Mag: 'Elvis' Saddam Offered Some Resistance

NEW YORK – A knowledgeable U.S. official tells Newsweek that as he was being captured, Saddam Hussein struggled, spat at soldiers and was 'decked' by a commando, either with a punch or a rifle butt.

The military later tidied up the story for popular consumption.

As the story was first told, when Saddam was found he raised both hands in submission and, speaking in English, announced: "I am Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq and I'm willing to negotiate," and coming out of his "spider hole" he accidentally bumped his head.

There had been no shortage of Saddam sightings between April and December, report assistant managing editor Evan Thomas and correspondent Babak Dehghanpisheh in the Dec. 29 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, Dec. 22).

At the 4th Infantry Division, based north of Baghdad, Saddam was known as "Elvis." After a $25 million reward was posted on July 3, "there were so many Elvis sightings we could hardly keep up," said Maj. Stan Murphy, 41, an intelligence officer with the First Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division.

Residents of Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, tell Newsweek that they had always known Saddam was hiding in their midst. A former general in the Republican Guard says a friend spotted Saddam praying at his father's grave on Nov. 24.

Another Iraqi army officer, who had joined the newly reconstituted police, recognized Saddam and a driver in an orange-and-white taxicab at a checkpoint in Tikrit. "So you've joined the new police," Saddam said. The former officer, feeling ashamed, answered, "We have to make a living."

Saddam dug $300 out of his pocket and handed it to the man. Fearing reprisals against his family, the policeman said nothing to the Americans.

In July, Maj. Murphy jotted four names and some notes on a few sheets of paper and handed them to his subordinates on the 4th I.D.'s intelligence staff. "Make sense of it," he ordered, meaning look for patterns and links in the fragmentary intelligence.

Murphy's staff began making a chart connecting various families and tribes, showing blood ties and financial links. An initial list of four enablers ballooned to 9,000 names before being whittled back down to some 300 names.

One name in particular was of interest. Military officials would publicly refer to the man only as "the source," a kind of chief of staff who coordinated security and logistics as Saddam moved between hiding places. On Friday, Dec. 12, the source was finally found in Baghdad. Subjected to an intense interrogation on Saturday, Dec. 13, he cracked at 5 p.m. and "blurted Saddam's location," says Col. James Hickey of the 4th I.D.'s First Combat Brigade Team.

Editor's note:
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