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The U.S. military makes finding Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein its number one priority before events led to catastrophe.
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00:00As a former FBI agent and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,
00:05I had oversight of all 16 of our nation's intelligence agencies.
00:09My name is Mike Rogers.
00:12I had access to classified information gathered by our operators.
00:17People who risked everything for the United States and our families.
00:21You don't know their faces or their names.
00:24You don't know the real stories from the people who live with fear and the pressure.
00:28Until now.
00:30Every military force on the ground was looking for Saddam Hussein.
00:38I get orders that I'm going to go join this task force I'd never heard of.
00:42You do.
00:42I didn't know.
00:44You can't just sit back behind walls and expect the information to come to you.
00:47You've got to go out and get it.
00:49We would get information that was bad information and then instant people get killed on both sides.
00:54We knew there was a degree of professionalism that we were facing and it was deadly.
00:58We could tell when someone was lying and we would confront them with those lies.
01:04Everybody you talk to has a piece of information that you may not have known that can become value later.
01:09Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:13Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:16Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:18Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:20Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:22Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:23Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:26Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:27Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:29Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:31Time was running out, but I would not stop looking for Saddam Hussein.
01:33Abertura
02:03Abertura
02:05Saddam Hussein
02:07and his sons must leave
02:09Iraq within 48 hours.
02:11Their refusal
02:13to do so will result in military
02:15conflict. On the president's
02:17order, coalition forces began
02:19the ground war to disarm Iraq
02:21and liberate the Iraqi
02:23people. Operation Iraqi Freedom,
02:25our effort to disarm Iraq and
02:27dismantle the Iraqi regime is fully underway.
02:29The Iraqi operation started with
02:31airstrikes in March.
02:37The ground campaign began in late March,
02:39early April.
02:41I believe the last time we saw
02:43Saddam was April 9th
02:45in the infamous film clip
02:47of him moving down the streets
02:49in downtown Baghdad.
02:53We pulled down
02:55the statue of Saddam.
02:57But in order to have a decisive
03:01military victory,
03:03we needed the real Saddam.
03:05We needed Saddam Hussein.
03:11The first brigade was a large
03:13unit with thousands of soldiers
03:15and the mission of the brigade
03:17was establishing stability.
03:19The challenge to that was dealing
03:21with the physical reality
03:23of an armed insurgency.
03:25The U.S. military estimates
03:27there are between 4,000 and 5,000
03:29mid-level
03:31Ba'athist opposition fighters.
03:33One of my patrols was ambushed
03:37on the east side of the Tigris River.
03:39Three American soldiers were killed.
03:43At the same time, it was part of our duty
03:47to assist the Special Operations Command,
03:50an elite assault element.
03:52Their focus was really HVT's,
03:56high-value targets.
03:58Coalition governments have identified
04:02a list of key regime leaders,
04:0455 individuals who may be pursued,
04:07killed, or captured.
04:08The Special Operations Forces
04:10could go into the most dangerous target
04:12and do it at zero to minimal casualty
04:15because of their skills.
04:17These are extraordinarily gifted
04:19and trained men.
04:21You did not want to be the objective
04:23of their attention.
04:27In 2003, the organization I was assigned
04:29to was deployed to Iraq
04:31to hunt down and capture the deck of cards,
04:33the priority being Saddam Hussein.
04:38What was your job?
04:39Going out, conducting raids.
04:41Sometimes it was going after people
04:43on the deck of cards.
04:44Sometimes it was going after people
04:45that were known associates
04:46of the deck of cards.
04:48You can't be on the offense
04:49unless you understand the enemy
04:50in this context, especially the people.
04:53But you can't just sit back behind walls
04:55and expect the information to come to you.
04:57You've got to go out and get it.
04:58We would get information
04:59that was bad information.
05:00They would identify a location.
05:02There would be nothing there.
05:03The wrong individual.
05:05The individual was someone
05:06that someone else disliked
05:08for whatever reason.
05:09It's frustrating
05:10because you just destroyed
05:11someone's house.
