December 14, 2003
AS MARION BARRY SAID...:
Saddam's wife helped locate him (DPA, December 15, 2003)
Well-informed Lebanese sources said today that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's second wife supplied the US with "some information" about where her husband was hiding in Iraq.Samira Shahbandar, who lives with the ousted Iraqi leader's only surviving son Ali, "is believed to have given the Americans and their allies some information about the area where Saddam was hiding in," the sources said.
Saddam was captured based on information from a member of a family "close to him", Major General Raymond Odierno said.
Odierno, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division that captured Saddam, said that over the last 10 days soldiers had questioned "five to 10 members" of families "close to Saddam".
"Finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," he said.
"[She] set me up" Posted by Orrin Judd at December 14, 2003 04:29 PM
Mrs. Arafat got an penthouse in Paris and a $5MM shopping spree.
Mrs Hussein got a cheap flat in Damascus.
No wonder she dropped a dime on him.
Posted by: M. at December 14, 2003 04:34 PMReminds me of my late Mother-in-law.
I guess Saddam has already had his 70 virgins.
Posted by: h-man at December 14, 2003 04:43 PMThis chick better be on the way to Des Moines or Lyon. If we're getting her name out there and leaving her in place, that's a damn travesty.
Posted by: Andrew X at December 14, 2003 05:13 PMWesley Clark says it was "fortuitous" that S. was captured alive. I suppose he meant fortunate.
Sheesh, the Rhodes Scholarship board is really scraping the bottom of the barrel these days.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at December 14, 2003 08:13 PMWasn't it 30+ years ago that they scraped Wesley out of a Little Rock barrel?
Posted by: pj at December 14, 2003 08:39 PMCheck your dictionary, Harry. "Fortuitous" has a secondary meaning synonymous for "fortunate."
Posted by: Bob at December 15, 2003 02:28 PMUsage Note: In its best-established sense, fortuitous means “happening by accident or chance.” Thus, a fortuitous meeting may have either fortunate or unfortunate consequences. For decades, however, the word has often been used in reference to happy accidents, as in "The company's profits were enhanced as the result of a fortuitous drop in the cost of paper." This use may have arisen because fortuitous resembles both fortunate and felicitous. Whatever its origin, the use is well established in the writing of reputable authors. ·The additional use of fortuitous to mean “lucky or fortunate,” is more controversial, as in "He came to the Giants in June as the result of a fortuitous trade that sent two players back to the Reds." This use dates back at least to the 1920s, when H.W. Fowler labeled it a malapropism, but it is still widely regarded as incorrect.
At any rate, I'd disagree with the General. It would have been fortuitous to have captured him quickly, early on. At this point, though "luck or chance" had less to do with it than the effort of the Armed Forces.
Posted by: Timothy at December 15, 2003 02:58 PM