Daily Archives: December 15, 2003

DEBKAfile Argues that Saddam Hussein Was NOT in Hiding — He Was a Prisoner

Posted on December 15, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

DEBKAfile – Indications Saddam Was Not in Hiding But a Captive This is a long article, worth reading. Here's only part of it:

1. The length and state of his hair indicated he had not seen a barber or even had a shampoo for several weeks.

2. The wild state of his beard indicated he had not shaved for the same period

3. The hole dug in the floor of a cellar in a farm compound near Tikrit was primitive indeed — 6ft across and 8ft across with minimal sanitary arrangements – a far cry from his opulent palaces.

4. Saddam looked beaten and hungry.

5. Detained trying to escape were two unidentified men. Left with him were two AK-47 assault guns and a pistol, none of which were used.

6. The hole had only one opening. It was not only camouflaged with mud and bricks — it was blocked. He could not have climbed out without someone on the outside removing the covering.

7. And most important, $750,000 in 100-dollar notes were found with him (a pittance for his captors who expected a $25m reward)– but no communications equipment of any kind, whether cell phone or even a carrier pigeon for contacting the outside world.

According to DEBKAfile analysts, these seven anomalies point to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein was not in hiding; he was a prisoner.

After his last audiotaped message was delivered and aired over al Arabiya TV on Sunday November 16, on the occasion of Ramadan, Saddam was seized, possibly with the connivance of his own men, and held in that hole in Adwar for three weeks or more, which would have accounted for his appearance and condition. Meanwhile, his captors bargained for the $25 m prize the Americans promised for information leading to his capture alive or dead. The negotiations were mediated by Jalal Talabani’s Kurdish PUK militia.

These circumstances would explain the ex-ruler’s docility — described by Lt.Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as “resignation” — in the face of his capture by US forces. He must have regarded them as his rescuers and would have greeted them with relief.

From Gen. Sanchez’s evasive answers to questions on the $25m bounty, it may be inferred that the Americans and Kurds took advantage of the negotiations with Saddam’s abductors to move in close and capture him on their own account…

It's an intriguing theory.

As for the capture itself, (1) It's good; (2) It is orthagonal to the justice of invading in the first place; (3) Better now than later; (4) In itself this has almost no medium much less long-term political significance…although if it were to change the casualty rate in Iraq, that might matter.

Posted in Iraq | 4 Comments

Adventures in Personalization

Posted on December 15, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Amazon.com, after I completed a recent order:

“Thanks, A!

Your order is being processed, and you'll receive an e-mail confirmation shortly”.

(My first name on my birth certificate is “Andrew,” but I have been called by my middle name since birth. When I opened my first checking account, they refused to open it for a name other than the one on my driver's license — which copied from my birth certificate — and I became “A. Michael” for most commercial purposes, including credit cards, as a result. Although often a pain, prior to do-not-call the name differentiation was a good way to sort sales calls from personal calls.)

Posted in Internet | Leave a comment

Charitable Giving Season

Posted on December 15, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

As the tax year draws to a close, people sometimes round out their charitable giving. There are always more good causes than there are dollars. While something could be said for combining one's giving into a single gift that might actually make a noticable difference to one group, Caroline and I have instead adopted a somewhat scattershot approach, which includes giving to homelessness relief, various educational institutions (here at UM, we give to a group which supports student-funded-fellowships in the summer: law students use them to work for pro bono groups—a double-effect donation), and a fund that helps provide lawyers for the indigent. We haven't yet decided whether and how much to give to whom in the upcoming election, perhaps because this year I seem to suffer from a problem a bit like a N-dimensional Buridan's ass.

You don't need me to tell you how to find similar groups active in your community. We do, however, give to two less-well-known charities that I think are worthy of your consideration if you are planning any charitable giving.

There are a handful of groups doing good work in the information privacy field, including the
ACLU and (significantly more often than not, but not inevitably) the Center for Democracy and Technology. [Update: And of course EFF does great stuff too! (But you knew that.)] And there are very good people at each of them. But of them all, my favorite is the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). I may not always agree with Director Marc Rotenberg on every detail, but I deeply admire his efforts and the organization he has built. EPIC's work is of consistently high quality on both the domestic and international fronts, and it is a leader in the causes of information privacy and electronic civil liberties. I believe that these issues will only become more important in the next five years. EPIC is both pioneering and effective. Donate here.

Another group that I believe delivers enormous bang for the buck is Ashoka, a US-based charity that gives grants to “fellows” — they call them “practical visionaries” — who work for institutional or economic reform, primarily but not exclusively in poorer countries. Individual grants are actually pretty low, a “living stipend typically for three years, depending on individual need and local salary standards”. So far Ashoka has supported 400 fellows in 48 countries — and they produce results. Donate here.

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Back From Amsterdam

Posted on December 15, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

While I try to reassemble my consciousness through a haze of jet lag…

I'm back from I think was a fairly successful trip to Amsterdam. The Experts' Group meeting was perhaps more mainstream telecom than some of the events I would usually choose to go to, but that had its advantages, as it confronted me with some fairly alien viewpoints. Many of the participants were fans of the ITU, and seemed pretty convinced that it would be an improvement over ICANN. Here's a small sample of things they said:

  1. Both IP numbers and domain names are fundamentally akin to telephone numbering systems. It is not rational to treat such similar systems so differently.
  2. What is the ICANN value proposition? What does it do for the money that is worthwhile?
  3. The ITU has a proven track record of handling telephone numbers well, and would likely do the same for IP numbers and probably naming too.
  4. On the other hand, the ITU's handling of the WSIS event speaks badly for it. The event got completely out of control, and is a black eye for the ITU.
  5. Regulation of ccTLDs should be brought under government control as is the telephone system (in Europe!); remedies for anything that harms a business's or a consumer's legitimate interests in a domain name or IP number should be a matter of public/administrative law not private law.
  6. The nature of a private interest in a domain name and an IP number needs to be specified and clear; law and policy cannot tolerate the current uncertainty.

I suppose I tend to agree with 2 and 4, and with the first half of number 3. I disagree strongly with 1 and don't think I agree with 6 either. I am very unsure about what to make of 5, especially since I think that these ideas may translate poorly outside the European context.

Amsterdam is a lovely city, even in the cold and light rain. Everyone I met was very nice. The intrusion of English into the life of the city is a little shocking — natives are as likely to address each other in English if they don't know each other. Many of the ads on the street and on TV are wholly or partly in English. One hears a great deal of English on the street, and not just from people who look like tourists. And of course, everyone I dealt with professionally or commercially spoke great English. One Dutch colleague said modestly, “We are a small country. We have no pride,” but I don't believe this is correct. The Dutch do in fact have quite justifiable pride — for example, the Internet research group in the Amsterdam/Tilburg axis rivals if not surpasses the work done at Berkeley, the US leader in the area — but this pride does not overwhelm their fundamental practicality.

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