05:12They're sitting there sleeping
05:13and next thing you know
05:14there's guys running
05:15all through their house.
05:16People want to defend their families.
05:17They may not be guilty of anything.
05:19And then some people get killed
05:22on both sides.
05:27For the amount of detainees
05:28we were pulling off target,
05:30we needed someone
05:31that could conduct the interrogations
05:33to ensure we were getting the information
05:35we wanted.
05:36In 2003, I was a Staff Sergeant
05:40in the United States Army.
05:42I was a trained interrogator
05:43but I had never actually conducted
05:45a real live interrogation.
05:47The war's going on for three months
05:50and I get orders
05:51that I'm going to go join this task force
05:53I'd never heard of.
05:55To do?
05:56What did you do?
05:57I didn't know
05:58but I packed my bags
05:59and they flew me to Tecrete.
06:02And I am picked up
06:03by these soldiers with beards.
06:08Soldiers don't have beards.
06:12We didn't know Eric.
06:13Hadn't worked with him previously.
06:14Didn't train with him.
06:16He didn't really know
06:17what was going on on targets.
06:19I mean initially it was a bumpy road.
06:21Jeff was not happy to see me.
06:23Jeff wasn't happy to see anybody.
06:29Jeff was not a trained interrogator.
06:31Jeff's a soldier.
06:33Jeff had a mission.
06:34He had prisoners
06:35that he wanted to get interrogated.
06:36So he and I drove
06:38to this U.S. Army prison.
06:42There were hundreds of prisoners.
06:48Brought the first prisoner down.
06:50We set him down.
06:52And Jeff looks at me and he goes,
06:57so how are we going to do this?
06:59I was a new interrogator.
07:04I did not have a plan.
07:07But Jeff and I looked at each other
07:10and we started asking questions.
07:13I was a trained interrogator deployed to Iraq to work with a task force
07:26that was responsible for tracking down everyone on the deck of cards,
07:30specifically Saddam Hussein.
07:32I went to Crete, his hometown.
07:37But I had never actually conducted a real live interrogation.
07:41I didn't really feel like I knew what I was doing at all.
07:46But I learned very quickly.
07:48In the beginning, we would go in a room with Eric, the translator and the detainee.
07:53And Eric would begin questioning and talking to the individual.
07:59As the interrogator, I work for a commander.
08:04I bring in the information that helps him make better decisions.
08:09And to get that information, I was learning how to get inside the minds of these prisoners
08:15and break them down.
08:18When I'm talking about breaking a prisoner,
08:20it has nothing to do with physical contact of any kind.
08:24It has to do with breaking their previous decision of not cooperating with me
08:30to provide me information, and now they choose to provide me that information.
08:36That's a break.
08:39As questions were being asked and answered,
08:42every now and then I might pass him a note to highlight on a topic that was brought up
08:47or tell him the individual was lying based off of what happened on the operation.
08:55Jeff and I were figuring out how to ask good questions.
08:57We could tell when someone was lying and we were beginning to confront them with those lies.
09:04We were able to follow each other mentally without talking.
09:08He knew what I needed.
09:10So yeah, we worked real well together.
09:13We'd interrogate all night and then maybe at 4 or 5 in the morning,
09:16we'd sit down and we would talk about it.
09:19And we'd talk about it nonstop.
09:21And it became a big piece of our day-to-day life,
09:25of using those interrogations to conduct operations.
09:32U.S. troops carried out pre-dawn raids in Saddam Hussein's hometown.
09:36The army says several suspects were arrested in Tikrit.
09:40By September, Jeff and I have gone beyond just determining the guilt or innocence
09:46of the prisoners that we brought in.
09:49I was trying to get information that would lead to an insurgent member,
09:56a current bad guy, or a former regime official.
10:00Did anybody think that Saddam Hussein was in Tikrit at this time?
10:06Nobody thought Saddam Hussein was in Tikrit because we'd looked through the whole town.
10:11We'd gone on hundreds and thousands of raids.
