Saddam's Capture: deal brokered behind the scenes?

[G_j]

www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0104-01.htm

Published on Sunday, January 4, 2004 by The Sunday Herald (Scotland)

Saddam's Capture: Was a Deal Brokered Behind the Scenes?

When it emerged that the Kurds had captured the Iraqi dictator, the US celebrations evaporated. David Pratt asks whether a secret political trade-off has been engineered

by David Pratt

 For a story that three weeks ago gripped the world's imagination, it has now all but dropped off the radar.

Peculiar really, for if one thing might have been expected in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's capture, it was the endless political and media mileage that the Bush administration would get out of it .

After all, for 249 days Saddam's elusiveness had been a symbol of America's ineptitude in Iraq, and, at last, with his capture came the long-awaited chance to return some flak to the Pentagon's critics.

It also afforded the opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of America's elite covert and intelligence units such as Task Force 20 and Greyfox .
...more...

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I am starting to smell a civil war

really and the Turks are probably too ahem, concerned

[G_j]

2. kick

[CWebster]

3. I saw that

is it any wonder he disappeared off the radar so quickly...

[DUreader]

4. And Then:U.S. Troops Raid Kurdish Party Offices in Kirkuk

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=298018


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040104/wl_nm/iraq_kirkuk_dc&cid=574&ncid=1473

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops raided the offices of Kurdish parties in the oil-rich city Kirkuk, where six
people died in ethnic clashes last week, and seized AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said
Sunday.


One senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was taken into custody after the raids Saturday
night, Sergeant Robert Cargie of the 4th Infantry Division told reporters.


A KDP office and an adjacent office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- the two key parties representing
the Kurdish minority in Iraq (news - web sites) -- were both raided, he said.


Tension surfaced Wednesday in Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, after Arab and Turkish-speaking
Turkmen residents marched on the headquarters of a Kurdish party to protest a Kurdish political push for
more control in the area.

more

[DUreader]

5. And Today: White House says Kurds can remain semi-autonomous

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=298635


White House says Kurds can remain semi-autonomous
BY STEVEN R. WEISMAN
New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has decided to let the Kurdish region remain semi-autonomous
as part of a newly sovereign Iraq despite warnings from Iraq's neighbors and many Iraqis not to divide the
country into ethnic states, American and Iraqi officials say.

The officials said their new position on the Kurdish area was effectively dictated by the Nov. 15 accord
with Iraqi leaders that established June 30 as the target date for Iraqi self-rule. Such a rapid timetable,
they said, has left no time to change the autonomy and unity of the Kurdish stronghold of the north, as
many had originally wanted.

"Once we struck the Nov. 15 agreement, there was a realization that it was best not to touch too heavily
on the status quo," said an administration official. "The big issue of federalism in the Kurdish context will
have to wait for the Iraqis to resolve. For us to try to resolve it in a month or two is simply too much to
attempt." (snip)

(snip) Indeed, the Bush administration plans to continue to press Iraq not to divide itself permanently
along ethnic lines, officials say.

But many experts fear that once a Kurdish government is formalized, even temporarily, it will be hard to
dislodge.
(snip/...)

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/7634455.htm

[nomaco-10]

6. Posting this link again

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13341763

I thought the recent news that the bush* admin will allow Kurdish northern Iraq to remain autonomous was very interesting indeed.
Bremers inpromptu visit back to the US, riots demanding Kurdish autonomy and several other stories linked to Saddam's capture cry out for a "connect the dots" closer look.

[SpiralHawk]

7. Has it been confirmed that the Kurds captured Saddam?

Anything conclusive on that?

What I have read indicates the kurds caught Saddam some time ago, and then worked a "deal" with BushCo to hand him over in a drugged stupor?


Anything conclusive?

[DUreader]

8. No Confirmation from US

Kurds have gone quiet on it too