Saddam Hussein Captured

[j2k4]

Originally posted by FatBastard@15 December 2003 - 02:26
[ As for the Washington Post, the New Yorker Magazine, New York Times and ABC, how extreme left are they?

On the American political spectrum?

VERY.

[Barbarossa]

Originally posted by chalice@15 December 2003 - 11:57
I haven't much to say on the subject but I would ask one genuine question.

I'm probably wrong but the footage shown yesterday of Saddam having an oral examination, wasn't that a medical examination and so private.

It may be completely irrelevant but isn't that a breach of Geneva conventions?

Can anyone shed any light?

I think technically they can circumvent the Geneva Convention by technically stating that technically there is not actually a war/battlefield situation happening at the moment, so it doesn't apply. Technically speaking of course.

Anyway, I'm sure some very clever lawyers are sorting all this out as we speak..

[Barbarossa]

Originally posted by j2k4@15 December 2003 - 13:54

I think if they were checking him for a testicular rupture you might then beg privacy.

See, it's a shame this never happened to Hitler, because then you'd have to do that to see that he really had only got one ball.....

[Sparkle1984]

I think it's just as well he's been captured so he can't hurt anyone else. But never forget who it was who armed and supported him into power in the first place...

[Barbarossa]

Originally posted by Sparkle1984@15 December 2003 - 15:22
I think it's just as well he's been captured so he can't hurt anyone else. But never forget who it was who armed and supported him into power in the first place...

His older cousin, General Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr? Isn't he dead??

[j2k4]

Originally posted by Sparkle1984@15 December 2003 - 12:22
I think it's just as well he's been captured so he can't hurt anyone else.  But never forget who it was who armed and supported him into power in the first place... 

Oh, don't worry, Sparkle.

We won't.

I'm the biggest hawk on this board, and I've acknowledged your charge time and again, whilst also stating that, even as we had a large hand in creating Saddam, we should likewise be charged with the duty of "undoing" our mess.

Of course, if you continue to suffer from the need to harp, knock yourself out.

I would, of course, hasten to remind the rest of the board that we are being reminded of the U.S.'s past sins, and also of who continues to remind us.

In fact, I hereby christen you Official Board Reminder of U.S. Sins, Atrocities, and Any Other Bad Things You Can Think Of.

[uNz[i]]

... hmmm.. okay. Maybe we should just cool it and take this in a different direction.

So far, there's been no mention of the DNA testing that was used to confirm Saddam's identity.

While we watched the reports about his capture, my g/f (who's a chemistry/biology major) was intrigued by the fact that DNA testing was used and commented on the rapidity with which the test results were returned.

According to her, it normally takes a couple of days (at least) to run a DNA identification test from start to finish. She thought that it was decidedly dodgy that the tests proving it really was Saddam were completed as fast as they were.

But today I found this article on the New Scientist website:

Fast-track DNA tests confirm Saddam's identity

17:19 15 December 03

Fast-track DNA tests were used to confirm the identity of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, after his capture by US forces on Saturday.

DNA profiling experts contacted by New Scientist are surprised at the speed of the results, but all agree such a rapid conclusion would be possible. "I have to say I'm quite impressed," says Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester, UK, who pioneered DNA profiling techniques. "The time scale is feasible."

Hussein was discovered at 2026 local time (1226 EST) in a small underground chamber near a shack in the village of Ad Dawr, south of his hometown Tikrit. Soldiers also found $750,000 in cash.

The man was then conveyed to a "secure area" by 1315 EST and US President George Bush was informed that a man thought to be Saddam Hussein had been captured. However, it was not until 0514 EST on Sunday, that Bush received confirmation of Hussein's identity.

Major General Ray Odierno, commander of 4th infantry division that caught Hussein, said the former dictator confirmed his identity when asked. "I'm Saddam Hussein, I'm the president of Iraq and I'm willing to negotiate", he told his captors. (report MSNBC)

The man also had a small tattoo on one hand, believed to indicate Hussein. However, DNA tests were carried out to prove the prisoner was not one of the many "body doubles" of the former dictator.


Blood or saliva

The three required stages of DNA profiling could be done quickly if scientists were on standby, Jeffreys told New Scientist. Firstly, DNA would have to be extracted from a swab. This can be done in about half an hour.

The DNA is then amplified using a standard technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which takes a couple of hours. Lastly, the amplified sample is "typed" to give the profile. This also takes a couple of hours.

Charlotte Word, laboratory director at Orchid Cellmark, Maryland, which conducted DNA tests on the victims of the September 11 attacks, is also surprised by the speed of the testing, but agrees it is possible with a good blood or saliva sample.

She notes that tests for use in criminal cases often takes much longer because samples are scant or contaminated.

Lawrence Kobilinsky, a DNA expert at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, US, adds that DNA profiling in criminal cases can also be delayed due to paperwork. He says the procedure could be done in about seven hours.

Father to son

Kobilinsky says that the military appear to already have Hussein's genetic profile stored away for comparison. US forces claimed to have samples from the dictator in April 2003. This could be from personal items such as a toothbrush or cup he drank from, Kobilinsky told New Scientist.

"They certainly had access to the two sons, Uday and Qusay, who were killed," he says. A "very quick way" of identifying Saddam Hussein would be to compare the new sample with variable regions called short tandem repeats on the sons' Y-chromosomes. As this male sex chromosome is passed directly from father to son, it should match.

Kobilinsky suspects both Y-chromosome DNA and other DNA from the nucleus's of Hussein's cells would have been tested.

The experts also believe the tests are unlikely to have been conducted in the field, but at a laboratory in Iraq or a neighbouring country. "It sounds to me like they have a lab in Iraq," says Jeffreys

SOURCE: New Scientist Article

There. A little more insight into proceedings.
Amazing what they can do these days, isn't it?

Edit: Grammar

[j2k4]

Yes, and a spot-on post, uNz[i].

Absent your info, someone would surely have attempted to refute the aforementioned DNA evidence.

Well done.

[uNz[i]]

Thanks j2k4.

I just figured that this topic needs another conspiracy theory about as much as we need another hole in the head.

[j2k4]

[i]Originally posted by uNz@17 December 2003 - 01:30
.....another hole in the head.

I have 11.

How 'bout you?