The White House Kept a Lid on the Big News for 16 Hours

The first words President Bush heard were ones of caution.

“First reports are not always accurate,” said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, even before telling Bush what the first reports were about. The president replied: “This sounds like it’s going to be good news.”

The capture of Saddam Hussein, after months of setbacks and morale-draining American casualties, was clearly good news for the White House. And Rumsfeld’s phone call Saturday set in motion a remarkable 16-hour period during which the president and his aides awaited verification, kept their lips sealed at holiday parties and plotted a strategy to release the news.

In Iraq, the Pentagon’s public relations machinery spun into overdrive Sunday, producing briefings with multi-starred generals, video footage of a hirsute Hussein and poster-size photographs of the area where he had been hiding. But in Washington, the president and his aides had decided to treat the news with restraint.

In a three-minute address to the nation, the president remained somber; it was only at the end of his remarks that the barest shadow of a smile brushed his face.

“The capture of this man was crucial to the rise of a free Iraq,” Bush said from the White House Cabinet Room. “It marks the end of the road for him and for all who bullied and killed in his name.”

And he concluded his remarks with a warning: “The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq. We still face terrorists who would rather go on killing the innocent than accept the rise of liberty in the heart of the Middle East. Such men are a direct threat to the American people, and they will be defeated.”

The behind-the-scenes drama in Washington began at 2:45 p.m. EST Saturday when the phone rang in Rumsfeld’s private Pentagon office. It was Army Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, with the news that the 4th Infantry Division was reporting, with a “high degree of certainty,” that its soldiers had captured Hussein.

Rumsfeld had been aware of the broad outlines of the operation that eventually led to the capture, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. But such operations were becoming increasingly common, and Rumsfeld had no reason to believe that the tip that led to this one was better than most.

Abizaid’s tone was measured, the official said, and Rumsfeld responded in kind. The defense secretary’s next call was to Bush at Camp David, the presidential retreat in western Maryland.

Rumsfeld told the president that Abizaid “feels confident that we got Saddam Hussein.”

“Well, that is good news,” the president replied, according to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

In the White House, from that moment on, a “no gloating” policy took hold. The president and his aides were mindful of the political damage caused by his premature declaration on an aircraft carrier in May, before a banner reading “Mission Accomplished,” that major combat in Iraq had ended.

“I do not want to downplay the significance,” the defense official said. “It was an objective of the coalition, and we achieved that, and it was an important objective, but it was just one objective on the road to assisting the Iraqis in achieving a sovereign government.”

Besides, it wasn’t yet clear that the detainee was the deposed dictator. Bush and Rumsfeld discussed the possibility that he could be an impostor.

A few hours later, at 7:20 p.m., the president flew by helicopter as scheduled back to the White House from Camp David. As he followed Barney, his Scottish terrier, across the South Lawn, he waved toward the cluster of TV cameras and reporters who keep track of his comings and goings. He gave no hint anything was brewing; they described his expression as “pensive.”

In fact, from the time Rumsfeld gave Bush the initial report at 3:15 p.m. Saturday until the president finally went on the air at 12:15 p.m. Sunday -- the White House exercised discipline.

The president decided that the capture would be announced in Baghdad, and it was. No aides leaked word of the news.

Saturday evening, Rumsfeld attended a holiday party at the home of Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Rumsfeld, Myers, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace and CIA Director George J. Tenet patiently chatted with members of the Pentagon press corps.

All those officials knew the news, as did Rumsfeld’s top press aides, who also were at the party. No one let on.

White House aides also kept mum. And when they finally met with reporters shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday, they spoke in a manner so undemonstrative that they could have been reporting on the Christmas pageant the president was scheduled to attend in the evening.

“The president believes this is very good news for the Iraqi people,” McClellan said. “He is very happy for the Iraqi people.”

When Bush went to bed Saturday, he still did not know for sure whether the detainee was the former Iraqi dictator.

That news came Sunday at 5:14 a.m., in a call from national security advisor Condoleezza Rice.

The president, an early bird, was already waking up. Rice told him that the U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, had just phoned her with the news that the DNA was a match.

At 7:10 a.m., Bush and his wife, Laura, watched in their private quarters as Bremer made the announcement in Baghdad. Bush told aides that he was gratified by the reaction of Iraqi journalists, who broke out in cheers and applause.

Then the president went to the Oval Office and started working the phones.

The first two calls went to the staunchest backers of the Iraq war, Prime Ministers Tony Blair of Britain and Jose Maria Aznar of Spain.

Then came calls to other coalition partners and three Arab leaders: King Abdullah II of Jordan, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Bush also telephoned the acting president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Adnan Pachachi.

Notably, the president did not call the leaders of several traditional U.S. allies -- France, Germany and Canada -- that had opposed the war in Iraq.

About 10:15 a.m., Bush returned to the White House residence for a break and to change into more formal attire for his televised address to the nation.

The only congratulations he offered were to U.S. forces on the ground: “The success of yesterday’s mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq.... The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force.”

By then, the streets of Baghdad had erupted in jubilation. But the president’s words were simple and his composure intact.

“In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over,” Bush said.

“A hopeful day has arrived.”

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Times staff writer Esther Schrader contributed to this report.