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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
What Is In Store For Saddam Hussein?; How Will Investors React To This News Tomorrow; A Report On Search For Osama bin Laden
Aired December 14, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening now, search, capture, and now interrogation. The game's over for Saddam Hussein. Will his fellow Iraqis put him on trial? Will they put him to death? Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVIL ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein shaggy, bearded, bedraggled, captured at last. and look where they found him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hussein was found hiding in an underground crawl space and soldiers confiscated approximately $750,000 U.S. currency.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It marks the end of the road for him, and for all who bullied and killed in his name.
BLITZER: It's a day of celebration for some Iraqis, but not for all. Everyone is asking what's next for Iraq, the Middle East, the war on terrorism, even the U.S. presidential race?
ANNOUNCER: This is a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS: the capture of Saddam Hussein.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: After nine months of running, Saddam Hussein has been caught and the evidence is on display everywhere. The world has seen pictures of the once feared Iraqi president in United States custody standing docilely for a medical examination. Of troops celebrating the capture and hoping it will go down as a turning point in the drive to build a new Iraq.
And one more image apparently designed to prove that the bearded man taken into custody really is Saddam Hussein. Look at this, a picture taken after the beard was shaved off, leaving little doubt that the farmer Iraqi dictator really has been found and no longer represents any threat.
Our CNN reporters are standing by with the whole story. Nic Robertson is joining us in Tikrit. Dana Bash is at the White House. Barbara Starr, David Ensor, they're here in Washington. Let's start with our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a surprise for the Iraqis. Surprised that after all this time, Saddam Hussein should be picked up. A day of surprise for troops here when they went out on a raid for a high valued target they came back with Saddam Hussein. And a surprise for coalition officials that Saddam Hussein should be picked up barely ten miles from this massive coalition base, one of Saddam Hussein's former presidential palaces, a huge complex of palaces near Tikrit.
But it was the members of the 4th Infantry Division based here who led that charge to capture him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The first to know and the first to celebrate, these U.S. soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division returning to base hours after capturing Saddam Hussein. Almost a day later, winning praise from their commander.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want everyone to know how proud I am of the great soldiers of the task force and the division.
ROBERTSON: The two-star general showing pictures of how his troops raided the remote farmhouse where Saddam Hussein was found hiding in a hole. And detailing how intelligence gleaned from Hussein loyalists led to his capture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over the last ten days or so, we brought in about five to ten members thieves families who then were able to give us even more information and finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals.
ROBERTSON: On the streets around the U.S. military base and the former dictator's hometown of Tikrit, none of the joy being expressed elsewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Saddam Hussein is just an ordinary man, he says. Governments fall and rise. This new authority has no use at all. We were a million times better off under Saddam Hussein.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It will have no effect on the resistance, this man adds, they are not fighting for Saddam, they're fighting for Iraq and Iraq is occupied.
ROBERTSON: Around Tikrit, U.S. troop patrols continue through the day. None here letting their guard down yet.
General Odierno, cautious about the reactions in his area of operation, the Sunni Triangle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the background, everything will be very, a sense of relief, I think in most cases. So we'll wait and see what happens.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: And Wolf, waiting what the troops here have been very good at. And the success of that waiting has been evident this day -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein in custody, Nic Robertson is joining from Tikrit. Thank you, Nic, very much.
Let's go to the White House now, see how things are unfolding in Washington. White House correspondent Dana Bash is live -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in private today, there was all the same you'd expect at the White House, but the public remarks were decidedly cautious and low key.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): It was the speech President Bush has been waiting nine months to give, the leader the U.S. went to war to remove is finally in American custody.
BUSH: In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over.
BASH: Vowing Saddam Hussein will be brought to justice, the president issued a pledge to the Iraqi people he has made many times before, hoping these pictures will give his words a new meaning.
BASH: I have a message for the Iraqi people. You will not have to fear the rule of Saddam Hussein ever again. All Iraqis who take the side of freedom have taken the winning side.
BASH: Administration officials have been hoping a dead or captured Saddam Hussein would ease Iraqi fears, and help stop a violent insurgency that has claimed the lives of 198 U.S. soldiers since the president declared major combat over May 1. But here, Mr. Bush tried to keep expectations low.
BASH: I also have a message for all Americans. The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq.
BASH: It was Saturday afternoon at 3:15 p.m. Eastern the president, at Camp David, got a call from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying Saddam Hussein may have been captured, but it was not until the next morning, 5:14 a.m., National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice called the president, back at the White House, with final confirmation, it was, in fact, Saddam Hussein.
The president spent much of the morning thanking allies like British Prime Minister Tony Blair and leaders of Australia, Italy and Poland. Also talking to heads of state in the Mideast to make sure they got word straight from him about Saddam Hussein's fate.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BASH: And officials here are hoping that Saddam Hussein's capture helps with a key mission that starts tomorrow. Former secretary of state James Baker will leave to meet with leaders who opposed the war in France, Germany and Russia, among others, pressing them to forgive Iraq for billions in debt -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Dana Bash at the White House. thanks, Dana very much.
U.S. officials say Saddam Hussein's capture was based on what they describe as an accumulation of intelligence. Here to tell us all about it our national security correspondent David Ensor -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the extraordinary thing here is the man that was once a dictator of Iraq is now a prisoner of the United States and is he a prisoner who is talking.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice-over): The man who urged supporters to fight to the death not only gave himself up without firing a shot, say U.S. officials, but he is now providing information to his American interrogators.
LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, COMMANDER U.S. FORCES: Saddam Hussein, the captive, has been talkative, and is being cooperative.
ENSOR: If Saddam is willing, officials say, he could be the best possible source for the CIA's David Kay, the man in charge of looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
In a statement, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss said with this capture, lingering questions will be answered, but we cannot forget that Saddam has engaged in deceit and deception for decades.
How did they find Saddam? It was low tech human intelligence, U.S. officials say, actionable intelligence, painstakingly gathered.
BUSH: The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictators footprints in a vast country.
ENSOR: The information did not come from a tip. U.S. officials pulled in former Saddam bodyguards and members of Tikriti families close to the regime for intense interrogation. Information extracted from one person led to another.
MAJ. GEN. RAYMOND OTIERNO, U.S. ARMY: Over the last ten days we brought in about five to ten members of these families who then were able to give us even more information and finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals.
ENSOR: Once captured, Saddam was shown to some other prisoners like Tariq Aziz, his former senior aide who eventually confirmed his identity beyond a shadow of a doubt.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: Prior to Saddam's capture, a meeting had been scheduled for tomorrow at the CIA to discuss how to proceed with David Kay's so far rather discouraging hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Officials say, if that meeting goes ahead as scheduled it will now have quite a different tone.
BLITZER: I assume it will. Thanks very much, David Ensor for that report.
And while many Sunni Muslims in Saddam Hussein's ancestral hometown of Tikrit appeared stunned by his capture, there was celebrations in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. CNN's Satinder Bindra has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As word spread that Saddam Hussein may be in coalition custody, Iraqis started celebrating. Then the million-dollar moment, as images of a bearded and haggard looking Saddam were flashed on TV, Iraqis had the proof they needed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm 100 percent convinced this was Saddam.
BINDRA: Moments later, more and more Iraqis began pouring into the streets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a wonderful day, very, very good day.
BINDRA: People blew their car horns, danced, clapped, yelled.
Others distributed candy.
The biggest surprise, Saddam surrendered without a fight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Everyone knows that Saddam Hussein is a coward. If he had one ounce of courage he would have killed himself and not allowed himself to be captured like a rat hiding in a hole in the ground. Saddam should be tried for all the crimes that he committed against the Iraqi people, from the day he came to power until the moment he was captured.
BINDRA: With Saddam no longer a threat, many here want U.S. forces to start planning a pullout.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The Americans must leave sooner or later, but it's too soon for that, because we need the help and experience of the Americans now.
BINDRA: Iraqis now sense a chance for a new future, one in which they say Saddam Hussein will have no role.
