Bush: 'Good riddance' to Saddam
Documents found in raid lead to arrests, U.S. military says
President Bush said "good riddance" to deposed Iraqi
president Saddam Hussein in remarks to reporters at the
White House on Monday, and speculated that the
emergence of a free Iraq could be a force for peace
beyond the region.
Asked what his greeting would be to the fugitive leader
who eluded coalition forces since Baghdad fell in
April, Bush responded: "Good riddance. The world is
better off without you, Mr. Saddam Hussein.
"I find it very interesting that when the heat got on,
you dug yourself a hole, and you crawled in it," the
president said. "And our brave troops, combined with
good intelligence, found you, and you'll be brought to
justice, something you did not afford the people you
brutalized in your own country."
U.S. soldiers found Saddam hiding in a hole in the
ground about 6 to 8 feet deep. He was captured Saturday
about nine miles from his hometown of Tikrit, across
the Tigris River from one of his lavish palaces.
The 66-year-old longtime Iraqi leader was No. 1 on the
coalition's list of 55 most-wanted regime figures, and
his elusiveness has been a political sore spot for the
U.S. administration.
Bush cast Saddam's capture as having a significance
that reached beyond the country he ruled for nearly 25
years.
"This is a transforming event," Bush said. "The
emergence of a peaceful Iraq will transform the region,
in a positive way, that will make it more likely that
the world is peaceful."
Despite what he called "his own, personal views" about
the man who opposed both him and his father in separate
wars, Bush said the Iraqis would have a strong say in
working with the United States to determine Saddam's
fate.
"We will work with the Iraqis to develop a way to try
him that will stand international scrutiny," he told
reporters. "My personal views are not important; what
matters is the views of Iraqi citizens.
"We need to work with them to develop a system that is
fair, where he will be put on trial and brought to
justice -- a justice, by the way, that he didn't afford
any of his fellow citizens," the president said at a
news conference.
Bush spoke to reporters hours after U.S. military
officials said they had arrested several resistance
leaders in Baghdad based on documents found when Saddam
was captured.
Officials said that some of the documents detailed a
meeting of resistance cell leaders -- and included
their names.
Yet the deposed president himself is replying to
interrogators' questions with nationalist or patriotic
rhetoric only, military and other sources told CNN.
Two senior Bush administration officials told CNN that
Saddam also has told his captors he did not have
weapons of mass destruction before the war. Time
magazine correspondent Brian Bennett, speaking from
Baghdad, said the former Iraqi leader asserted that the
United States invented the presence of WMD to justify
an invasion of his country.
"He also said he didn't play nice with U.N. [weapons]
inspectors so that he could protect the privacy of his
presidential areas," Bennett said Sunday on CNN's
"Newsnight," quoting a U.S. official in Iraq who had
seen an initial interrogation report.
'President Bush sends his regards'
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces
in Iraq, said 600 4th Infantry Division soldiers and
special operations forces from Task Force 121 -- a unit
set up to capture high-profile targets -- staged the
capture operation based on an accumulation of
intelligence capped by information from an Iraqi under
interrogation that Saddam might be in one of two
locations in Ad Dawr.
Inside a small, walled compound, soldiers found a
two-room adobe hut that included a kitchen with running
water, said Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th
Infantry Division. Inside the hut, soldiers found
clothes -- some still in their packaging -- and
outside, beneath a rug covering a piece of Styrofoam,
they found the entrance to the hole where Saddam was
hiding.
"I am Saddam Hussein," he said when he emerged from the
hole, according to military officials. "I am the
president of Iraq, and I want to negotiate." (Gallery:
Saddam's capture)
The U.S. soldiers reportedly responded: "President Bush
sends his regards."
Gen Odierno said on Monday that U.S. forces in Iraq
feel a sense of satisfaction after Saddam's capture,
but that a lot of work remains.
"It's a psychological victory for us," Odierno said.
"But we still have insurgents on the ground still
conducting operations, so all the soldiers must stay
focused and mission-oriented as we continue our mission
here on the ground."
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