More than a week after the arrest of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the hiding place where he once spent eight months has now become a local internet celebrity attraction, and anyone who spends $100 can visit the cave where Saddam Hussein is hiding, according to a news release from China News Network.
The cave is located in a farm yard in the town of Dawar in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, where U.S. troops stationed in the courtyard hung a sign that read: "You can visit the area for $100."
The U.S. government then demanded that the U.S. military close the "attraction" and ordered them to keep it tightly guarded and not allow anyone to approach it — the U.S. soldiers had to end their "income generation."
According to an Iraqi who spent $100 to visit the cave, he would not have believed that Saddam Hussein, who had been living in a luxurious palace in Baghdad, would have ended up hiding in such a place.
Saddam's cave was 14 feet long and 8 feet wide, and a tin exhaust pipe led to a vent next to a date palm tree in the yard to ventilate the cavern.
The cave was so small that it could only accommodate one person to lie down, and that person was not yet able to lie flat or stand. On the ground of the cave, there is a piece of plastic foam of less than two square meters, which is covered with a white cloth, which is the "bed" where Saddam Hussein sleeps. To know that Saddam Hussein is relatively tall, it is difficult to imagine how he slept in such a small space.
Of course, the cave was only a hiding place for Saddam Hussein in an emergency, and he usually lived in a dilapidated bungalow in this courtyard.
The bungalow consists of a small bedroom and a simple kitchen. In the bedroom was a rusty iron bed covered with a blanket of hairballs, a clothesline pulled on top, and some dirty clothes piled on the floor.
Next to the bedroom is a small kitchen with an old refrigerator that stores a few eggs, a few carrots and cucumbers, and a box of chocolates. In the freezer compartment of the refrigerator, there are several cans of canned meat and some jams and sausages.
On top of the refrigerator, a jumble of soap, a bottle of shampoo, and a box of toothpicks was piled up. There was also an open canned bottle on the top of the cabinet with some leftovers inside. Next to the refrigerator, there were a few dirty dishes that had not yet been washed, and the whole kitchen was filled with an indescribable sour smell.
The cave was so simple that even the Americans who captured Saddam Hussein could not believe it. In fact, I don't blame them, who would have thought that Saddam Hussein would live in such a place? Chris Wallace, an American soldier involved in Saddam's capture, lamented: "We can't imagine that someone like Saddam Hussein who once called the wind and rain could live in such a place." ”
Behind this cave is an orchard with oranges, date palm trees and pomegranates. Look carefully and you'll find a hidden path in this orchard. A few minutes down the trail will take you to the Tygris River, and you can quickly spot three canoes moored along the river.
The U.S. military judged that the canoes were parked here to help Saddam Husse quickly escape from the Tigris River, where saddam husse crossed the Tigris during the attempted coup d'état 44 years ago.
On the night of December 13, 2003, after receiving reliable information, the U.S. military launched an arrest operation code-named "Red Dawn.".
Under the cover of night, a force of 600 soldiers plunged into a farm in the town of Dawar, Tikrit, and captured Saddam Hussein alive in the basement of the farm. It's only a few kilometers from Saddam's birthplace, and perhaps Saddam himself would never have imagined that his birthplace would become the end of his life.
On March 20, 2003, the United States launched the Iraq War and soon occupied Baghdad. But after searching all over Baghdad, the U.S. military did not find any trace of Saddam Hussein.
In order to hunt down Saddam Hussein, the United States used the most advanced reconnaissance equipment and placed a large number of sound and light sensors in areas where Saddam Hussein might be hiding. These sensors, scattered across the ground and bushes, can monitor nearby areas 24 hours a day. The U.S. military has also adopted an extremely advanced "electronic nose" that can detect saddam's breath in the air.
U.S. intelligence agencies have also made extensive use of technical reconnaissance to eavesdrop on the phones of all those who may have been associated with Saddam Hussein. On April 7, 2003, the United States overheard the satellite phone of Saddam's aides and learned that Saddam was holding a secret meeting with senior Iraqi officials in a villa in The Mansour district of western Baghdad.
45 minutes later, a U.S. B-1B bomber flew over the villa and dropped four 2,000-pound bombs on the villa, blowing the villa into ruins — unfortunately, saddam Hussein left the villa a dozen minutes earlier.
Where is Saddam Hussein hiding? To get answers, U.S. intelligence agencies did their homework. In particular, after the arrest of SamRay, the former director of Iraq's intelligence bureau, and Abbas, the former secretary of Saddam's eldest son, Uday, the Americans learned of Saddam's many habits and studied the possible hiding place of Saddam.
Saddam Hussein built more than 40 presidential palaces in Iraq, but he would never return to them while the Americans were hunting him down, because he knew that this was a key target for the United States to track him down, so he was likely to hide in a humble ordinary house.