Satinder Bindra, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: And here's your chance to weigh in on this important story. Our Web question of the day is this -- will the capture of Saddam Hussein help bring stability to Iraq? You can vote right now. Go to cnn.com/wolf. We'll have the results later in this broadcast.
While you're there, I'd like to hear directly from you, our viewers. Send us your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.
Now that the United States government has him, what does it do with him? Coming up -- Saddam Hussein's fate, will he go on trial? Could he pay the ultimate price? Should he?
And later, the challenge of finding the world's other most wanted man, an update on the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
And then, there's politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Today's big news has some of the president's Democratic challengers talking, talking out loud, and attacking one another. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN's continuing coverage of Saddam Hussein's capture. I want to show our viewers some animation of how U.S. troops caught the ex-Iraqi leader.
Look at this, based on intelligence, they closed in on a ramshackle compound just outside Tikrit. The small walled compound had an adobe hut that included a kitchen with running water. Some clothes in the hut suggested someone had been using it.
Just outside the hut, the biggest find of all, a rug covering a piece of styrofoam above a hull that was the entrance, yes, the entrance to Saddam Hussein's hiding place. The hole went down six to eight feet to Saddam Hussein's cramped quarters, with rudimentary ventilation, shared with mice and rats.
Now that Saddam Hussein is out of action, what about the guerrillas who have been fighting U.S. and coalition forces? Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr says U.S. commanders are not about to relax.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Violence continues, even as Saddam Hussein now spends his first hours in custody. A suicide attack on an Iraqi police station in Qaldia (ph) kills 10 Iraqis, 20 more are wounded. A car bombing in Baghdad, injured carried away. And by nighttime, celebratory gunfire in Baghdad hits fuel truck canisters causing the truck to catch fire and explode.
Cautious military officials do not expect Saddam's capture to diminish the threat to U.S. soldiers on the ground. And as Iraq moves to self-governance in just six months, even more concern that opposition groups may take even more desperate measures.
GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, U.S. ARMY: We've repeatedly stated that this is a critical moment in the history of the country, in the history of our attempt to bring security and stability to Iraq, but we do not expect at this point in time that we will have a complete elimination of those attacks.
STARR: Just last month, General John Abizaid, head of the Central Command, detailed how opposition forces are dispersed, an indication they were already independent of Saddam Hussein.
GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: There's a level of coordination within provinces and probably between provinces, but it's only anecdotal evidence that we have that there's a national level of control. There may be some coordination, but control is hard to point to at this time.
STARR: And Wolf, the Bush administration is critically aware it still must deliver basic security to the Iraqi people before the cycle of violence can be stopped. But with fewer than half of Iraqi security forces now trained and equipped, no one is predicting when real peace will come to Iraq -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Barbara Starr with some useful reporting, as usual. Barbara, thanks very much.
So what will it take to put down the insurgency? Saddam Hussein's capture means the four aces in the coalition's deck of most wanted are, in fact, out of play, but a couple of powerful kings remain at large. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the Revolutionary Command Council, vice chairman, and Hani Abdullah TifKilfa Al-Tikriti (ph), Saddam Hussein's special security director. Both could be coordinating the rebels.
Kansas Senator Pat Roberts is joining us now. He's the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Mr. Chairman, thanks very much...
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: It's my privilege, Wolf, thank you.
BLITZER: ... for joining us. Was Saddam Hussein, based on everything the U.S. intelligence community knows, running some of the show, the opposition?
ROBERTS: I don't think so. I think under his circumstance when he was going farm to farm and maybe changing locations two or three times a day, he was on the run. You see the pictures of him. Here is a man that looked absolutely agonized, completely fatigued. I'm not sure that he was running any kind of command and control operations in regards to the resistance that's now going on.
BLITZER: So basically the only thing he was doing was trying to save his own skin.
ROBERTS: I think you pretty well summed it up.
BLITZER: So who is running the show, based on everything you know?
ROBERTS: Well, you've named two of the key individuals, but it's a very desperate group. You've got foreign jihadists who are encouraged to come in...
BLITZER: Is al Qaeda involved in this?
ROBERTS: I don't even think there's any question that that's, you know, that that's the case. And then you have the Fedayeen, which is a gang of thugs that for a certain amount of money they're able to pay people to go kill Americans. Then you have the Baath Party loyalists, who are also paying, you know, that kind of money. You have the Sunni extremists and then you have the various desperate groups that you have in Iraq.
So it is still a society that is Balkanized. But the good news is that we have finally reached a point with our intelligence, and I mean very good, strong, and a cooperative, joint effort that we have not seen up to this day.
BLITZER: So intelligence is really getting better.
ROBERTS: We have really ramped up our intelligence from the standpoint of the agency, the CIA, and the DIA, and the analysts. The analysts are the key. The analysts are the ones that put together the jigsaw puzzle of the raw intelligence, and they fuse it so it will go out to the operator, out to the military -- in this particular case it was the 4th Infantry Division and that special unit that's been after Saddam -- and we got the good information from that family, we moved quickly and we not only found the haystack, we found the needle.
If we can apply that now to the terrorist activities, I think we'll be in better shape.
BLITZER: What about the weapons of mass destruction? Presumably, if anyone knows where they are, it would be Saddam Hussein. He's supposedly cooperating, he's talking. Will he lead the U.S. to WMD if in fact there are WMD?
ROBERTS: I am not going to go out on a limb on that. I know they said that he was cooperating. I don't know whether that means he was simply cooperating from the standpoint of his attitude, or if he was asking any specific questions. I doubt seriously we've had any time to sit down with him and reach a point where we can ask him specific questions on his WMD program, how far away he was from it.
I would hope as soon as possible Dr. Kay could -- who is over there, of course, and doing fine work -- could really interview him, but I doubt if we've reached that point to determine whether he'd be that helpful.
BLITZER: The interrogations, these interrogations of other Iraqi leaders who have been captured, very significant. Based on what you know, and you know a great deal, probably more than anyone in the United States Senate, you're briefed on a daily basis on these kinds of matters. In general terms, without violating classified regulations, what happens in these? What do you expect will happen in the interrogation of Saddam Hussein?
ROBERTS: Oh, I think that we'll have the basic interrogation, and then through a lot of persistence, and a lot of real perseverance, we will see what his attitude is and where that leads. But you're not quite sure that he really knew in regards to the command and control operation on who was supposed to push that button in regards to some kind of a biological attack or not.
We'll just have to wait and see. But this is -- you know, this takes time. Then, of course, you have the situation, are we going to try him in Iraq? And if we do, what is the right way to try him and how many months that's going to take? But there has to be closure, and I think he has to be tried in Iraq. I stood on a hill and saw a mass grave site the size of a football field, and anywhere from 300,000 to a million people have been killed. Justice has to be -- justice has to be brought to Saddam Hussein.
BLITZER: I think there's an international consensus on that point.
ROBERTS: There's no question about it.
BLITZER: Senator Roberts, as usual, thanks very much.
ROBERTS: It's my pleasure, thank you.
BLITZER: There's much more coming up, including a very important question, what becomes of Saddam Hussein now that he's been captured. Find out what's ahead for the former dictator in specific terms. And how will Saddam's capture the overall war on terrorism. I'll speak live with a former national security adviser to President Clinton.
And his opposition to the Iraqi war has made him the Democratic frontrunner. See how today's news is effecting presidential candidate, Howeard Dean.
Much more coming up, stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN and a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS. Saddam Hussein is captured alive. He's in the United States custody right now. It's our big story, of course, one of the biggest stories of the year.
This half hour, our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour will look at what's next for Saddam Hussein. She'll join us from London.
Jennifer Coggiola is following reaction right here in the United States.
Bob Franken with what the Democratic presidential candidates have to say about all of this.
And Christine Romans in New York with what the markets might be doing tomorrow.
Saddam Hussein, though, was in power for 24 years, on the run for nine months. Let's take a look back at how we got to this day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Missile strikes, near misses, raids, sweeps, ambushes, nearly nine months of it, boils down to a series of tips, interrogations, so-called actionable intelligence, and a final push.
