Who Caught Hussein?

Josh Marshall tackles the rumor that Hussein was captured by the Kurds. We discussed this last week.

Marshall says:

"There've been other rumors flying around -- like this one from Debkafile. But Debkafile is about as reliable as raw intelligence and should be treated with the same skepticism. Actually, it's not just that it should be treated like raw intelligence, it ... well, that's for another day.

Let me be clear: I'm not saying there's nothing to this. I haven't had time to make any calls. Anything could be true. And it's entirely possible that there are dimensions to the intel leading to Saddam's capture, which haven't yet been revealed. But none of the publish accounts I've seen strike me as credible or even close to substantiated. So until I see more I assume there's nothing to it."

Marshall's right, at least in terms of the mechanics of assigning credibility to a story.

But In the end, even if true, the proper response to the story is "So What?" If the promise of the reward money got a member of Hussein's handlers to hand the boss over to the Kurds (which seems possible, given the extent to which Hussein's security apparatus seems to have penetrated the Kurdish opposition during the regime), then it was money well spent. We didn't have to fight a climactic battle for him, or track him to the Sudan and grab him in a messy black-bag job.

One suspects the likes of...well, Kos moreso than Marshall - will try to make hay over the notion that "Bush's" military didn't make the collar - that we had to rely on "unsavory" Iraqis do "Do the work for us".

Such "logic" is too depressing to bother refuting.

Posted by Mitch at December 24, 2003 07:33 AM