The U.S. military believes that although Saddam Hussein often changes hiding places, he needs to maintain close contact with his loyal subordinates, and with American technology, it is possible to intercept their communication signals. But the CIA poured cold water on the military, telling it:
"Generally speaking, if you can intercept the signal of communication and discern the voice of the communicator, you can judge the position of the person. But if Saddam Hussein constantly changes positions when he is in contact, it is very difficult to judge his position. ”
In order to capture Saddam, in November 2003, the U.S. Central Command formed a special forces unit dedicated to hunting down Saddam, with the nickname "121".
The force is equipped with a variety of advanced positioning systems, and its members are veterans who are proficient in capture, assassination and demolition, and the Americans have also specially trained them in Iraqi customs and culture so that they can better carry out their tasks in Iraq.
The special forces also have hundreds of professional intelligence officers and psychoanalytic experts.
They are allowed to share information with the CIA and Defense Department intelligence agencies, which can greatly improve work efficiency. This approach to cooperation has proven successful.
In November 2003, the "121" special forces and the CIA teamed up to draw up a list of key suspects, extending attention from the 55 senior Iraqi officials on the "Poker Wanted" to some "minor" figures, who thought that these "upcoming figures" would be more likely to help Saddam Hussein hide.
A week later, the "121" special forces, with the assistance of the CIA, extended the arrest net from Saddam's close relatives to distant relatives and tribal members, and from these sworn allegiance to Saddam Hussein, selected the people who were "most likely to help Saddam Hussein hide" one by one.
In early December 2003, the "121" special forces made significant progress in the search for Saddam Hussein. The U.S. military obtained some photographs of Saddam Hussein posing with family members, which were marked with the family names, as well as the names of their fathers and clans. This means that after eight months of hard work, the US military has finally figured out Saddam's network.
Saddam Hussein's power base was the five families of the "Tikrits". The five families lived in an area of 20 kilometers, centered on Tikrit, and Saddam's birthplace, the town of Oga, was the liaison office for the five families.
Subsequently, the U.S. military transferred the household registration files of these five major families, drew up the latest genealogical map of Saddam Hussein, and followed the vine to find out the information of the family members, focusing the search on the area south of Tikrit near the town of Oga.
In this area, the US military carried out the "hard wall clearance", and while blocking the area, it also interrogated 60% of the men in the town and unified management of the town's grain. The commander of the "121" Special Forces excitedly reported to U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld: "We have caught Saddam Hussein's heel!" "
After Saddam Hussein's arrest, the U.S. military's speculation was confirmed: the town of Dawar, where Saddam Hussein was eventually captured, was only 5 kilometers from the town of Oga. The owner of the farm who hid Saddam Hussein was a member of the Ubaiid family, one of the five major families.
On 12 December, Saddam's bodyguard, Abi Muslet, was arrested. After several rounds of interrogations by the U.S. military, the bodyguard, whose psychological defenses had completely collapsed, confessed that Saddam was hiding in a small town called Dawar south of Tikrit, and even revealed that Saddam Hussein might be hiding underground in a palm grove.
After obtaining this important information, the US military did not take immediate action to avoid striking grass and snakes, but instead carried out a search and arrest operation in another direction in Tikrit, the purpose of which was only to create an illusion that the US military had not yet detected Saddam's real hiding place.
However, in the dark, the US military sent dozens of "informants" to carry out secret reconnaissance of the town of Davar. At about 10 a.m. on the 13th, a Kurdish informant rushed to the headquarters of the "121" special forces in Tikrit and reported with great certainty that he had detected Saddam Hussein hiding in two buildings in the town of Davar.
In order to prove that what he said was true, he also brought several photos that he had secretly taken, two of which had a blurry figure on them, which were carefully identified by people familiar with Saddam, and most likely Saddam himself.
The time is finally ripe. The commander of the "121" special forces, Major General Odilno, immediately decided: after dark, he personally led the team to arrest and asked Sanchez, the supreme commander of the US forces in Iraq, to send support. Sanchez personally named the operation "Operation Red Dawn" and named the two farmhouses where Saddam Hussein might be hiding as "Wolverine 1" and "Wolverine 2".
At 20:00 p.m., the U.S. army rushed into the courtyard, but there was no one inside. Colonel Chikri, who directed the search, said: "While the search was in progress, a soldier was actually standing on the trapdoor door of Saddam's hiding hole. ”
The soldier standing on the trapdoor of Saddam's hiding cave was named Samir. Although he did not find the cave underground at first, it was he who discovered a long strip of fiber on the ground. He pulled the fiber and found that a foam plastic plate with a handle appeared. When he lifted the plastic plate with the other soldiers, they saw a hole in the ground.