SANCHEZ: At about 18:00 hours last night, under the cover of darkness and with lightning speed, the raider brigades forces were positioned and began movement of the objectives northwest of Adwar (ph).
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein hadn't ventured far. About 15 kilometers south of his hometown Tikrit U.S. forces converge on a rural compound. The assault team, the U.S. army's 4th Infantry Division with special forces mixed in. Any civilians around see some 600 American troops and have to know something is up.
The team swept through two locations around the compound called Wolverine I and Wolverine II, but come up empty. They cordon off the area, and intensify the search. In a small mud hut covered with bricks and dirt, they find a so-called spider hole.
SANCHEZ: After uncovering the spider hole, a search was conducted, and Saddam Hussein was found hiding at the bottom of the hole. The spider hole is about six to eight feet deep.
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein has a pistol, but does not go down fighting. Taken into custody, whisked off to an undisclosed location. Hours later, these once unthinkable images.
BREMER: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. This is Saddam as he was being given his medical examination today.
BLITZER: Coalition commanders had heard all of the skepticism. Saddam's loyalists could keep him on the run indefinitely. U.S. generals kept insisting it's only a matter of time before they close in on Saddam, before someone gives him up. In recent days, someone did. ODIERNO: We got more and more information on the families that were somewhat close to Saddam Hussein. Over the last ten days or so, we brought in about five to ten members of these families who then were able to give us even more information. And finally, we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals.
BLITZER: Still unresolved for U.S. commanders, how many loyalists and foreign combatants are still out there, and how long they'll hold up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Now that Saddam Hussein is in coalition hands, what will happen to him? Our Christiane Amanpour is joining us now live from London -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it surprised everybody. He said he would go down with a fight. He didn't. He was found as General Odierno said, like a rat in a hole. He was disheveled, he was bewildered. And when members of the Iraqi governing council met him, they said he was unrepentant. He had no intention of apologizing for what he had done. He wasn't even contemplating it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Looking like a caveman, Saddam Hussein was arrested, poked, prodded and interrogated. But what will be his ultimate fate?
BUSH: Now the former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions.
AMANPOUR: But how? The U.s. hasn't yet said whether it will hand Saddam over to the Iraqis for trial. The Iraqi governing council wants to put him before the war crimes tribunal they set up last week: execution, the ultimate penalty.
Experts in international law believe that Saddam Hussein can be charged with crimes against humanity, and even genocide for unleashing chemical weapons against Kurds and Iranians more than 20 years ago.
Members of the governing council said they had met Saddam after his capture, verified his identity, and even spoken to him.
ADNAN PACHACHI, IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL (through translator): If there's any signal or message from that criminal, ugly criminal that he was, he was not remorseful whatsoever for any crime he had committed against the Iraqi people: not mass graves, not the wars that he waged against Iran, not even the invasion of Kuwait.
AMANPOUR: Adnan Pachachi said Saddam was defiant and even tried to justify these things, calling himself a just but firm ruler. Pachachi called this a sick mind.
Experts say it's important for the historical record and for future reconciliation that he account for his crimes before the Iraqi people. Unlike former dictators like Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic who is currently on trial in the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
The Iraqi governing council says any trial of Saddam Hussein would be civilian, not military, that it would be open to the media and public and that the defendant would have a lawyer. A fair trial would be important for world opinion, especially in the Arab world.
BARIA ALAMMUDIN, "AL HAYAT" EDITOR: I'm sure people in the region and the world at large are thinking that brutally leaders can not go on surviving. You can run, you cannot hide, you will be captured. So there's a lesson, a moral lesson to be learned there.
AMANPOUR: Human Rights Watch, which has documented Saddam's crimes, including widespread killings of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds after the failed uprisings in 1991, says that Iraq should not put on a show trial. It points out the Iraqi justice system doesn't yet have experience in internationally accepted procedures for the highly complex prosecution of war crimes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Members of the Iraqi governing council say if they can gather all of the evidence and put together a case against him, he would be the first to be tried under their tribunal. But many experts believe that could take months simply to get that process up and running. And of course it's not just war crimes that the Iraqis will be interested but clearly the United States wants to know what about the weapons of mass destruction. Did he have any? And if he didn't, why did it get this far?
BLITZER: CNN's Christiane Amanpour in London with an excellent report as usual. Thanks, Christiane, very much.
Saddam Hussein's capture is making global headlines. It has to have terror groups taking notice. But what impact is it likely to have on the international war against terror?
The former national security adviser Samuel Berger is joining us live, worked for former president Bill Clinton. What impact will this have in your assessment, Mr. Berger, the war on terror?
SAMUEL BERGER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think it has to have a positive impact. Obviously eight months ago, Wolf, we watched the statue of Saddam Hussein come crashing down, and it was dramatic, but it was a symbol.
BLITZER: This is more than a symbol, though.
BERGER: Today we saw the man come crashing down and that's real. And for the Iraqi people, that means they don't have to fear him coming back and I think for the region, it does show that we're persistent.
BLITZER: Let me press you on the region. For example, if you're an enemy of the United States right now, or a state leader, or a terrorist out there, you see these pictures of Saddam Hussein looking like some homeless guy on the street basically, you have to get a powerful message. You've got to say to yourself, this president of the United States means business.
BERGER: But we have to reinforce this message now with what we do in the coming days. We've got, for example, still a lot to do in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is coming back, where al Qaeda is coming back, where we still don't have an international presence.
I think there is there's an opportunity presented by today. Today is very dramatic, and positive developments, to reinforce the message that we are serious, we are persistent, and we will stay after bin Laden and Mullah Omar and all of the other thugs until we get them.
BLITZER: If you're sitting in Paris right now or Berlin or Moscow, and you're getting ready for the former secretary of state, James Baker, to come over to try to get to you reduce the debt that the Iraqis of Saddam Hussein owed your country, you got to sit up and take a little bit better notice right now, don't you?
BERGER: Nothing succeeds like success. And I'm sure Jim Baker is prefer to go tomorrow than to have gone yesterday.
Now you're talking about obviously French debt, so we're talking about dollars and cents here and these intangibles have only some impact. But I think there's an opportunity now, presented to the president, to reach out again to the international community, to say we've now turned a corner here, and let's come together to finish the job in Iraq, create a stable and secure Iraq, and work together to deal with the world terrorism issue.
BLITZER: Samuel Berger, you spent eight years at president Clinton's side. Thanks for joining us.
BERGER: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: It's a huge story around the whole world, the whole world that is. Next, what national leaders and ordinary people are saying about Saddam Hussein's capture.
Also, see how the presidential candidates are reacting to what's very clearly a huge day, let us say a great day, for President Bush.
And could Saddam Hussein's capture put money in your pocket? Coming up all eyes on the world's markets. What will it do on the Dow Jones tomorrow? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Two words define how most people are responding to Saddam Hussein's capture: surprise and joy. CNN's Jennifer Coggiola is at the CNN center in Atlanta with more reaction now from across the country -- Jennifer. JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. Well, in a country divided -- Wolf, in a country divided over the war in Iraq. The news of Saddam's capture and President Bush's strong message were welcomed by Iraqis today both abroad and here in the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH: You will not have to fear the rule of Saddam Hussein ever again.
COGGIOLA: A long awaited message for Iraqis everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today is the day of revenge from Saddam, the day of victory. This is the celebration of victory of God and of freedom, and the free world and democracy.
COGGIOLA: In Dearborn, Michigan, one of America's largest Arab communities, impromptu celebration in the streets. The sign sending a message to the world. Today's arrest is proof for one New Yorker that once and for all the Iraqi leader was finished.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looked bad. He looked sad, and he looks like he's defeated. He's definitely defeated, and you could tell in his face.
COGGIOLA: And in Ft. Hood, Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things are looking good.
COGGIOLA: Home of the special forces responsible for the capture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man, everybody's going crazy. The post is in clear pandemonium right now. So it's a great day.
