Was Saddam's Capture Fictional?

"Former Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh was quoted in a Saudi newspaper as saying the ousted Iraqi president was actually captured Friday, Dec. 12, 2003, and not the day after, as announced by the U.S. Army, according to UPI. 'I was among the 20-man unit, including eight of Arab descent, who searched for Saddam for three days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced...'" Full story

Only weeks after news broke of Saddam's capture in 2003, the Village Voice and others reported that the U.S. version of the capture was untrue.

Conspiracy theory or truth? Hmmm...

Update [3/30/05]:
A reader kindly pointed out that the original link (labeled "Full Story" above) to CNN no longer opens a relevant article. A search on Abou Rabeh on CNN.com and NYTimes.com returns nothing so the best source of this original we could find is here. Anybody else have any better links? No major news sites seem to have this anywhere. How did this disappear from CNN.com in its entirety?

posted by Fenton Harwick III

Update II [3/30/05]:

If you are a fan of conspiracy theories, and I know I am, you may see this as "The Man" trying to keep this story under raps. Earlier this month, the story of Saddam's fake capture appeared on several major news sources including CNN. Now the only link I can find is for Rochester TV. The plot thickens...