THE ACE OF DIAMONDS SPEAKS

A top lieutenant to Saddam Hussein has told U.S. interrogators that the Iraqi leader and his two sons survived the U.S.-led war in Iraq and that he himself had fled to Syria with the sons after the conflict, Defense Department officials said on Friday.

Hmmm, would that be the same Syria as in this story?:

(June 9, 5:05 p.m. ADT) - Syria's president, seeking to allay U.S. concerns, said Monday his country stopped fleeing Iraqi officials at the border and turned back those who had slipped in.

U.S. officials had threatened sanctions against Syria, accusing it of harboring fleeing members of Iraq's ousted regime and of providing Iraq with military equipment.

Well, might be. Seems ACE did get expelled. As quoted from the first story above:

But Mahmud's claim that he and the sons had spent time after the war in Syria before being expelled by Syrian authorities adds a new element to that working theory...

Along with the information about Saddam's sons, the U.S. officials said he was providing information about Iraq's suspected program of weapons of mass destruction, and that he had contradicted evasive accounts from other former senior Iraqi officials now in U.S. detention.

Well this is most interesting. Seems to me we have a potential gold mine here. Because the only way Ace of Diamonds can ever bargain his way back to a life in this world at all is to give up Saddam.

If he doesn't cooperate, we lock him up for life. But if he does...he won't sleep well outside of prison unless Saddam is locked away or dead.

The plot thickens.