COGGIOLA: Jubilation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Especially during the holidays, a lot of people want to hear good news and this is definitely great news.
COGGIOLA: Soldiers at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, arriving home today for the holidays heard the news on the plane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole crowd just erupted. We were all, you know, really excited for our boys back there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COGGIOLA: The street scene this morning is reminiscent of celebrations just eight months ago, after the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad, but today a true sign of victory, and further evidence that the leader feared and hated around the world will not be back again -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jennifer Coggiola, with reaction from around the country, thanks very much, Jennifer, for that report. Let's get some reaction now from around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Allies applaud. Britain's prime minister declared Saddam is gone from power. He won't be coming back.
TONY BLAIR, PRIME MINISTER, GREAT BRITAIN: Now is the time of great opportunity. Let us seize it and use it for the good of the people of Iraq, for the people in the Middle East, and for the people of our world.
BLITZER: Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar applauded the capture of Saddam Hussein, saying the main obstacle to peace, freedom and democracy has disappeared.
Critics give credit. France, Germany and Russia, which had been critical of the U.S.-led war on Iraq, embraced the news. The French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, said that it's time to forget past differences and to work together on rebuilding Iraq. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sent President Bush a letter of congratulations.
The Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, says Saddam Hussein's capture will strengthen security and should make it easier for the United Nations to operate in Iraq.
Israeli relief, Israel's prime minister congratulated President Bush by telephone.
ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI P.M.: We are relieved that this murderer and dictator can no longer stand in the way of the rebuilding and reconstruction of the country he destroyed.
BLITZER: Arab reaction. The secretary general of the Arab League had a guarded response.
AMR MOUSSA, SECRETARY-GENERAL, ARAB LEAGUE: I'm sure that the people of Iraq will express their reaction today, especially in the light of what they have seen and what they endured and do endure.
BLITZER: And that's our look at reaction around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein's capture, of course, a big win for President Bush. But it could hurt some of his opponents more than others. Coming up -- who is on the defensive, and who is attacking?
Also, will Saddam Hussein's capture help your retirement savings? A look at Monday and the markets.
Plus -- he's wanted dead or alive. Is the U.S. any closer to finding Osama bin Laden?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: The capture of Saddam Hussein is a big victory for President Bush and potentially a big problem for his Democratic opponents. Our national correspondent Bob Franken is joining us now with a little bit on the political fallout -- Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, as you know, the successful politician learns early in the game that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN (voice-over): The huge dilemma for the president's political opponents, how to react during his moment of triumph. To use the old line, very carefully.
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A good day for the United States, most importantly, a good day for the people of Iraq.
FRANKEN: Some Democratic candidates saw the capture of Saddam Hussein as a chance to turn on the anti-war leader of their pack.
LIEBERMAN: The fact is that if Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison. And the world would be a much more dangerous place.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Howard Dean is the man who said we shouldn't be thinking about military action against Iraq.
FRANKEN: Dean decided he needed to be seen as above the fray.
HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a day to celebrate the fact that Saddam has been caught, and we'll have to worry about the campaign later on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: Later on, of course, meaning real soon, but for the right now the Democratic candidates agree that on this day, the best politics, Wolf, were the least politics.
BLITZER: All right, Bob Franken with the political scene. Thanks very much, Bob, for that report.
Major news events, of course, rock the world's stock markets very often, and the news of Saddam Hussein's capture has already sparked rallies on markets in Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia, which are working days today. Will it light a fire under your investments come tomorrow, Monday? CNN financial news correspondent Christine Romans joining us now live from New York with more on that -- Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is a big surprise for stock markets and for investors, and because it happened over the weekend, it allows investors plenty of time to digest the information to prepare for the new trading week. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (voice-over): If U.S. markets had been open when Saddam Hussein was captured, you can bet stocks would have screamed higher. And market watchers still predict rallies Monday in global stocks, bonds and the dollar, and a pullback in oil.
TED WEISBERG, SEAPORT SECURITIES: So much of stock market trading is psychological, maybe as much as 90 percent. This is clearly a very positive psychological factor. It has to have a positive effect on the stock market.
ROMANS: U.S. military successes have played out well in stocks. In the six months after the military invasion of Afghanistan in October, 2001, the Dow gained 16 percent. Since Operation Iraqi Freedom began, the Dow has added a whopping 29 percent. The question, how long will any rally last and just how tantalizing will it be for investors to sell stocks to lock in a year of great gains?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Wolf, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 10,000 last week for the first time in a year and a half, it's on track for the first higher year in four, and there is a Saddam rally expected. The question is, will investors want to close the books on 2003 with this great news -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We'll wait until tomorrow to find out. Christine Romans, thanks for that report.
If Saddam Hussein's capture can boost the markets, what would Osama bin Laden's capture do to the markets? They haven't found him yet. Will they soon? Find out what's happening to the search for Osama bin Laden. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: While the capture of Saddam Hussein is, of course, incredibly important news. The other most wanted man in the world, Osama bin Laden is still very much out there. Will it be harder to get him now or easier. Our Mike Boettcher reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It ended at a storage shed down a carefully prepared spider hole. But the hunt for Saddam Hussein had months ago already been narrowed down to a small area around his birthplace of Tikrit. So, too, with the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which has focused on an area known as southern Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal area. Will similar tactics yield another success?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These situations are totally different.
BOETTCHER: Start with the terrain. The area around Tikrit is flat, with some urban areas. But most importantly it has been under U.S. control since April. The area along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border is mountainous, sparsely populated, much harder to move around, even by air.
KEN ROBINSON, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the issue in Iraq is that we can plan operations and we can be unilateral. We can go anywhere in the country on air or ground. It's not the situation in Afghanistan, and the terrain is totally different.
BOETTCHER: Another important difference -- the U.S. cannot a act alone in hunting bin Laden. It must rely in large part on Pakistan and its ability to produce this sort of human intelligence that led to Saddam's capture. Nor will Saddam's capture now mean more resources going into the search for owe is Osama, which is being conducted by the same special operations task force 121.
ROBINSON: They're going to continue to press forward on the rest of the Ba'athists that they still have on their list and going after these insurgents. And in Afghanistan they'll continue to press towards finding Osama bin Laden.
BOETTCHER: The bottom line, what worked in Iraq may not help in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(on camera): Consider this, for all the focus on the hunt for Saddam Hussein, he was only on the run eight months since the fall of Baghdad. The hunt for Osama bin Laden is now in its third year. Mike Boettcher, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Mike. When we return, our picture of the day, the image America woke up to. And our hot Web question of the day is this, "will the capture of Saddam Hussein help bring stability to Iraq?" We'll have the results for you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Our picture of the day is an image that will be remembered for many, many years to come. Look at this, a bearded, bedraggled Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody, undergoing a medical examination. Defense department pictures beamed all over the world are firming that the man once called "The Butcher of Baghdad" no longer represents a threat to anyone.
Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. Remember, we've been asking you this question, "will the capture of Saddam Hussein help bring stability to Iraq?" Let's take a look at the results. 62 percent, yes 62 percent of you say yes. 38 percent of you say no. As always, we remind you, this is not, repeat not a scientific poll.
Let's get so some of your email. Edward writes this, "no more Saddam. Congratulations to the 4th ID," that's the Infantry Division, "and the entire U.S. military. One down, one more to go. Osama bin Laden is next." Michelle writes this, "now is our greatest chance to prove to the Iraqi people that we do not want to occupy their country forever. Let us show our respect for the rule of law in Iraq by handing over Saddam over to the recently formed war crimes tribunal for trial by his countrymen."
And this, from Anthony, "Our country is not safer with the capture of Saddam. I fear that our soldiers will remain at risk. And while it is nice to have one less dictator in the world, the ultimate price paid by those we have lost makes the greater statement."
A reminder, we're on Monday through Friday 5:00 pm Eastern. I'm also here weekdays noon Eastern. I'll see you tomorrow. Until then, thanks very much for joining us. Thanks for joining us for this special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS. A special edition of "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.
