'WE GOT HIM'

More on the reports that the Kurds captured Hussein and bargained with the U.S.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that US forces took Mr. Hussein into custody Saturday, Dec. 13 around 8.30 p.m. local time, but "sat on the news" until 3 p.m. the next day. However, the Herald points out that in the early hours of Sunday, Dec. 14 a Kurdish language wire service reported explicitly: "Saddam Hussein was captured by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). A special intelligence unit led by Qusrat Rasul Ali, a high-ranking member of the PUK, found Saddam Hussein in the city of Tikrit, his birthplace."

According to the Herald, the Western news media in Baghdad were "electrified" by the first media account of the capture, which was from a Tehran-based news agency, but quickly began to rely "almost exclusively on accounts from US military and intelligence organizations."

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