10:15We'd been through all the houses and he wasn't there.
10:19We kind of put finding Saddam not so much on the back burner,
10:23but we literally got tired of chasing Santa Claus.
10:28And what I mean by that is you would always have reporting that Saddam was here, Saddam was there.
10:34So instead of looking for that Santa Claus, we started looking for what we knew to be facts.
10:40The current insurgency was what I saw killing our soldiers.
10:44And that to me was like, we're going after the real bad guys.
10:50The U.S. calls this Operation Iraqi Freedom.
10:53A war of liberation, they say, to make Iraq's people free.
10:57Commanders acknowledge the resistance has been unexpectedly fierce.
11:01By this phase of the campaign, we tactically were doing everything we had ever been trained to do to defeat this insurgency.
11:16The way they were using landmines and IEDs was tactically correct.
11:22So we knew there was a degree of professionalism that we were facing and it was deadly.
11:27The Iraqi battle space was a complex environment.
11:34Learning the human terrain was as important, if not more important, than understanding the physical terrain.
11:42The key to understanding the area and emerging threats was to maintain communications with the local inhabitants.
11:48Listen to them, spend a lot of time with them, gather information.
11:52Every individual you talk to can give you something you didn't know.
11:54That was a trick Eric figured out.
11:57That everybody you talk to has a piece of information that you may not have known.
12:02That if you can store it, it can become value later.
12:07There's no way to know how critical all the details are that I get from interrogations.
12:13But I do remember them all.
12:14You never know until much later what details really matter.
12:20Jeff and I worked for a couple of months and these prisoners start providing this information.
12:25And I started to get a feel for Tikrit.
12:27And I realized, every person has a life and they have a family and they live in a neighborhood and they're part of a tribe.
12:34And they go to a certain mosque.
12:36That's like, this family's kids go to this elementary school.
12:40That means they're going to have connections to other families that go to that elementary school.
12:44It all ties in.
12:46So when the local Iraqi police says, hey, we got this guy.
12:50A month ago, we would have said, so what?
12:54Now we're like, that's a cousin of so-and-so. Bring him in.
12:58Were we catching Saddam? No.
13:00But were we getting closer and painting a picture of how to get to him? Yes.
13:05I mean, we weren't getting locations.
13:07We weren't getting places, but we were getting pieces of a puzzle that let everybody understand that nobody was going to know where he was until we found the right people.
13:16After several hundred interrogations, these prisoners, they started talking about their insurgency groups.
13:26They started popping up the names of al-Muslims.
13:31I don't know why. They just kept popping up in the insurgency.
13:35So Jeff and I, we were most interested in this al-Muslim group.
13:38September 5th, they brought in a guy, Nasser Yassin Omar al-Muslim.
13:49He was an inner circle bodyguard for Saddam Hussein.
13:53And we used to talk to him all night.
13:57Nasser Yassin breaks and laid out Saddam's inner circle for us.
14:02Saddam had a huge security apparatus surrounding him.
14:08You know, multiple layers.
14:10And all of these bodyguards played a role.
14:14He laid out 28 out of the 32 inner circle bodyguards for Saddam Hussein.
14:19And this al-Muslim group filtered through all levels of the bodyguard network.
14:25And we started to realize maybe this is not just about the insurgency.
14:30It's about Saddam Hussein and the previous leadership structure.
14:33In the Middle East, tribal and family relationships are paramount to how business gets done.
14:44The Mucle clan was in close alliance with Saddam's family.
14:53Many of us compared this to what Hollywood would show as a organized crime gang,
14:59where it's built around key families and familiar relationships.
15:03So we sort of used that model to kind of talk about it.
15:06And indeed, that's what we saw.
15:08We realized these individuals were in and around the Tikrit area.
15:13These individuals were close to Saddam at one time.
15:16So we assumed they would at least know key things on how to find Saddam.
15:22That was the first time I thought we may have something.
15:26Without a body, people wonder when they'll ever be able to put Saddam's ghost to rest.
