"I am Saddam Hussein. I am the President of Iraq. I am willing to negotiate."
Those were the first words spoken by the most wanted man on Earth when American soldiers dragged him from a hole in the ground at 8:30 PM on December 13, 2003. He had been hiding for eight months. The United States had deployed 150,000 troops to find him. And in the end, he was captured in a spider hole barely large enough for a coffin, clutching a pistol he never fired.
But the story of how they found him starts nine months earlier.
March 19, 2003. Coalition forces launched their offensive against Iraq. The plan was simple: decapitate the regime, capture Saddam, end the war. Shock and awe would do the rest.
It did not work out that way.
May 1, 2003. George Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln under a banner reading Mission Accomplished. Saddam Hussein was still free...