2003 news-hostile interrogation led to Saddam capture -soldiers accused of abusing Prisoners of War

[fed-up]

Yesterday our local paper had a story of the visiting Now retired, Army Lt. Col. Steve Russell, and his version of how Saddam was captured including these details, so was it torture or a teen that led to Saddam? (if you don't think he was really captured of few months earlier and then stuffed in the "hidey-hole" for a photo-op)
http://www.chicoer.com/ci_7729717?source=most_viewed

..snip

In a November conversation with his wife, Russell received a message from someone back home who'd seen him on news coverage. The caller said he knew Russell was a praying man, and that God knew where Saddam was. So members of his unit starting praying. Days later, a teen boy came to say he knew where "important people were hiding."

Captures and arrests began. Following tips, the search narrowed to a sheep ranch outside Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Repeated searching of the area proved nothing, but a kicking gesture by one of Hussein's captured bodyguards brought attention to a rug covering a dirt patch and the underground door of Hussein's hiding room.

..snip

I hadn't heard that version of the capture so I started googling Saddam's capture stories also keeping in mind the recent threads on when torture has been used by this administration.

Did the administration convince members of Congress and the various committees that "In the interests of national security" torture and hostile interrogation techniques were neccessary to capture Saddam? Did they claim that these techniques led to the capture of Saddam??
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/14/sprj.irq.main/index.html

U.S. officials: Old-fashioned, low-tech work leads to Saddam

The piecemeal, low-tech work of arresting and interrogating Saddam Hussein's former bodyguards and relatives of people close to Saddam provided most of the information that led U.S. forces to Saddam, U.S. officials said Sunday.

Saddam's capture was based not on a direct tip, but a collection of intelligence gathered from the hostile questioning of Saddam's former bodyguards and family members, U.S. officials said.

"Over the last 10 days or so we brought in about five to 10 members who then were able to give us more information and finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," Odierno said Sunday.

No one is likely to receive the $25 million offered for Saddam's capture, since most of the information that led to his capture was given up under hostile questioning , U.S. officials said.


What really killed Saddam's sons? Were they tortured before they were "found" in the bombed building?
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/24/sprj.irq.sons/index.html
Saddam's sons' bodies
Many Iraqis want proof that Uday, Qusay were killed

Thursday, July 24, 2003 Posted: 10:51 PM EDT (0251 GMT)



Iraqis watch television in Baghdad on Thursday as the provisional authority displays photos the United States released as evidence of the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein.
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U.S. GOVERNMENT PHOTOS
Gallery: Photos released by the United States as evidence of the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein (These images are very graphic and difficult to view and are not recommended for children and some adults. Viewer discretion is advised.)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The provisional authority in Iraq has released photographs Thursday it said were of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, aimed at convincing skeptical Iraqis that they were killed in a raid by U.S. troops.

The pictures, said to have been taken after the brothers died in a firefight with U.S. troops Tuesday in Mosul, show grim images of the heads and upper torsos of the sons, their faces heavily bearded.

An image identified as that of Uday is seen with his head shaved and with black marks on his face and head. Qusay's purported image reveals wounds apparently received in the gun battle and missile attack in which the two men died. (Profiles: Qusay Hussein, Uday Hussein)






http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/27/1059244467372.html

US soldiers charged with abuse

Sunday 27 July 2003, 9:05 AM

The military has charged four US soldiers with abusing prisoners of war in Iraq. The soldiers and their families deny the accusations.

The four military police from a Pennsylvania-based Army Reserve unit are accused of punching, kicking and breaking bones of prisoners at Camp Bucca, the largest US-run POW camp in Iraq.

The soldiers, charged this month, are the first US troops known to face charges of abusing prisoners during the Iraq conflict.

..snip

US military authorities are investigating the death last month of an Iraqi prisoner at a camp run by US Marines in south-central Iraq near Nasiriyah. British authorities are investigating the deaths of two prisoners under their control and separate allegations of torture and mistreatment of prisoners by British troops.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/12/only_a_year_ago.html

Operation Red Dawn

In early November, one of the key brothers captured in September began to talk to interrogators,? providing information on his older, more important brothers.? One of them was quickly captured by special operations forces.? Then on November 13, TF 1/22 raids in Tikrit bagged four men with close ties to the inner circle

..snip
And then, the 'fat man,' the innermost circle individual, was captured in Baghdad and taken immediately to 1st Brigade headquarters.? Though never identified, 4th ID officers described him as one of the '42 inch waistband guys,' a senior official in Saddam's elite Special Security Organization based in Abu Ajeel, home village for one of the five Saddam—supporting families along the Tigris River corridor.? Major Murphy described him as 'Saddam's right arm.'?? He knew where Saddam was hiding, but it took some intense interrogation to elicit specific information.? At first, he indicated desert sites north and west of Tikrit.?????

..snip

This time, Col. Hickey told Russell to 'expect something in west Tikrit.'? No particular locale was indicated.? When more specific information became available, all units would act immediately.? In the late afternoon of the 13th, that information became known. Continued interrogation of the fat man had made him more cooperative and he told interrogators about The Site : Ad Dawr.? This meant the target location had moved from west to east Tikrit, across the Tigris.?

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/14/sprj.irq.saddam.operation/index.html


Saddam's capture was based not on a direct tip, but a collection of intelligence gathered from the hostile questioning of Saddam's former bodyguards and family members, U.S. officials said.