FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Military Releases Details of Saddam's Capture: "The troops cordoned off an area of 1.5 square miles around the house and began a careful search, Odierno said.
What they found was a small walled compound with a metal lean-to and a mud hut, Sanchez said. Pulling back a rug, they dug down, finding a Styrofoam panel that covered a tiny tunnel, Odierno said. Sanchez called it a 'spider-hole.'
'The spider-hole is about 6 to 8 feet deep and allows enough space for a person to lie down inside of it,' Sanchez said. He showed video images of an air duct and a ventilation fan.
Inside lay Saddam, wearing a long, salt-and-pepper beard and disheveled hair. He had a pistol on his lap, Odierno said, but didn't move to use it. When asked about his identity, the former dictator confirmed he was Saddam, Odierno said.
Soldiers searched the hut, made up of two rooms -- a bedroom and a kitchen. The soldier who participated in the raid described it as 'just two rooms and a sink, there was one bed and one chair and some clothes and that's about it.' Soldiers seized two rifles, a pistol, a taxi and $750,000 in U.S. currency in a suitcase.
'We didn't stay there long. It smelled really bad,' the soldier said. 'It looked more like a garage than a proper house.'
Within an hour -- at about 9:15 p.m. -- a helicopter whisked Saddam away, heading south toward Baghdad, Odierno said. Officials didn't say where he was being held.
Sanchez, who saw Saddam in detention, described him as talkative and cooperative, but also as 'a tired man, and also I think a man resigned to his fate.'
Members of the Iraqi Governing Council visited as well, finding Saddam sitting on a bed in a white gown and dark jacket.
'He was subservient and broken,' council member Mouwafak al-Rabii said. 'He was speaking as if he did not know what was going on around him.'
The council members peppered Saddam with questions about assassinations and massacres, asking him why he killed so many people. But al-Rabii said Saddam was unrepentant.
'Saddam appeared in his true face, using bad language and insults,' he said. 'Saddam looked like a thug or the leader of a mafia.'"
What they found was a small walled compound with a metal lean-to and a mud hut, Sanchez said. Pulling back a rug, they dug down, finding a Styrofoam panel that covered a tiny tunnel, Odierno said. Sanchez called it a 'spider-hole.'
'The spider-hole is about 6 to 8 feet deep and allows enough space for a person to lie down inside of it,' Sanchez said. He showed video images of an air duct and a ventilation fan.
Inside lay Saddam, wearing a long, salt-and-pepper beard and disheveled hair. He had a pistol on his lap, Odierno said, but didn't move to use it. When asked about his identity, the former dictator confirmed he was Saddam, Odierno said.
Soldiers searched the hut, made up of two rooms -- a bedroom and a kitchen. The soldier who participated in the raid described it as 'just two rooms and a sink, there was one bed and one chair and some clothes and that's about it.' Soldiers seized two rifles, a pistol, a taxi and $750,000 in U.S. currency in a suitcase.
'We didn't stay there long. It smelled really bad,' the soldier said. 'It looked more like a garage than a proper house.'
Within an hour -- at about 9:15 p.m. -- a helicopter whisked Saddam away, heading south toward Baghdad, Odierno said. Officials didn't say where he was being held.
Sanchez, who saw Saddam in detention, described him as talkative and cooperative, but also as 'a tired man, and also I think a man resigned to his fate.'
Members of the Iraqi Governing Council visited as well, finding Saddam sitting on a bed in a white gown and dark jacket.
'He was subservient and broken,' council member Mouwafak al-Rabii said. 'He was speaking as if he did not know what was going on around him.'
The council members peppered Saddam with questions about assassinations and massacres, asking him why he killed so many people. But al-Rabii said Saddam was unrepentant.
'Saddam appeared in his true face, using bad language and insults,' he said. 'Saddam looked like a thug or the leader of a mafia.'"
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