Saddam's DNA
Testing was done in military lab; US keeping results close to chest
By Robert Walgate

DNA testing was a key tool used by US authorities to ensure the man they
found in a hole in the ground last week was indeed Saddam Hussein, together
with confirmation by former members of Saddam's regime. But details of those
tests are unlikely to be revealed soon.

Officials from the US Department of Defense have indicated to The Scientist
that next week would be the earliest any publication of the results and
methods would happen, if they are made public at all.

What has been confirmed is that the testing was carried out at the US Armed
Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) in Washington, DC. The lab is a
department of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, on the grounds of the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Officials from the institute told The Scientist that the lab had already
done a considerable amount of DNA work on operational cases in Iraq and
therefore had real expertise in the identification of Saddam.

Meanwhile, speculation on the methodology and quality of the data is running
rife.

News of the result seems first to have been first broken by the head of the
Iraqi Governing Council Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, who said on Sunday that DNA
tests had confirmed that the suspect was Saddam Hussein, less than 24 hours
after his discovery.

Allowing for the time taken to fly a sample from the captured man to
Washington, this implies the test was completed very quickly for a routine
DNA identification-unless initial tests were performed in Iraq.

Read the rest at The Scientist.com
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20031219/05

Comment:
Apart from the DNA tests, we can compare the Bush administrations profile of
Saddam to reality, allowing, of course, for the Bush regime's passion for
wild exaggeration:
Regime said:
that Saddam had a network of tunnels that could hide WMD programs and a
small army for many months;
Reality:
Saddam was found in a rabbit hole;
Regime said:
that Saddam was awash with  biological, chemical and nuclear Weapons of Mass
Destruction;
Reality:
Saddam had a pistol;
Regime said:
Saddam was a threat to his neighbours, the World and the USA;
Reality:
A frightened Saddam soiled his underwear while giving up without a fight.

Looks fairly conclusive: the Bush regime's rhetoric and reality in the case
of Saddam are about as far apart as with other issues eg
Regime:
Clinton, who took the country from deficit to record surplus in 8 years is
fiscally irresponsible compared to Bush;
Reality:
Bush turned the surplus around to an estimated three quarters of a trillion
dollar deficit in three years flat.

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek.
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