15:41And how long will he remain embarrassing, unfinished business for the United States,
15:46like many of their other most wanted?
15:48I remember seeing black and white portraits of Saddam Hussein in the living rooms of the people's homes,
15:55still displaying loyalty.
15:58That was an indicator to me that they sensed Saddam was still out there.
16:03Every military force on the ground was looking for Saddam Hussein.
16:08But Eric and I realized nobody was going to know where he was until we found the right people.
16:14In order to find Saddam Hussein, we were going after this insurgency, but we didn't know who was in charge of the insurgency.
16:23But Jeff and I were starting to see a lot of these al-Muslims who are involved in the insurgency.
16:30They brought in a guy, Nasser Yassin Omar al-Muslim.
16:38Nasser Yassin breaks and laid out 28 out of the 32 inner circle bodyguards for Saddam.
16:45Khalil Ibrahim, Radman Ibrahim, Sulwan Ibrahim, Muhammad Ibrahim, all from this al-Muslim family.
16:54I'm thinking about who's running this insurgency.
16:58And I started to realize it was all connected to this family, these al-Muslims.
17:03So now, if we find anybody who's related, named al-Muslim, married to an al-Muslim, anything, that's where we started focusing on our time.
17:13We were al-Muslim-focused.
17:15So we're bringing in all these people.
17:18And Jeff and I figured out a very clear way to get these prisoners to open up and start providing us information.
17:24We were really running.
17:27And then, it comes into early October.
17:31And Jeff's leaving.
17:36Our rotation was up.
17:38We were replaced by another element from the organization.
17:42And they come in and we flew home.
17:49As soon as the new team showed up,
17:51I was introduced to their intelligence analyst.
17:55The analyst was there to collect information that could lead to the capture of high-value targets.
18:02And I told this team, listen, there's a team of bodyguards and I think they're very powerful controlling this insurgency.
18:09So what I started doing is charting my information out on pieces of paper.
18:15Now, the focal point was the al-Muslims.
18:18The new analyst loved charts.
18:20He'd go to the computer and put it all into a computerized link diagram.
18:26And two weeks into the new team being there, the new commander, Bam Bam, says,
18:32Eric, can we go arrest these guys?
18:35Well, I thought you'd never ask.
18:38The team started going on raids to get these al-Muslims.
18:42We were going after my bad guys now.
18:45And we had told the guards, anybody says the word al-Muslims, call us.
18:51And November 7th, get a call from the informants said, we know where Rodman is.
18:56Rodman al-Muslims, and I had always deemed him extremely important because he was so close to Saddam during the regime.
19:13And we captured the guy, but a team from Baghdad came in helicopters.
19:22And they flew him straight to Baghdad.
19:26So I never set eyes on Rodman.
19:35But when they captured Rodman, they captured his 18-year-old son as well.
19:41I refer to him as baby Rodman.
19:42They said, you got 48 hours with this kid, and then you're releasing him.
19:49Being an interrogator, you've got to have a strategy.
19:53I'm not trying to scare them, I'm not trying to intimidate them.
19:56I'm trying to influence them to provide me the intelligence which is inside their brain.
20:03They don't know what they know.
20:08So I started talking to baby Rodman.
20:10He was very defensive of his dad.
20:13So I would press, press, press on his dad, right?
20:15Talk, talk, talk to him about his dad.
20:17And then I would go, does your dad have any brothers?
20:21And this kid looked at it as a release valve.
20:23Like, oh yeah, talk about something other than my dad.
20:27And we went through every single brother.
20:30And one of the brothers that we talked about was Muhammad Ibrahim.
20:35Muhammad Ibrahim Omar al-Muslim.
20:38Another one of Saddam Hussein's inner circle bodyguards.
20:44And we very strongly felt that he was leading the insurgency throughout Tikrit.
20:50And I said, I want this Muhammad Ibrahim.
20:53Will you help me find him?
20:54He said, yeah, my uncle.
20:57He's got these buddies he's always with.
