(ROOTERS NEWS SERVICE, Baghdad, December 15, 2003) Officials are trying to confirm a claim by Saddam Hussein tonight that he is the illegitimate son of late former Senator, Strom Thurmond, and that his capture today was actually a planned "surrender" so that he could "supoport" his step-sister, who also claims to have been fathered by the former U.S. Senator.
According to sources in Iraq, Hussein claimed that Thurmond met Saddam's mother while the Thurmond was serving in the merhcant marine as a young man. Thurmond's ship was in port in Iraq and Saddam's mother was sent to clean the ship. The two met and spent an evening together in a berth in the ship's bunkroom.
"It was love at first sight," Hussein is reported to have told interrogators. "Thurmond was enthralled with beauty of my exotic-looking mother and she was taken by his Southern charm."
According to the report, Saddam claimed his capture was actually a well-planned surrender.
Hussein said he told his guards to "tip off" American forces of his whereabouts so that he could "lend his support" to his step sister, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a Los Angeles woman who also claims she was sired by the peripatetic Thurmond.
Williams is holding a press conference on Tuesday to announce her long-held secret that Thurmond fathered her out of wedlock with her mother who was a maid in the Thurmond household.
"I surrendered so I could be there for my sister," Ahmad Chalabi quoted Hussein as saying in a conversation the two had earlier today.
According to Chalabi, Hussein suggested that he and Williams had grown close over the years, once discovering their shared lineage.
In fact, according to one of Hussein's bodyguards, also captured in today's raid, WIlliams had been to visit the former Iraqi strongman in his eight foot by six foot hole just two weeks ago.
Hussein also noted that he was not coming forward to file a claim against the Thurmond estate.
Hussein noted that he had $750,000 in American dollars with him at the time of his surrender, Chalabi said.
"Hell, that's more than three times the size of the old man's estate," Hussein reportedly said.
Hussein also claimed that he and Thurmond had stayed in contact for many years and that he received an annual Christmas card from Thurmond that included "one of those long-winded, travelogue Christmas letters that everyone hates so much."
The Thurmond family could not be reached for comment tonight.