END
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React To This News Tomorrow; A Report On Search For Osama bin Laden>
Aired December 14, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening now, search, capture, and now interrogation. The game's over for Saddam Hussein. Will his fellow Iraqis put him on trial? Will they put him to death? Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVIL ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein shaggy, bearded, bedraggled, captured at last. and look where they found him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hussein was found hiding in an underground crawl space and soldiers confiscated approximately $750,000 U.S. currency.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It marks the end of the road for him, and for all who bullied and killed in his name.
BLITZER: It's a day of celebration for some Iraqis, but not for all. Everyone is asking what's next for Iraq, the Middle East, the war on terrorism, even the U.S. presidential race?
ANNOUNCER: This is a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS: the capture of Saddam Hussein.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: After nine months of running, Saddam Hussein has been caught and the evidence is on display everywhere. The world has seen pictures of the once feared Iraqi president in United States custody standing docilely for a medical examination. Of troops celebrating the capture and hoping it will go down as a turning point in the drive to build a new Iraq.
And one more image apparently designed to prove that the bearded man taken into custody really is Saddam Hussein. Look at this, a picture taken after the beard was shaved off, leaving little doubt that the farmer Iraqi dictator really has been found and no longer represents any threat.
Our CNN reporters are standing by with the whole story. Nic Robertson is joining us in Tikrit. Dana Bash is at the White House. Barbara Starr, David Ensor, they're here in Washington. Let's start with our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a surprise for the Iraqis. Surprised that after all this time, Saddam Hussein should be picked up. A day of surprise for troops here when they went out on a raid for a high valued target they came back with Saddam Hussein. And a surprise for coalition officials that Saddam Hussein should be picked up barely ten miles from this massive coalition base, one of Saddam Hussein's former presidential palaces, a huge complex of palaces near Tikrit.
But it was the members of the 4th Infantry Division based here who led that charge to capture him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The first to know and the first to celebrate, these U.S. soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division returning to base hours after capturing Saddam Hussein. Almost a day later, winning praise from their commander.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want everyone to know how proud I am of the great soldiers of the task force and the division.
ROBERTSON: The two-star general showing pictures of how his troops raided the remote farmhouse where Saddam Hussein was found hiding in a hole. And detailing how intelligence gleaned from Hussein loyalists led to his capture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over the last ten days or so, we brought in about five to ten members thieves families who then were able to give us even more information and finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals.
ROBERTSON: On the streets around the U.S. military base and the former dictator's hometown of Tikrit, none of the joy being expressed elsewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Saddam Hussein is just an ordinary man, he says. Governments fall and rise. This new authority has no use at all. We were a million times better off under Saddam Hussein.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It will have no effect on the resistance, this man adds, they are not fighting for Saddam, they're fighting for Iraq and Iraq is occupied.
ROBERTSON: Around Tikrit, U.S. troop patrols continue through the day. None here letting their guard down yet.
General Odierno, cautious about the reactions in his area of operation, the Sunni Triangle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the background, everything will be very, a sense of relief, I think in most cases. So we'll wait and see what happens.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: And Wolf, waiting what the troops here have been very good at. And the success of that waiting has been evident this day -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein in custody, Nic Robertson is joining from Tikrit. Thank you, Nic, very much.
Let's go to the White House now, see how things are unfolding in Washington. White House correspondent Dana Bash is live -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in private today, there was all the same you'd expect at the White House, but the public remarks were decidedly cautious and low key.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): It was the speech President Bush has been waiting nine months to give, the leader the U.S. went to war to remove is finally in American custody.
BUSH: In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over.
BASH: Vowing Saddam Hussein will be brought to justice, the president issued a pledge to the Iraqi people he has made many times before, hoping these pictures will give his words a new meaning.
BASH: I have a message for the Iraqi people. You will not have to fear the rule of Saddam Hussein ever again. All Iraqis who take the side of freedom have taken the winning side.
BASH: Administration officials have been hoping a dead or captured Saddam Hussein would ease Iraqi fears, and help stop a violent insurgency that has claimed the lives of 198 U.S. soldiers since the president declared major combat over May 1. But here, Mr. Bush tried to keep expectations low.
BASH: I also have a message for all Americans. The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq.
BASH: It was Saturday afternoon at 3:15 p.m. Eastern the president, at Camp David, got a call from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying Saddam Hussein may have been captured, but it was not until the next morning, 5:14 a.m., National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice called the president, back at the White House, with final confirmation, it was, in fact, Saddam Hussein.
The president spent much of the morning thanking allies like British Prime Minister Tony Blair and leaders of Australia, Italy and Poland. Also talking to heads of state in the Mideast to make sure they got word straight from him about Saddam Hussein's fate.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BASH: And officials here are hoping that Saddam Hussein's capture helps with a key mission that starts tomorrow. Former secretary of state James Baker will leave to meet with leaders who opposed the war in France, Germany and Russia, among others, pressing them to forgive Iraq for billions in debt -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Dana Bash at the White House. thanks, Dana very much.
U.S. officials say Saddam Hussein's capture was based on what they describe as an accumulation of intelligence. Here to tell us all about it our national security correspondent David Ensor -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the extraordinary thing here is the man that was once a dictator of Iraq is now a prisoner of the United States and is he a prisoner who is talking.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice-over): The man who urged supporters to fight to the death not only gave himself up without firing a shot, say U.S. officials, but he is now providing information to his American interrogators.
LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, COMMANDER U.S. FORCES: Saddam Hussein, the captive, has been talkative, and is being cooperative.
ENSOR: If Saddam is willing, officials say, he could be the best possible source for the CIA's David Kay, the man in charge of looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
In a statement, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss said with this capture, lingering questions will be answered, but we cannot forget that Saddam has engaged in deceit and deception for decades.
How did they find Saddam? It was low tech human intelligence, U.S. officials say, actionable intelligence, painstakingly gathered.
BUSH: The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictators footprints in a vast country.
ENSOR: The information did not come from a tip. U.S. officials pulled in former Saddam bodyguards and members of Tikriti families close to the regime for intense interrogation. Information extracted from one person led to another.
MAJ. GEN. RAYMOND OTIERNO, U.S. ARMY: Over the last ten days we brought in about five to ten members of these families who then were able to give us even more information and finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals.
ENSOR: Once captured, Saddam was shown to some other prisoners like Tariq Aziz, his former senior aide who eventually confirmed his identity beyond a shadow of a doubt.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: Prior to Saddam's capture, a meeting had been scheduled for tomorrow at the CIA to discuss how to proceed with David Kay's so far rather discouraging hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Officials say, if that meeting goes ahead as scheduled it will now have quite a different tone.
BLITZER: I assume it will. Thanks very much, David Ensor for that report.
And while many Sunni Muslims in Saddam Hussein's ancestral hometown of Tikrit appeared stunned by his capture, there was celebrations in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. CNN's Satinder Bindra has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As word spread that Saddam Hussein may be in coalition custody, Iraqis started celebrating. Then the million-dollar moment, as images of a bearded and haggard looking Saddam were flashed on TV, Iraqis had the proof they needed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm 100 percent convinced this was Saddam.
BINDRA: Moments later, more and more Iraqis began pouring into the streets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a wonderful day, very, very good day.
BINDRA: People blew their car horns, danced, clapped, yelled.
Others distributed candy.
The biggest surprise, Saddam surrendered without a fight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Everyone knows that Saddam Hussein is a coward. If he had one ounce of courage he would have killed himself and not allowed himself to be captured like a rat hiding in a hole in the ground. Saddam should be tried for all the crimes that he committed against the Iraqi people, from the day he came to power until the moment he was captured.
BINDRA: With Saddam no longer a threat, many here want U.S. forces to start planning a pullout.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The Americans must leave sooner or later, but it's too soon for that, because we need the help and experience of the Americans now.
BINDRA: Iraqis now sense a chance for a new future, one in which they say Saddam Hussein will have no role.