21:00I said, who?
21:01He says, they're business partners and his driver.
21:04Boston Latif.
21:08And I realized, I said, alright, here we go.
21:09So I went to Bam Bam and I said, listen, I know Muhammad Ibrahim's driver is not wanted.
21:16But I think he's valuable.
21:18I think he can take us to Muhammad Ibrahim.
21:20And I've got to have him arrested.
21:22So Bam Bam arrested Bassem Latif, the driver of Muhammad Ibrahim.
21:29So I start interrogating Bassem Latif.
21:33And he said, why do you want my boss?
21:34Why are you so interested in Muhammad Ibrahim?
21:36And I told him, because he's running the insurgency.
21:38And then he said, you have no idea what you're talking about.
21:45He said, Muhammad Ibrahim's never ordered a single attack.
21:49He said, there's only one person that orders the attacks.
21:52There's only one person that's ever ordered the attacks.
21:55And it's the president.
21:58Saddam Hussein.
22:00I knew at that moment we were hunting Saddam.
22:02I knew we were finally really hunting him.
22:05Hunting him.
22:07And we had a chance.
22:14Army bulldozers are smashing Saddam Hussein's larger-than-life portraits
22:19in an apparent attempt to loosen his political grip.
22:23Why is it so hard to find him?
22:26He has a lot of experience running to ground.
22:28He had a lot of years to prepare, and he's got a very big country to hide in.
22:31Saddam had built such this cult around himself that he was the symbol of Iraqi resistance.
22:39And in the end, he was the key high-value target.
22:45So my interrogation with Muhammad Ibrahim's driver, Bassem Lateef, had gone on several hours.
22:50But eventually, he broke.
22:51He broke.
22:52And he told me there's only one person that orders the attacks, and that's the president.
22:58And that's what they call Saddam.
22:59The president.
23:01I knew at that moment we were hunting Saddam.
23:03I knew we were finally really hunting him.
23:07And we had a chance.
23:08I felt very strongly that Saddam Hussein was in the area.
23:15It was Saddam's hometown.
23:17I felt like he was in contact with Muhammad Ibrahim, and Muhammad Ibrahim might be a route to Saddam.
23:24But I'm running out of time to find Muhammad Ibrahim because my tour was up.
23:28I was supposed to be there for six months.
23:31Now it's the beginning of December, and I was about to leave.
23:35My flight was leaving the country on December 13th.
23:40But I didn't care.
23:41I'm not stopping.
23:45Bassem didn't know Muhammad Ibrahim's exact location.
23:49But he had several safe houses for Muhammad Ibrahim, and he gave us all those locations.
23:55It was go time.
23:57Right here.
23:59Right there.
24:00Search that .
24:01And that made sense because the enemy we were dealing with then was networked across the countryside in cells.
24:06From one family group to another family group.
24:09And sometimes you would gather information about one area and the most unlikely places.
24:13We conducted five simultaneous raids on all of the Muhammad Ibrahim safe houses.
24:19Where?
24:21Muhammad Ibrahim was not located at any of them.
24:25He wasn't there.
24:29But Muhammad Ibrahim's 20-year-old son was there.
24:38So I start interrogating Muhammad Ibrahim's son about his dad.
24:43And he tells me, my dad was at the house two hours before y'all came.
24:53And I'm done.
24:55I'm done.
24:57Who's supposed to know where he went?
25:02Who would know?
25:06I've got everyone leading up to a moment in time and in a two-hour gap.
25:12He's gone.
25:13We'd exhausted every target to find Muhammad Ibrahim.
25:19I was hoping the son could give me his next spot.
25:22So I'm just talking to him.
25:23I'm looking for a lead.
25:24I'm looking for a clue.
25:25And I talked to him all night.
25:28I mean all night.
25:30I can't think of anything.
25:31I'm talking, I'm talking, I'm talking.
25:34And then I asked him, what's your dad do for fun?
25:38What are his hobbies?
25:39And he said, they go fishing.
