Ex-marine: Saddam's Capture Was Staged

Posted on March 10, 2005

Well, here's an interesting little story. One of the Marines involved in Saddam Hussein's capture says the whole thing was a fake, that Saddam was found in a house, not a spider hole. In fact, he says there was no spider hole at all, just a well on the property. He also says Saddam put up a defense and shot at U.S. troops out of a window.

Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh was quoted in the Saudi daily al-Medina Wednesday as saying, "I was among the 20-man unit, including eight of Arab descent, who searched for Saddam for three days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced."

He also says, "We captured him after fierce resistance during which a Marine of Sudanese origin was killed,."Later on, a military production team fabricated the film of Saddam's capture in a hole, which was in fact a deserted well."

My first reaction is, who exactly is this Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh? Why is he giving interviews in Lebanon? Has anyone talked to the rest of the soldiers in his ex-unit? Certainly the ex-Marine's statements make Saddam seem more heroic to the Arab world, which was very unhappy with Saddam's poor defense when the U.S. invaded Iraq. On the other hand, did the U.S. deliberately falsify this information? I think this needs to be looked into. But it probably won't be.