Saddam "given up" by Kurds?

[legion]

"Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British Sunday newspaper said...."


Yahoo news story (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031221/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_saddam_britain&cid=1514&ncid=1480)

Is anyone really going to believe this story? The Kurds finally get their hands on Saddam and choose to leave him, unharmed, for US troops to find?

Sound to me like a story conjured up out of nowhere in a pathetic attempt to rain on America's parade.

[Early Out]

I've got to think that if the Kurds had captured Saddam, they'd simply have slit his throat. That "news" story really does strain the limits of credulity, doesn't it?!

[adaher]

Or even worse, abandon him? With weapons?

[2Thick]

Their motivation would be the 25 million dollar reward.

Most likely, these guys did not have anything personal against him, so they wanted to see him humiliated while they get rich.

[Bryan Ekers]

And ~$750,000? Not to mention passing up a chance at the $25 million reward the U.S. was offering?


It sounds like the Sunday Express is the British equivalent of The Weekly World News. All they need as a Batboy angle. Or Yahoo! News is blowing whatever credibility it has with a hoax of its own.

[GIGObuster]

One thing is sure though: this report, that was different from the official ones, appeared in several international papers on the 14th:

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13335426
"Before four am (0630 IST), Qusrat Rasul Ali called me to inform me that his men along with the Americans had managed to capture Saddam Hussein as he slept in his hideout in Tikrit this morning," Othman said. |Timeline: Saddam's Iraq|

Rasul Ali, who was tortured by Saddam's henchmen and is known as the lion of Kurdistan, heads a unit of special forces hunting down former regime leaders.

"I was sure the Kurds would catch Saddam Hussein because they have Arab friends in Tikrit, Mosul and the country," said Othman, a Kurd himself.
I get the sensation that, like the rescue of Jessica Lynch, there is too much information that was propaganda. I do think the American troops were present, but the tale was altered to make it better for political purposes, for both the Iraqi and American public.

[II Gyan II]

Two links via Metafilter that might help:


http://www.sundayherald.com/38816
http://www.jeremybotter.com/