25:42And I said, where do they fish?
25:45He said, in Samara.
25:47I said, where?
25:48Along the river.
25:49I said, where?
25:50He said, they just built this pond.
25:54And I said, why would they build a pond?
25:58He goes, I don't know.
25:59They just built a pond.
26:02And it came to me.
26:06August.
26:08Jeff and I are interrogating Saddam Hussein's cook.
26:13The individual was picked up on a hit.
26:17Nobody knew who he was.
26:18During the process of conducting the interrogations,
26:21it was identified that he was a former chef.
26:25And one of the things we learned during that conversation was
26:29every time Saddam showed up, he cooked a special meal.
26:33And we asked what that special meal was.
26:35And it was muskut.
26:36What's that?
26:41It's a fish that's raised in fish farms in Iraq.
26:44The kids said, they had this fish pond built in the middle of a war.
26:56Why would you do that?
26:58Unless you're stocking fish for the guy who can't be going to the store to get fish.
27:04At that point, it wasn't just a hunch.
27:09We had to go to that pond.
27:13Headquarters in Baghdad is going to raid the fish pond.
27:17And I was convinced we were getting close to Saddam.
27:22But for me to find him, I've got to have Mohammed Ibrahim.
27:28Night comes, and I was told whatever happened at the fish pond, that would be my last night in Tikrit.
27:35They conducted the raid and captured two guys.
27:43And 20 minutes later, Bam Bam calls back on the radio.
27:46And he says, it's a dry hole.
27:49He says, we've got two fishermen.
27:52And they told me, they said, listen, you're done.
27:55You're going back to Baghdad for your last few days.
27:57And I knew time was running out.
28:01But I would not stop looking for Saddam.
28:12We have to find Saddam Hussein.
28:14We have to bring him down.
28:16I mean, we have 130,000 troops there.
28:18They're trained in counterterrorism, many of them.
28:21And we have not done that.
28:22We're supposed to be there for six months.
28:24My assignment was almost up.
28:26But I didn't care.
28:28I would not stop looking for Saddam.
28:34I called one of the interrogators in Baghdad and said, don't let the fishermen go.
28:38I'm coming tonight.
28:41I needed to prove what they were.
28:43There's no way two guys are sticking around in the middle of nowhere next to a fish pond,
28:47fishing at one o'clock in the morning.
28:50That night, I started my interrogations of the fishermen.
28:57I started talking to the first one.
29:03stories seemed kind of normal, actually.
29:06I was kind of worried.
29:11I start talking to the second fishermen.
29:13And I realize, these two fishermen have different stories.
29:18And I went one hour and one hour and back and forth on these fishermen.
29:22Kind of turned them against each other.
29:24It took 12 hours.
29:25And one of the fishermen finally says, I work for Muhammad Ibrahim.
29:30He goes, I just fish.
29:33I just fish and put all the fish in the pond.
29:36I get him to understand Muhammad Ibrahim was a bad guy.
29:39And that working as his fishermen gets him in trouble.
29:42And he says, listen, my cousin, Muhammad Hedair, is the deputy to Muhammad Ibrahim.
29:47They are always together.
29:52He goes, they left Samara three days ago.
29:56Where'd they go?
29:57He said, they went to Baghdad.
30:00Got the exact location.
30:01Exact house.
30:05So I brought in an analyst from the task force team in Baghdad and said,
30:10man, I got a target.
30:12Muhammad Ibrahim in Baghdad.
30:16And I know this is my last chance to find Muhammad Ibrahim in Saddam Hussein.
30:27They call about one o'clock and said, we're bringing in the Muhammad Hedair prisoners.
30:33The guy who owns the house and three other people.
30:37They drive him in and they drop him off.
30:41I bring in the first prisoner.
30:43The one they said own the house.
30:44So what's your name?
30:45So Muhammad.
30:46Muhammad what?
30:47Muhammad Hedair.
30:49Okay.
30:52Quickly, quickly, quickly, two hours to get this guy to go.
