• The original announcement by Iraqi ambassador L. Paul Bremer this morning.
• Comments by President Bush.
• Joshua Clayborn and The Command Post: Iraq are on top of it with an ongoing roundup of news and reports on various responses (and, via Tim Blair, mixed reactions of Dean supporters and Democrats).
• Great photographs from John Betts.
• Iraqi blogger Ays (Iraq at a Glance) is "happy"^x10 ("I don't know what to say.. I am confused.. no … I am very happy.. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy..")
• News and an amusing security notice from John Gault, from Baghdad's Coalition Provisional Authority:

  "There will be an unusually heavy amount of [celebratory] gunfire during the next 24 hours. This is due to the report of the possible capture of Saddam Hussein in Tikrit. All CPA members need to take the following measures to protect themselves. Stay in a hardened facility with overhead cover . . .

• From Jeb Babbin and the NRO's commentary:

  To deny the Iraqis ability to try and punish Saddam is to deny the legitimacy of their process of forming the new government. The proper way to handle Saddam is for the Iraqi Governing Council to appoint its own tribunal and apply to Saddam the basic laws against murder. . . . The Allies set up war-crimes tribunals to try Nazi and Japanese criminals, and we didn’t need the U.N. or some international court to do it for us. Dust off the Nuremberg rules, convene a panel, and get on with it. We cannot allow the Iraqis to do less. (NRO Dec. 14, 2003)

• Lastly, via (Kesher Talk), Tony ("Trojan Horseshoes") provides a diagram the recently released statistic that Saddam Hussein's government is believed to have buried as many as 300,000 opponents in 263 mass graves. A sobering reminder of why the Iraqi people are so relieved and jubilant.

Labels: iraq