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Details on Hussein’s capture
For an account of the moment of Hussein’s capture that reconciles the contradictions in some other published accounts (one story said the U.S. Special Forces soldiers looked down into the hole and saw a man lying at the bottom, another story said that as soon as the soldiers lifted the styrofoam cover from the hole, a man stuck his arms out), go to this page at the New York Times website and click on the interactive feature on the capture narrated by John Burns. As an example of the careless news writing that I’m talking about, consider this summary of the capture from news.com.au:
US soldiers were seconds away from throwing a hand grenade into a dank hole when they heard a voice.The best picture we can summon from this version is that the Special Forces were not looking into the hole, or at least were not seeing anything in the hole, but were about to throw grenades into it, when they heard a voice coming from the hole, and then they spoke back to this still invisible person who had identified himself as Hussein. In other words, we are to believe that several soldiers spoke the words, “President Bush sends his regards,” into a dark hole. This obviously is unbelievable, yet paper after paper has told it this way. (And this is typical of contemporary journalism. Over and over, reporters just write stuff down that they’re copying from elsewhere, and don’t even examine it to see if it makes sense.) In John Burn’s more coherent and believable account, when the soldiers lifted the block and looked inside, Saddam’s hands immediately reached upward into the shaft, the soldiers lifted him out, and then the exchange of remarks occurred. Also, as Burns makes clear, it was the American colonel in charge who made the pert reply to Hussein about President Bush’s regards. Burns also fills in little details that were not addressed in other coverage, such as what language Hussein was speaking when he identified himself. Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 17, 2003 02:41 PM | Send Email entry |