30:56I'm the deputy to Muhammad Ibrahim.
30:59I'm like, good.
31:00Where is he?
31:03He said, he was at the house last night.
31:07I'm thinking, son of a bitch.
31:09It's a ghost.
31:10I missed him again.
31:11I was devastated.
31:13I asked him, where was he?
31:16Where was he?
31:17He said, he was at the house.
31:18And I'm getting, I'm like, where is he?
31:19I know.
31:20You know how powerful this.
31:21And I'm yelling at him.
31:22And the linguist, my interpreter is going, mister.
31:25He's saying he's, he was at the house when the soldiers came.
31:33And I'm like, they don't miss anybody.
31:37And I'm like, did they get him?
31:40And I went to the guards.
31:42I'm like, who do we have?
31:44Who was brought in on this rake?
31:46And I'm looking at three guys sitting on the ground, hoods on, hands behind their back.
31:52And I'm like, is Muhammad Ibrahim one of these guys?
31:59And I knew exactly what he was supposed to look like.
32:01John Travolta.
32:02Had a John Travolta chin.
32:04And I knew.
32:05And I quit.
32:06I'm like, running out of time.
32:07First hood.
32:08Not him.
32:09Second hood.
32:10Definitely not him.
32:11Third hood.
32:12I didn't even get it off his head.
32:14And I saw the chin.
32:15Second hood.
32:16Definitely not him.
32:17Third hood.
32:18I didn't even get it off his head.
32:21And I saw the chin.
32:23My entire tour into Crete was going to come down to my last two and a half hours.
32:39Me and Muhammad Ibrahim in a six by six room in Baghdad.
32:46We went into a mental chess game.
32:49He was denying his capabilities.
32:52And I was countering his move.
32:54He would make a statement.
32:55You give me too much credit.
32:57And I would tell him, I didn't give you any credit.
32:59And then I would take that opportunity and I would list off every one of his brothers and relatives and cousins.
33:04You know, all these al-Muslets that we captured.
33:06And I said, they give you credit.
33:08They give you credit because you've ruined their lives.
33:11They'll spend the rest of their life in prison unless you take us to Saddam.
33:19It's going to happen without you or with you.
33:22If it happens with you, all your relatives walk.
33:27If it happens without you, you get nothing.
33:31And then he said to me, if I tell you where Saddam Hussein is, they'll kill me.
33:37And I explained to him, but you're they.
33:40You're the top one.
33:42You're the only person that doesn't have ramifications for giving up Saddam.
33:52Giving up and you won't be the leader of the insurgency.
33:56You'll be the one that stood up to the plate to the dictator.
33:59That will be you and your family walks.
34:02And I know he was listening to me.
34:09I know he was.
34:13I had to leave at seven o'clock.
34:14And they were banging on my door going.
34:19I mean, seven o'clock came.
34:22And they came in and said, you're out, man.
34:23You got to be at your manifest.
34:26And I told him, I said, I'm leaving.
34:30You're going to die in here.
34:31A prisoner.
34:32A terrorist.
34:33And you won't have another shot.
34:34Because nobody knows what you can do.
34:36Nobody knows what you can do.
34:39This is it.
34:40And he's like, I can't do it.
34:42And I said, you're going to change your mind.
34:43And you're going to want to do it.
34:44And when you're going to want to do it, you got to make them come talk to you.
34:47And I said, go crazy.
34:49Bang on the walls.
34:50Bang on the walls of this cell.
34:52Go nuts and make them come talk to you.
34:54And I left.
35:02So I went to my tent to pack my bags.
35:05A few minutes later, a colleague picks me up and has taken me to the flight line.
35:10And my buddy was like, what'd you do to your guy?
35:15The linguist sent a message that Muhammad Ibrahim's banging on the walls of his cell.
35:21And I jumped out of the truck.
35:28And I just told Lee, I said, go hold that plane.
35:31He's going to give up Saddam Hussein.
35:33And Lee's like, I got it.