Satinder Bindra, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: And here's your chance to weigh in on this important story. Our Web question of the day is this -- will the capture of Saddam Hussein help bring stability to Iraq? You can vote right now. Go to cnn.com/wolf. We'll have the results later in this broadcast.
While you're there, I'd like to hear directly from you, our viewers. Send us your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.
Now that the United States government has him, what does it do with him? Coming up -- Saddam Hussein's fate, will he go on trial? Could he pay the ultimate price? Should he?
And later, the challenge of finding the world's other most wanted man, an update on the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
And then, there's politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Today's big news has some of the president's Democratic challengers talking, talking out loud, and attacking one another. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN's continuing coverage of Saddam Hussein's capture. I want to show our viewers some animation of how U.S. troops caught the ex-Iraqi leader.
Look at this, based on intelligence, they closed in on a ramshackle compound just outside Tikrit. The small walled compound had an adobe hut that included a kitchen with running water. Some clothes in the hut suggested someone had been using it.
Just outside the hut, the biggest find of all, a rug covering a piece of styrofoam above a hull that was the entrance, yes, the entrance to Saddam Hussein's hiding place. The hole went down six to eight feet to Saddam Hussein's cramped quarters, with rudimentary ventilation, shared with mice and rats.
Now that Saddam Hussein is out of action, what about the guerrillas who have been fighting U.S. and coalition forces? Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr says U.S. commanders are not about to relax.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Violence continues, even as Saddam Hussein now spends his first hours in custody. A suicide attack on an Iraqi police station in Qaldia (ph) kills 10 Iraqis, 20 more are wounded. A car bombing in Baghdad, injured carried away. And by nighttime, celebratory gunfire in Baghdad hits fuel truck canisters causing the truck to catch fire and explode.
Cautious military officials do not expect Saddam's capture to diminish the threat to U.S. soldiers on the ground. And as Iraq moves to self-governance in just six months, even more concern that opposition groups may take even more desperate measures.
GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, U.S. ARMY: We've repeatedly stated that this is a critical moment in the history of the country, in the history of our attempt to bring security and stability to Iraq, but we do not expect at this point in time that we will have a complete elimination of those attacks.
STARR: Just last month, General John Abizaid, head of the Central Command, detailed how opposition forces are dispersed, an indication they were already independent of Saddam Hussein.
GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: There's a level of coordination within provinces and probably between provinces, but it's only anecdotal evidence that we have that there's a national level of control. There may be some coordination, but control is hard to point to at this time.
STARR: And Wolf, the Bush administration is critically aware it still must deliver basic security to the Iraqi people before the cycle of violence can be stopped. But with fewer than half of Iraqi security forces now trained and equipped, no one is predicting when real peace will come to Iraq -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Barbara Starr with some useful reporting, as usual. Barbara, thanks very much.
So what will it take to put down the insurgency? Saddam Hussein's capture means the four aces in the coalition's deck of most wanted are, in fact, out of play, but a couple of powerful kings remain at large. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the Revolutionary Command Council, vice chairman, and Hani Abdullah TifKilfa Al-Tikriti (ph), Saddam Hussein's special security director. Both could be coordinating the rebels.
Kansas Senator Pat Roberts is joining us now. He's the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Mr. Chairman, thanks very much...
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS: It's my privilege, Wolf, thank you.
BLITZER: ... for joining us. Was Saddam Hussein, based on everything the U.S. intelligence community knows, running some of the show, the opposition?
ROBERTS: I don't think so. I think under his circumstance when he was going farm to farm and maybe changing locations two or three times a day, he was on the run. You see the pictures of him. Here is a man that looked absolutely agonized, completely fatigued. I'm not sure that he was running any kind of command and control operations in regards to the resistance that's now going on.
BLITZER: So basically the only thing he was doing was trying to save his own skin.
ROBERTS: I think you pretty well summed it up.
BLITZER: So who is running the show, based on everything you know?
ROBERTS: Well, you've named two of the key individuals, but it's a very desperate group. You've got foreign jihadists who are encouraged to come in...
BLITZER: Is al Qaeda involved in this?
ROBERTS: I don't even think there's any question that that's, you know, that that's the case. And then you have the Fedayeen, which is a gang of thugs that for a certain amount of money they're able to pay people to go kill Americans. Then you have the Baath Party loyalists, who are also paying, you know, that kind of money. You have the Sunni extremists and then you have the various desperate groups that you have in Iraq.
So it is still a society that is Balkanized. But the good news is that we have finally reached a point with our intelligence, and I mean very good, strong, and a cooperative, joint effort that we have not seen up to this day.
BLITZER: So intelligence is really getting better.
ROBERTS: We have really ramped up our intelligence from the standpoint of the agency, the CIA, and the DIA, and the analysts. The analysts are the key. The analysts are the ones that put together the jigsaw puzzle of the raw intelligence, and they fuse it so it will go out to the operator, out to the military -- in this particular case it was the 4th Infantry Division and that special unit that's been after Saddam -- and we got the good information from that family, we moved quickly and we not only found the haystack, we found the needle.
If we can apply that now to the terrorist activities, I think we'll be in better shape.
BLITZER: What about the weapons of mass destruction? Presumably, if anyone knows where they are, it would be Saddam Hussein. He's supposedly cooperating, he's talking. Will he lead the U.S. to WMD if in fact there are WMD?
ROBERTS: I am not going to go out on a limb on that. I know they said that he was cooperating. I don't know whether that means he was simply cooperating from the standpoint of his attitude, or if he was asking any specific questions. I doubt seriously we've had any time to sit down with him and reach a point where we can ask him specific questions on his WMD program, how far away he was from it.
I would hope as soon as possible Dr. Kay could -- who is over there, of course, and doing fine work -- could really interview him, but I doubt if we've reached that point to determine whether he'd be that helpful.
BLITZER: The interrogations, these interrogations of other Iraqi leaders who have been captured, very significant. Based on what you know, and you know a great deal, probably more than anyone in the United States Senate, you're briefed on a daily basis on these kinds of matters. In general terms, without violating classified regulations, what happens in these? What do you expect will happen in the interrogation of Saddam Hussein?
ROBERTS: Oh, I think that we'll have the basic interrogation, and then through a lot of persistence, and a lot of real perseverance, we will see what his attitude is and where that leads. But you're not quite sure that he really knew in regards to the command and control operation on who was supposed to push that button in regards to some kind of a biological attack or not.
We'll just have to wait and see. But this is -- you know, this takes time. Then, of course, you have the situation, are we going to try him in Iraq? And if we do, what is the right way to try him and how many months that's going to take? But there has to be closure, and I think he has to be tried in Iraq. I stood on a hill and saw a mass grave site the size of a football field, and anywhere from 300,000 to a million people have been killed. Justice has to be -- justice has to be brought to Saddam Hussein.
BLITZER: I think there's an international consensus on that point.
ROBERTS: There's no question about it.
BLITZER: Senator Roberts, as usual, thanks very much.
ROBERTS: It's my pleasure, thank you.
BLITZER: There's much more coming up, including a very important question, what becomes of Saddam Hussein now that he's been captured. Find out what's ahead for the former dictator in specific terms. And how will Saddam's capture the overall war on terrorism. I'll speak live with a former national security adviser to President Clinton.
And his opposition to the Iraqi war has made him the Democratic frontrunner. See how today's news is effecting presidential candidate, Howeard Dean.
Much more coming up, stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN and a special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS. Saddam Hussein is captured alive. He's in the United States custody right now. It's our big story, of course, one of the biggest stories of the year.
This half hour, our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour will look at what's next for Saddam Hussein. She'll join us from London.
Jennifer Coggiola is following reaction right here in the United States.
Bob Franken with what the Democratic presidential candidates have to say about all of this.
And Christine Romans in New York with what the markets might be doing tomorrow.
Saddam Hussein, though, was in power for 24 years, on the run for nine months. Let's take a look back at how we got to this day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Missile strikes, near misses, raids, sweeps, ambushes, nearly nine months of it, boils down to a series of tips, interrogations, so-called actionable intelligence, and a final push.
