Inside lay Saddam, wearing a long, salt-and-pepper beard and disheveled hair. He had a pistol on his lap, Odierno said, but didn't move to use it. When asked about his identity, the former dictator confirmed he was Saddam, Odierno said.
Soldiers searched the hut, made up of two rooms -- a bedroom and a kitchen. No one else was found. The soldier who participated in the raid described it as "just two rooms and a sink, there was one bed and one chair and some clothes and that's about it."
Soldiers seized two rifles, a pistol, a taxi and US$750,000 in US currency in a suitcase. They also found new clothes in unopened wrappers, which Odierno suggested meant Saddam had not been there long.
Within an hour -- at about 9:15pm -- a helicopter whisked Saddam away, heading south toward Baghdad, Odierno said.
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