Jeff Koopersmith

Caught in His "Spider Hole"
Add that to your Operation Iraqi Freedom lexicon
by Jeff Koopersmith

Dec. 14, 2003 -- NEW YORK (apj.us) -- Most nights I fall asleep with the radio tuned to the BBC World Service, listening to news of Europe and a recap of the world's happenings from its distinct perspective.

In New York this morning, I found myself half awake early this morning listening to Radio France, just next door to the "Beeb" on the short-wave radio dial, and could have sworn, in my half-assed ability to translate French, that I heard the news reader say that American forces had captured Saddam Hussein not 15 miles southeast of his home town of Tikrit.

I listened closer – still too groggy to tune to 880 WCBS or even the television.

Sure enough, I heard it again in French and jumped bolt upright, tuning in CNN just as Paul Bremer took the podium at Coalition headquarters in Iraq to announce "We got him!" in what was an awkward attempt to garner this sure sound bite.

I wondered if Karl Rove had penned that line.

According to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Commander of US Forces, "Operation Red Dawn" was completed based on intelligence garnered over several months. Saddam Hussein was found in a "spider hole" underground, about six to eight feet deep with a vent and fan to enable him to breathe. The hole was cloaked with bricks and dirt.

Shades of Vietnam and the tales of Viet Cong holes and bunker complexes..

Saddam, according to General Sanchez was "talkative and cooperative."

A most peculiar thing occurred as a short video of Saddam was shown on large flat-panel plasma screens following an introduction by Sanchez. The deposed dictator was bearded and bedraggled, undergoing what appeared to be a dental exam -- but was most likely a check of his mouth for poison capsules favored by despots who believe death might be better than the tribunal which Saddam is sure to face in coming months.

When Saddam's face first appeared on screen a gaggle of what appeared to be Iraqi reporters rose to their feet chanting and yelling at the plasma television screens for what seemed to be close to a minute.

Later I learned they were calling for his death.

The seeming from-the-gut naiveté of this learned group of Arab intellectuals – shrieking at a television screen -- reminded me of the distinct and often disconcerting differences in our cultures. Here were more than a dozen highly educated men and women shrieking in impassioned and unchecked rage at an image – as if Saddam were there, in the room.

One wonders how we can think it possible to prescribe a sophisticated form of democratic government to people who might still jump back in awe when they see a Polaroid picture: that was my first cynical reaction.

The second? I recall seeing documentary film of thousands of Jews in the process of being liberated from Nazi death camps screaming at Nazi captives, foaming at the mouth with vengeance and cat calling, demanding their heads.

Yes, this is what I was seeing this morning, and for the first time I understood what it must have been like to live under Saddam's regime.

Questions abound – many of which will be answered today and in ensuing weeks:

• Where is Saddam Hussein now, and where will he be as he awaits his fate?
• Will he be tried in Iraq, as some believe, or will he face an international tribunal in another country?
• Will the United States take every precaution to keep him alive, or will he perish in prison, but someone's hand, or by his own?
• What will he tell us, and when?
• Is George W. Bush disappointed that he was captured alive, or is he happy now that Saddam might now be persuaded to say, "Yes, I had those weapons of mass destruction and was prepared to used them --in the United States -- and here they are."
• How will Iraqi's respond to this capture? Will they riot, step up the attacks on our boys and girls, or will they now feel at peace, the burden of a potential return of Saddam now lifted from their shoulders and hearts?
• They tell us Saddam had $750,000 in cash in his possession when he was fished from his spider hole this morning. What was he planning to do with it?

So many questions.

Howard Dean must be wondering this morning as well. Will the President's ratings soar this evening? Is he now unbeatable?

Only time will tell.

Osama bin Laden must be uneasy this day as he hobbles to and fro in whatever cave he is hiding -- assuming he's even alive and adjusting small pieces, small pieces in the triple wooden gates...

JEFF KOOPERSMITH is a political consultant, opinion research authority, policy analyst, and self-described "renegade lobbyist."