured", I went back into old news stories with photos, and the man found has a different arch to his eyebrows as well as a difference in the nose...but, hey, am no expert by any means...:eyes:

[jmcgowanjm]

18. cheryl seal:The Questions the Media Are (as Usual) Failing to Ask

http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/5804/index.php

DNA Testing: An Introduction For Non-Scientists
An Illustrated Explanation

http://www.scientific.org/tutorials/articles/riley/riley.html

The story of Saddam just gets curiouser and curiouser.

He's worth 40 billion and he's living in a cold,
dirt hole prison. Whoever put him in there must
have been thinking, "Saddam owes me, I control him."

[Enraged_Ape]

20. They checked his Star Wars Fan Club card

Seriously, I have completely tuned out this "they found Saddam" story because I don't believe a single thing that comes out of this administration or the media that shills for them.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

21. same way they found hijackers pristine passport in the streets of NYC

(i think it was Atta's passport too) not a cinder or smudge of dirt on it...hmmmmmm?

edited for spacing

[ozone_man]

27. Yes, I always found that very disturbing.

So many incongruous details in 911. Let's hope some light shines on this case, some day soon.

[davidinalameda]

22. he had his Blockbuster card on him

:shrug:

[stickdog]

23. Horshack begs Kotter to call on him to answer this one.

"Because they lied."

[ThomC]

24. All the soldiers had a deck of those "wanted Iraqi" cards

It's easy...just match the face on the card with the suspect. Keeping it simple...

[LiberalFighter]

32. They should had slipped in the real criminals/terrorists

Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney

[kath]

26. So where did the DNA sample from the so-called "real" Saddam come from

in the first place, that the hidey-hole guy's DNA supposedly matched??

The whole thing is so bogus...

[Nlighten1]

28. Maybe they had him all along.

Remember the article about the Republican Guard Generals "working for Rumsfeld"?

What if they couped Saddam and whisked him away to a hidey hole until the time was right?

[fisher99]

29. The phone call before the capture

Rums: Whatzzz upppppppppppp
Saddam: Whatz upp
Rums: Yo dude, guess who i've got on the blower
Bush: Who dude.
Rums: Our old enemy n friend.
Bush : Which one bro
Saddam: WHATZZZZZZZZZZ UP jr,
Bush: Oh shit, dang Sads what u up to.
Saddam : Noth'ng just chilling in my den, what you up to.
Rums: Freaki'ng out dude,
Bush : I'm just blinging. What'ch ur doing today.
Saddam: you tell me dude, I've got nothing planned.
Rums: Cool, neither have we ,
Saddam: Noth'n new hey dude.
Bush : To right, btw knock knock.
Saddam : Whos there.
Rums : Gottach yu'a.
Saddam: Hoho, that's some funny shit, hold up some's knocking at the den.....

[Whoa_Nelly]

30. With which DNA samples were Saddam's compared?

If I rememeber correctly, Uday and Qusay's DNA had to be compared to many sources only indirectly related to Saddam in order to provide some sort of DNA "proof" those two were the sons who had been killed.

"Experts conducted DNA tests on the bodies, which were flown from Mosul to Bayji, a northern town 25 miles north of Tikrit, officials said. But Sanchez would not answer whether the tests were positive, saying "we've used multiple, multiple sources to identify the individuals."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-07-22-iraq-ambush_x.htm

So, which samples completely and so quickly were used to identify that the man "captured" is, indeed, Saddam Hussein? :wtf:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

31. SH had been shot before. The bullets scars matched.

It still doesn't answer whether he was on ice or not, though.

[davidinalameda]

34. Republican National Committee donor card?

:shrug: