GI 'punched Saddam for spitting at his captors'

[Tinoire]

GI 'punched Saddam for spitting at his captors'
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 22/12/2003)


Saddam Hussein spat at American soldiers moments after his capture and was promptly punched by one of them, according to US government sources.

Time magazine, citing officials familiar with confidential accounts of Saddam's capture, cast doubt yesterday on the Pentagon version, that a defiant Saddam offered to negotiate, only to be told by one GI: "Regards from President Bush."

That exchange is "apocryphal", an intelligence official told Time. The true version involved Saddam spitting on his captors as they dragged him from his "spider-hole" hiding place.

<snip>

• "The American Soldier" was named yesterday as Time magazine Person of the Year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$1TVVKXSFDA3TLQFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2003/12/22/wirq22.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/22/ixworld.html

[Jack_Dawson]

1. Good!

I think it's safe to say he has at least that much coming to him?

[Warren Stuart]

3. Why stop there?

Impale his head on a pole (after his fair trial and excution of course) and place it in the middle of Tikrit. That will teach him to harbor thoughts of WMD's.

[Muddleoftheroad]

6. Hyperbole much?

[Warren Stuart]

20. What are we doing there in the first place?

Oh yeah, the rape rooms and mass graves, and he killed his own people with the poisons we sent him. Of course pay no attention to the atrocities that were committed on our behalf, in the past half century, throughout the world.

Oh right hyperbole again! D'Oh!

[Muddleoftheroad]

23. We are there now

I opposd the war from the very start, but it happened. NOW we are there and need to finish things up.

[Warren Stuart]

50. Finish What?

We were lied to. This was a flat out illeagal bogus war. Finish a bogus war? How?

Declare victory and "Bring em back Alive".

First rule of holes:

When you find yourself in a hole - stop digging.

[letthewindblow]

53. Finish things up?

Like in Vietnam?

[Muddleoftheroad]

2. So?

Somebody spits at me, same result.

[The Stranger]

29. Maybe if you had taken that person prisoner, disarmed them, and

had the most powerful army in the history of the world backing you against that unarmed prisoner.

Otherwise, you'd probably spit back, call him an asshole and avoid him in the future.

[0007]

39. A real christian would turn his cheek.

[DrWeird]

58. LOL

Was thinking the same.

[mmm]

44. brute strength and ignorance hit town today

This is why the world is fucked up.
Any fool can brutalize a defenseless man (or woman).

[Superfly]

4. Fuckin' A!

Sheesh...

[demnan]

5. When I heard this last night

I just had a feeling of disgust. Just when I think the rottenness of humankind could not impress me, it does.

Not that the soldier did what he did in a moment of anger, but that the media reported it with such a barbaric sense of satisfaction.

At no time have I been more ashamed to be a human. I hope to come back as something else in my next life.

[noonwitch]

21. Exactly-the media are vultures

I don't really have a problem so much with the soldier's punching him after Saddam spat on him, but the media is so gleeful about it, just like they are about plane crashes and serial killers.

I was watching "Natural Born Killers" on cable the other night, and I think about Robert Downey, Jr's character, the shock-journalist, who gleefully eggs on the killers until they waste him on camera, live. I can't really watch the news anymore-the movie was an exagerration of course, but so much of the news is infected with the lowest common denominator when it comes to violence, sex, or even better, a combination of the two. Even the local news is bad-every fender bender is now covered by news copters, not to mention serious situations like when the Ford Rougue plant exploded a few years ago and the news copters were getting in the way of the firemen and the hospital evacuation copters. Oliver Stone took a lot of heat over that movie, because of the violence in it, but it seems like not many people got the point of the movie.

Forgive me, I'm in a ranting mood and the media is one of my favorite things to rant about.

[Cooley Hurd]

7. Big man, punching a 66 year old climbing out of a hole...

If ANY 66 year old man spit on me, and I don't care who it is, I'd refrain from punching him...

[bedtimeforbonzo]

11. What if it was Dick Cheney?

n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

12. Hmm... as tempting as it would be...

...he's still an old guy with a heart conditon. Hitting him might turn into a murder charge (or at least manslaughter). Who needs that?

[Tinoire]

16. Thank you for not being a barbarian.

We've all seen where barbarity has brought us.

[leftchick]

8. horse pucky!

The "saddam captured" story keeps getting better and better, just like, what's her names story. Oh yeah, Jessica Lynch! :eyes:

[aquart]

35. The first story BushCo tells is always a lie.

But they never, ever give up. No matter how many times they're outed, they lie the next time just the same.

Kinda awesome.

[jmcgowanjm]

9. other lies, did kurd capture originate w/ yvonne ridley?

Someone's lying about Saddam's capture.

the British Sunday Express correspondent Yvonne
Ridley, had made her own entry into the 9/11 Legend
as a high-profile captive of the Taliban.  Ridley, who
claimed that the British government were inciting the
Taliban to kill her by implying that she was their covert
agent, was fortunately released by her captors on
October 8, 2001, just one day after the invasion of
Afghanistan  had begun.  Given such a grave accusation ...

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KUP312B.html

I'm reading about 911and then Josh Marshall
implies Yvonne Ridley sourced the Kurds capture
of Saddam article.

Yvonne was fired by aljazeera in mid November.
No reason given.

Take the blue pill or the red one...

[Tinoire]

17. Do not ever forget

That the Kurds had their press release in a full day before Bush recovered fron his freeper "celebration" or that rumors of Sadaam's capture where in the press daaaays before the US "found" him.

[oldcoot]

25. Do you think that the punch is part of the coverup?

I am sure if the Kurds had Saddam Hussein, they might have felt a passing desire to smack him once or twice. Do you think that this story is manufactured to explain any bruises that Hussein got while he was a captive of the Kurds?

[ThomC]

43. What coverup?

There was no coverup.

[oldcoot]

60. Didn't you hear about the Kurds?

Some newspapers reported that the Kurds were the ones who captured Hussein and not the United States. If this story is true, the Bush administration might want to keep the story from becoming public knowledge for as long as possible for political reasons. Claiming that an American soldier hit Hussein would be a way of covering up any injuries Hussein received from the Kurds. Considering all the crap the administration has pulled recently, I wouldn't put anything past them.

[jmcgowanjm]

26. you're right, I know, I still favor the Kurd's story

But, I mean, Col mustard in the kitchen with
a candlestick.

I'm still following the money ($25m). Or, favors,
(sovereignty?-Turks just reiterated a Kurdish state
would not be welcomed).

[TeeYiYi]

18. Good link jmcgowanjm. Thanks. .....n/t

TYY

[grannylib]

10. I figured that little exchange was too scripted to be real...this gang of

thieves have lied about so many of Chimpy's little photo=ops and other adventures to try to make them sound better, who can believe anything out of this White House??

[Zero Gravitas]

13. They can't help themselves

I dunno if Saddam got punched out or not (and if he did spit at a GI, then what does he expect in return?) but these creeps in the White House can't help but to gild the lilly. They just can't leave well enough alone, they had to make up that garbage about British Airways & AF1, so I'm sure they'll do the saem here.

[ArkDem]

14. WAR CRIME!!@!!

!!!!!!!!!!

[ParticipatoryDem]

15. And the problem is...?

I'd say he got off easy.

[Tinoire]

19. You'll sing the same tune

when the people catch right-wing "world leaders" such as Bush and Sharon right? Consistency is important.

[ThomC]

36. I Sure as hell will

I'll even hum a few bars when Arafat and the rest of the terrorist leaders are caught including NK.

[bushisanidiot]

22. More Propoganda for The Flag Waving WWF Short Attention Span Repukes

rah rah rah! hit him for me! god bless the u.s.a! we put a boot in yer ass!

no wonder the world loves us. :P

[JPace]

24. Probably the first time in Sadam's adult life that

anyone has hit him without having to die for it.
He used to kill anyone that he even imagined
might harm him.

[LisaM]

27. That is so unacceptable.

Shouldn't our military be above that?