SANCHEZ: At about 18:00 hours last night, under the cover of darkness and with lightning speed, the raider brigades forces were positioned and began movement of the objectives northwest of Adwar (ph).
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein hadn't ventured far. About 15 kilometers south of his hometown Tikrit U.S. forces converge on a rural compound. The assault team, the U.S. army's 4th Infantry Division with special forces mixed in. Any civilians around see some 600 American troops and have to know something is up.
The team swept through two locations around the compound called Wolverine I and Wolverine II, but come up empty. They cordon off the area, and intensify the search. In a small mud hut covered with bricks and dirt, they find a so-called spider hole.
SANCHEZ: After uncovering the spider hole, a search was conducted, and Saddam Hussein was found hiding at the bottom of the hole. The spider hole is about six to eight feet deep.
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein has a pistol, but does not go down fighting. Taken into custody, whisked off to an undisclosed location. Hours later, these once unthinkable images.
BREMER: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. This is Saddam as he was being given his medical examination today.
BLITZER: Coalition commanders had heard all of the skepticism. Saddam's loyalists could keep him on the run indefinitely. U.S. generals kept insisting it's only a matter of time before they close in on Saddam, before someone gives him up. In recent days, someone did. ODIERNO: We got more and more information on the families that were somewhat close to Saddam Hussein. Over the last ten days or so, we brought in about five to ten members of these families who then were able to give us even more information. And finally, we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals.
BLITZER: Still unresolved for U.S. commanders, how many loyalists and foreign combatants are still out there, and how long they'll hold up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Now that Saddam Hussein is in coalition hands, what will happen to him? Our Christiane Amanpour is joining us now live from London -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it surprised everybody. He said he would go down with a fight. He didn't. He was found as General Odierno said, like a rat in a hole. He was disheveled, he was bewildered. And when members of the Iraqi governing council met him, they said he was unrepentant. He had no intention of apologizing for what he had done. He wasn't even contemplating it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Looking like a caveman, Saddam Hussein was arrested, poked, prodded and interrogated. But what will be his ultimate fate?
BUSH: Now the former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions.
AMANPOUR: But how? The U.s. hasn't yet said whether it will hand Saddam over to the Iraqis for trial. The Iraqi governing council wants to put him before the war crimes tribunal they set up last week: execution, the ultimate penalty.
Experts in international law believe that Saddam Hussein can be charged with crimes against humanity, and even genocide for unleashing chemical weapons against Kurds and Iranians more than 20 years ago.
Members of the governing council said they had met Saddam after his capture, verified his identity, and even spoken to him.
ADNAN PACHACHI, IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL (through translator): If there's any signal or message from that criminal, ugly criminal that he was, he was not remorseful whatsoever for any crime he had committed against the Iraqi people: not mass graves, not the wars that he waged against Iran, not even the invasion of Kuwait.
AMANPOUR: Adnan Pachachi said Saddam was defiant and even tried to justify these things, calling himself a just but firm ruler. Pachachi called this a sick mind.
Experts say it's important for the historical record and for future reconciliation that he account for his crimes before the Iraqi people. Unlike former dictators like Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic who is currently on trial in the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague.
The Iraqi governing council says any trial of Saddam Hussein would be civilian, not military, that it would be open to the media and public and that the defendant would have a lawyer. A fair trial would be important for world opinion, especially in the Arab world.
BARIA ALAMMUDIN, "AL HAYAT" EDITOR: I'm sure people in the region and the world at large are thinking that brutally leaders can not go on surviving. You can run, you cannot hide, you will be captured. So there's a lesson, a moral lesson to be learned there.
AMANPOUR: Human Rights Watch, which has documented Saddam's crimes, including widespread killings of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds after the failed uprisings in 1991, says that Iraq should not put on a show trial. It points out the Iraqi justice system doesn't yet have experience in internationally accepted procedures for the highly complex prosecution of war crimes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Members of the Iraqi governing council say if they can gather all of the evidence and put together a case against him, he would be the first to be tried under their tribunal. But many experts believe that could take months simply to get that process up and running. And of course it's not just war crimes that the Iraqis will be interested but clearly the United States wants to know what about the weapons of mass destruction. Did he have any? And if he didn't, why did it get this far?
BLITZER: CNN's Christiane Amanpour in London with an excellent report as usual. Thanks, Christiane, very much.
Saddam Hussein's capture is making global headlines. It has to have terror groups taking notice. But what impact is it likely to have on the international war against terror?
The former national security adviser Samuel Berger is joining us live, worked for former president Bill Clinton. What impact will this have in your assessment, Mr. Berger, the war on terror?
SAMUEL BERGER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think it has to have a positive impact. Obviously eight months ago, Wolf, we watched the statue of Saddam Hussein come crashing down, and it was dramatic, but it was a symbol.
BLITZER: This is more than a symbol, though.
BERGER: Today we saw the man come crashing down and that's real. And for the Iraqi people, that means they don't have to fear him coming back and I think for the region, it does show that we're persistent.
BLITZER: Let me press you on the region. For example, if you're an enemy of the United States right now, or a state leader, or a terrorist out there, you see these pictures of Saddam Hussein looking like some homeless guy on the street basically, you have to get a powerful message. You've got to say to yourself, this president of the United States means business.
BERGER: But we have to reinforce this message now with what we do in the coming days. We've got, for example, still a lot to do in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is coming back, where al Qaeda is coming back, where we still don't have an international presence.
I think there is there's an opportunity presented by today. Today is very dramatic, and positive developments, to reinforce the message that we are serious, we are persistent, and we will stay after bin Laden and Mullah Omar and all of the other thugs until we get them.
BLITZER: If you're sitting in Paris right now or Berlin or Moscow, and you're getting ready for the former secretary of state, James Baker, to come over to try to get to you reduce the debt that the Iraqis of Saddam Hussein owed your country, you got to sit up and take a little bit better notice right now, don't you?
BERGER: Nothing succeeds like success. And I'm sure Jim Baker is prefer to go tomorrow than to have gone yesterday.
Now you're talking about obviously French debt, so we're talking about dollars and cents here and these intangibles have only some impact. But I think there's an opportunity now, presented to the president, to reach out again to the international community, to say we've now turned a corner here, and let's come together to finish the job in Iraq, create a stable and secure Iraq, and work together to deal with the world terrorism issue.
BLITZER: Samuel Berger, you spent eight years at president Clinton's side. Thanks for joining us.
BERGER: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: It's a huge story around the whole world, the whole world that is. Next, what national leaders and ordinary people are saying about Saddam Hussein's capture.
Also, see how the presidential candidates are reacting to what's very clearly a huge day, let us say a great day, for President Bush.
And could Saddam Hussein's capture put money in your pocket? Coming up all eyes on the world's markets. What will it do on the Dow Jones tomorrow? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Two words define how most people are responding to Saddam Hussein's capture: surprise and joy. CNN's Jennifer Coggiola is at the CNN center in Atlanta with more reaction now from across the country -- Jennifer. JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. Well, in a country divided -- Wolf, in a country divided over the war in Iraq. The news of Saddam's capture and President Bush's strong message were welcomed by Iraqis today both abroad and here in the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH: You will not have to fear the rule of Saddam Hussein ever again.
COGGIOLA: A long awaited message for Iraqis everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today is the day of revenge from Saddam, the day of victory. This is the celebration of victory of God and of freedom, and the free world and democracy.
COGGIOLA: In Dearborn, Michigan, one of America's largest Arab communities, impromptu celebration in the streets. The sign sending a message to the world. Today's arrest is proof for one New Yorker that once and for all the Iraqi leader was finished.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looked bad. He looked sad, and he looks like he's defeated. He's definitely defeated, and you could tell in his face.
COGGIOLA: And in Ft. Hood, Texas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things are looking good.
COGGIOLA: Home of the special forces responsible for the capture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man, everybody's going crazy. The post is in clear pandemonium right now. So it's a great day.