35:35And I ran back, got Muhammad Ibrahim out, and he declared that he would take us to Saddam Hussein right then.
35:47And I got out the map, and he drew an exact location on the map, drew the sketch, said farmhouse in the village of Adwar, which is the outskirts of Tikrit.
35:56He said, we got to go, we got to go right now.
35:58And I went outside, and I told the other interrogators, I said, this is the map to Saddam Hussein.
36:05And they're like, dude, go get on the plane.
36:11Muhammad Ibrahim declared that he would take us to Saddam Hussein.
36:24He said, we got to go, we got to go right now.
36:27And I told him, I said, you're not going right now, you're going to go tonight.
36:32I got on that plane, and I left.
36:40And then the field phone rang, and it was the commander to Special Operations Unit.
36:47He goes, well, the guy we're looking for, we picked up in Baghdad.
36:52I go, really?
36:54He says, yeah.
36:55And I said, you know what we're doing tonight?
36:59We're going after Saddam.
37:01I knew we had to move that night, because I think once that guy was captured,
37:08the ward would eventually get back.
37:11You know, the reality is, we didn't know what to expect.
37:14I mean, this was a difficult place, Adwar.
37:17It was the hometown of Saddam Hussein.
37:20Yes, there was going to be risk.
37:22So I expected a fight, a serious fight.
37:26Based upon lessons from other missions very similar to this,
37:29I said, listen, when does the moon come up?
37:332,100 hours.
37:34Okay, sunset is about 6.30.
37:37I wanted to be absolute blackout conditions, no illumination whatsoever,
37:42when we got onto the objective.
37:44That would give us an advantage.
37:45And I also wanted to move fast.
37:47You understand the risks, but as a commander, you try to mitigate those risks through artful tactics.
37:54Elemental surprise, overwhelming force at the objective area, Apache gunships, what have you.
38:02I mean, I had an armor brigade with every implement of war that you could imagine,
38:09with incredibly courageous and skilled soldiers operating with the most capable combat special operators in the world.
38:20I had this sword that would do anything.
38:27The night was incredibly quiet.
38:30And by 19.30 or 7.30 at night, the sun has set, it's completely blacked out.
38:37We were ready to go.
38:39So now the assault force is moving towards what we called the release point at a high rate of speed.
38:48And everything is going like clockwork.
38:51No lights on, we're using our night vision goggles.
38:57The first assault party went in, and the special operations leader knew there was a possibility of an underground facility.
39:04But the special operators didn't find anything on the objective and sort of walked off and said,
39:15probably a dry hole.
39:16And Des Bailey, the true commander, said, let's go back and check again.
39:21Around 8.15, we got the initial report.
39:36Possible jackpot.
39:38Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
39:44Within 24 hours of having the critical piece of information giving away his location,
39:48they went there, surrounded the area, discovered him hiding in a hole in the ground
39:53that was what was described as essentially a small man-made hole, about six feet by eight feet in size,
40:00hiding there.
40:01When troops discovered him in that location, he came out.
40:04He was disoriented.
40:05He said the opposite of Hussein, I am the president of Iraq, and I'm willing to negotiate.
40:11And then the response from, uh, U.S. soldiers was, uh, President Bush had to propose.
40:18We found Saddam in the town of Badoir, about nine kilometers southeast of his hometown.
40:24But it just seemed to make sense to me.
40:27He's going to trust his own people.
40:29He's going to trust his own blood.
40:31That's how that Baptist regime really worked, or at least Saddam's inner circle.
40:35He was a small village boy that went back to his hometown in his last days,
40:43and that's where he decided to hide out.
40:46He was not too far from where he was born and grew up.
40:51He went home to feel safe.
40:56Were you disappointed that you didn't get to be involved in the capture of Saddam Hussein?
41:01I get that question more than any question in the world.
41:08I don't care.
41:18I don't need to see him.
41:22It's not a relic.
41:23It wasn't my job to see him.
41:30It wasn't my job to see him.
41:53Transcrição e Legendas Pedro Negri
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