[DS1]

28. I wouldn't be

I'd try my damn hardest to break his nose.

[smartamerican]

30. Is it legal...

to beat up a POW. Not that I like Saddam but why did they have to punch him he was already in their custody and outnumbered 1,000 to 1?

[xchrom]

31. don't try to bring sense to a

conversation about american machismo and self righteousness.

[ThomC]

42. That soldier deserves far more respect than you offer him

Myself and most Americans support him 100%.

[missile_bender]

49. He's a disgrace

What happed to honor that the military is always hapring about? This soldier doesn't know the meaning.

"Oh, Saddam is evil." OK. So now he's our teacher as well as the enemy. Remember, the invasion and occupation ARE ILLEGAL. He had every right to spit at invaders. If he's guilty of crimes against his people, let them take care of him. You contain and avoid evil, you don't imitate it.

[hedda_foil]

32. The RW Telegraph is telegraphing their progaganda punches.

This is pure BS. The Telegraph is a major part of the Conrad Black/Hollinger Group of right wing propaganda. When they print crap like this you can bet it will be discredited within days. It's nothing more than Jessica Lynch revisited.

[leftchick]

54. spot on hedda!

this is rove/cheney manufactured BS and stinks from miles away!

[mbperrin]

33. What a bargain! (If it happened.)

So far, in order to get in that punch, we've killed 500 Americans, wounded thousands more, killed unnumbered thousands of Iraqis and wounded thousands more, spent $250 billion and climbing daily, ruined the dollar, impoverished the future of the country, and more...

I got a cousin who'll punch somebody completely out WAY cheaper than that!

[malachi]

34. We have become that which we are supposed to abhor.

Congratulations to the chimpster and all his rw shithead pals.

[Sterling]

37. We are the good guys!

Right? At least I used to think so.

[psychopomp]

38. I would not

want to be the soldier who got known as "the guy who got spit on by Saddam Hussein." I truly believe I am a pacifist and I would react the same way.

Then I may regret that I did so but fuck, that guy is shit.

[skypilot]

40. "apocryphal"???

Does that mean the same thing as "bullshit"?

And how did this account suddenly become "apocryphal" anyway? I saw the soldier on TV news saying that this is what happened. Are they calling the soldier a liar or do they, for some reason, suddenly not like this particular narrative?

[0007]

45. You're getting warm, I think!

[gulliver]

51. That word is making a comeback thanks to Bush.

I doubt both stories. Maybe a soldier hit Hussein and maybe not. Who knows? If Saddam was hit, maybe he spat on a soldier to deserve it and maybe not.

This is the second time I've heard the word "apocryphal" used in the last few days. Thanks to the Bushies and their flair for bullshit, every English word for "lie" is now getting more airplay.

[skypilot]

56. You can tell when they are making sh*t up...

...when a particular word or phrase starts making the rounds: "chatter", "fog and friction of war", "hole", "apocryphal"--you get the idea.

[Logansquare]

59. Yes, and, and he leered at a pretty blond girl soldier, and

he blew his nose on the flag, and...I mean, why not do the entire cheesy scenario?

[tom_paine]

41. The point here is that once again Bushevik Pravda is the opposite

of truth.

Just like the original Pravda.

[grasswire]

46. I thought Saddam was cooperative and resigned?

And tired, too!

The stories said he was cooperative and almost seemed "relieved" to be captured.

So now we hear this about spitting?

Which is it?

It's gotta be this or that.

[grasswire]

47. what sanchez said about Saddam

Asked about Saddam's demeanour, coalition forces commander Lietenant General Ricardo Sanchez told a news conference: "He was a tired man and also a man resigned to his fate."

[skypilot]

57. So resigned, he could just spit, apparently.

*

[The Stranger]

48. Irresponsible.

That is what this is -- irresponsible.

[Redleg]

52. I least the soldier didn't shoot him.

Are we getting so nit picky that we will criticize a young soldier for smacking a person who spit on him?

[grasswire]

55. we don't know the whole story

that's the trouble.

It takes about six weeks to find out the truth with this gang of crooks.