COGGIOLA: Jubilation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Especially during the holidays, a lot of people want to hear good news and this is definitely great news.
COGGIOLA: Soldiers at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, arriving home today for the holidays heard the news on the plane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole crowd just erupted. We were all, you know, really excited for our boys back there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COGGIOLA: The street scene this morning is reminiscent of celebrations just eight months ago, after the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad, but today a true sign of victory, and further evidence that the leader feared and hated around the world will not be back again -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jennifer Coggiola, with reaction from around the country, thanks very much, Jennifer, for that report. Let's get some reaction now from around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Allies applaud. Britain's prime minister declared Saddam is gone from power. He won't be coming back.
TONY BLAIR, PRIME MINISTER, GREAT BRITAIN: Now is the time of great opportunity. Let us seize it and use it for the good of the people of Iraq, for the people in the Middle East, and for the people of our world.
BLITZER: Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar applauded the capture of Saddam Hussein, saying the main obstacle to peace, freedom and democracy has disappeared.
Critics give credit. France, Germany and Russia, which had been critical of the U.S.-led war on Iraq, embraced the news. The French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, said that it's time to forget past differences and to work together on rebuilding Iraq. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sent President Bush a letter of congratulations.
The Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, says Saddam Hussein's capture will strengthen security and should make it easier for the United Nations to operate in Iraq.
Israeli relief, Israel's prime minister congratulated President Bush by telephone.
ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI P.M.: We are relieved that this murderer and dictator can no longer stand in the way of the rebuilding and reconstruction of the country he destroyed.
BLITZER: Arab reaction. The secretary general of the Arab League had a guarded response.
AMR MOUSSA, SECRETARY-GENERAL, ARAB LEAGUE: I'm sure that the people of Iraq will express their reaction today, especially in the light of what they have seen and what they endured and do endure.
BLITZER: And that's our look at reaction around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Saddam Hussein's capture, of course, a big win for President Bush. But it could hurt some of his opponents more than others. Coming up -- who is on the defensive, and who is attacking?
Also, will Saddam Hussein's capture help your retirement savings? A look at Monday and the markets.
Plus -- he's wanted dead or alive. Is the U.S. any closer to finding Osama bin Laden?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: The capture of Saddam Hussein is a big victory for President Bush and potentially a big problem for his Democratic opponents. Our national correspondent Bob Franken is joining us now with a little bit on the political fallout -- Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, as you know, the successful politician learns early in the game that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN (voice-over): The huge dilemma for the president's political opponents, how to react during his moment of triumph. To use the old line, very carefully.
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A good day for the United States, most importantly, a good day for the people of Iraq.
FRANKEN: Some Democratic candidates saw the capture of Saddam Hussein as a chance to turn on the anti-war leader of their pack.
LIEBERMAN: The fact is that if Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison. And the world would be a much more dangerous place.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Howard Dean is the man who said we shouldn't be thinking about military action against Iraq.
FRANKEN: Dean decided he needed to be seen as above the fray.
HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a day to celebrate the fact that Saddam has been caught, and we'll have to worry about the campaign later on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: Later on, of course, meaning real soon, but for the right now the Democratic candidates agree that on this day, the best politics, Wolf, were the least politics.
BLITZER: All right, Bob Franken with the political scene. Thanks very much, Bob, for that report.
Major news events, of course, rock the world's stock markets very often, and the news of Saddam Hussein's capture has already sparked rallies on markets in Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia, which are working days today. Will it light a fire under your investments come tomorrow, Monday? CNN financial news correspondent Christine Romans joining us now live from New York with more on that -- Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is a big surprise for stock markets and for investors, and because it happened over the weekend, it allows investors plenty of time to digest the information to prepare for the new trading week. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (voice-over): If U.S. markets had been open when Saddam Hussein was captured, you can bet stocks would have screamed higher. And market watchers still predict rallies Monday in global stocks, bonds and the dollar, and a pullback in oil.
TED WEISBERG, SEAPORT SECURITIES: So much of stock market trading is psychological, maybe as much as 90 percent. This is clearly a very positive psychological factor. It has to have a positive effect on the stock market.
ROMANS: U.S. military successes have played out well in stocks. In the six months after the military invasion of Afghanistan in October, 2001, the Dow gained 16 percent. Since Operation Iraqi Freedom began, the Dow has added a whopping 29 percent. The question, how long will any rally last and just how tantalizing will it be for investors to sell stocks to lock in a year of great gains?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Wolf, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 10,000 last week for the first time in a year and a half, it's on track for the first higher year in four, and there is a Saddam rally expected. The question is, will investors want to close the books on 2003 with this great news -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We'll wait until tomorrow to find out. Christine Romans, thanks for that report.
If Saddam Hussein's capture can boost the markets, what would Osama bin Laden's capture do to the markets? They haven't found him yet. Will they soon? Find out what's happening to the search for Osama bin Laden. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: While the capture of Saddam Hussein is, of course, incredibly important news. The other most wanted man in the world, Osama bin Laden is still very much out there. Will it be harder to get him now or easier. Our Mike Boettcher reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It ended at a storage shed down a carefully prepared spider hole. But the hunt for Saddam Hussein had months ago already been narrowed down to a small area around his birthplace of Tikrit. So, too, with the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which has focused on an area known as southern Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal area. Will similar tactics yield another success?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These situations are totally different.
BOETTCHER: Start with the terrain. The area around Tikrit is flat, with some urban areas. But most importantly it has been under U.S. control since April. The area along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border is mountainous, sparsely populated, much harder to move around, even by air.
KEN ROBINSON, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the issue in Iraq is that we can plan operations and we can be unilateral. We can go anywhere in the country on air or ground. It's not the situation in Afghanistan, and the terrain is totally different.
BOETTCHER: Another important difference -- the U.S. cannot a act alone in hunting bin Laden. It must rely in large part on Pakistan and its ability to produce this sort of human intelligence that led to Saddam's capture. Nor will Saddam's capture now mean more resources going into the search for owe is Osama, which is being conducted by the same special operations task force 121.
ROBINSON: They're going to continue to press forward on the rest of the Ba'athists that they still have on their list and going after these insurgents. And in Afghanistan they'll continue to press towards finding Osama bin Laden.
BOETTCHER: The bottom line, what worked in Iraq may not help in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(on camera): Consider this, for all the focus on the hunt for Saddam Hussein, he was only on the run eight months since the fall of Baghdad. The hunt for Osama bin Laden is now in its third year. Mike Boettcher, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Mike. When we return, our picture of the day, the image America woke up to. And our hot Web question of the day is this, "will the capture of Saddam Hussein help bring stability to Iraq?" We'll have the results for you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Our picture of the day is an image that will be remembered for many, many years to come. Look at this, a bearded, bedraggled Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody, undergoing a medical examination. Defense department pictures beamed all over the world are firming that the man once called "The Butcher of Baghdad" no longer represents a threat to anyone.
Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. Remember, we've been asking you this question, "will the capture of Saddam Hussein help bring stability to Iraq?" Let's take a look at the results. 62 percent, yes 62 percent of you say yes. 38 percent of you say no. As always, we remind you, this is not, repeat not a scientific poll.
Let's get so some of your email. Edward writes this, "no more Saddam. Congratulations to the 4th ID," that's the Infantry Division, "and the entire U.S. military. One down, one more to go. Osama bin Laden is next." Michelle writes this, "now is our greatest chance to prove to the Iraqi people that we do not want to occupy their country forever. Let us show our respect for the rule of law in Iraq by handing over Saddam over to the recently formed war crimes tribunal for trial by his countrymen."
And this, from Anthony, "Our country is not safer with the capture of Saddam. I fear that our soldiers will remain at risk. And while it is nice to have one less dictator in the world, the ultimate price paid by those we have lost makes the greater statement."
A reminder, we're on Monday through Friday 5:00 pm Eastern. I'm also here weekdays noon Eastern. I'll see you tomorrow. Until then, thanks very much for joining us. Thanks for joining us for this special edition of WOLF BLITZER REPORTS. A special edition of "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.
END
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