Subsequently, a disheveled man appeared in front of the US military. Samir shouted at the people in the cave, "Surrender, Saddam! Saddam Hussein cursed lowly, then regained his composure and said to the U.S. military, "I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq, and I ask for negotiations." Samir was quite humorous and immediately replied, "President Bush greets you." ”
Then, Samir asked Saddam to put his hand out to prove that he was not armed. Saddam first extended his right hand, then withdrew his right hand and extended it out to his left hand. Samir saw this little trick of Saddam Hussein clearly, so he scolded it loudly, and Saddam Hussein held out his hands.
Saddam Hussein is said to have a small pistol in his hand, but he quickly put him on the ground and did not resist. Samir pulled Saddam Hussein out of the hole and pushed him to the ground. Saddam Hussein didn't struggle too much, just kept asking, "America, why?" Why? ”
On December 14, Bremer, the top civilian administrator in charge of Iraq's postwar reconstruction, officially announced at a news conference that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been arrested: "Wegothim (we have caught him)!" On the same day, the top of the command tower of Bashera Airport, a major city in southern Iraq, also displayed neon lights with the words "we got him" to celebrate Saddam's arrest.
After Saddam Hussein's arrest, people were curious about the hole where he was hiding: Who and when did they dig it? How long has Saddam Hussein been hiding here? What else did Saddam Hussein do in the cave, and how did he get through this "hole-in-the-hole career"? The answer to all this was soon available.
The cave was dug by a local resident named Namik who lived in Tikrit. It is located under a date palm tree, and there is a square cement lid of about 1.2 meters at the entrance of the cave, which can be sealed if necessary.
Before his arrest, Saddam Hussein hid in this place. Here, Saddam Haddam had Nanik on a tape recorder and recorded a speech to persuade the Iraqi people to fight against the United States, and his two sons, Uday and Qusai, had visited his father.
When he was fine, Saddam Hussein did not hide in the cave all the time, but went to the bungalow on the ground to read a book. Occasionally he would write some poems or write letters to his wife and daughter.
Saddam Was very cautious, he rarely used communication tools, shaved off his rather recognizable beard, wore ordinary local clothes, and lived like a rat in a dark cave. But even so, he still could not escape the pursuit of the United States.
After Saddam Hussein's arrest, the cave suddenly became famous and became a new popular spot in Iraq. But two months later, the U.S. military sealed the cave in concrete, supposedly fearing it would become a "holy land" for Saddam Hussein's supporters. As for the two bungalows, they were not demolished and still stood in place.
Namik repeatedly stressed that the cave was offered by Saddam to let him dig, rather than that he had taken the initiative to dig it himself and help saddam hussein hide. For this, Saddam Gave him ten thousand dollars in return.
In fact, I don't blame Nanick, after all, there are many people in Iraq who oppose Saddam Hussein, and the huge losses of the Iran-Iraq War and the defeat of the Gulf War have made Saddam Lose His heart, and if they learn that Nanik took the initiative to help Saddam Hussein hide, it will bring him endless trouble.
After Saddam Hussein was arrested, he was sent to a secret prison in the U.S. military. There, he was subjected to inhumane abuse. One leaked photograph showed the U.S. military forcibly holding Saddam Hussein in prison, stripping him naked to just a pair of underwear, and then planting the American flag in his underwear. Saddam Hussein in the photo looks miserable, but his eyes are still determined.
Over the next three years, Saddam Hussein went through multiple trials. Prosecutors have filed seven charges against Saddam Hussein, including the 1982 killing of 143 Shiite Muslims in the village of Dougar, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, the massacre of Kurds, war with Iran, invasion of Kuwait and the suppression of Shiite Muslims.
Saddam Hussein knew he was bound to die, but he would never give in to the Americans. In court, the sentence he said the most was: "I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq, and the occupiers have no right to strip me of my title." ”
At the last hearing, he told the judge: "I advise you as an Iraqi that if you have to make a death sentence, you must remember that Saddam Hussein is a soldier. In this case, my sentence should be a shooting, not a hanging, and you must do that. ”
On 30 December 2006, Saddam Hussein was publicly hanged. Before the execution, the executioner was about to put a hood on Saddam, as was customary, but Saddam refused, and the executioner put the hood around Saddam's neck.
Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam Shouted to the onlookers, "Allah is great." This country will win, Palestine is Arab! ”
After Saddam's death, the body was sent to the village of Uja in his hometown of Tikrit for burial. His hometown people built him a cemetery that was not luxurious, but even this non-luxurious cemetery was destroyed on March 16, 2015, in the war between the Iraqi government and the Islamic State.