"He was just caught like a rat." — Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, 4th Infantry Division commander

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"In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived. All Iraqis can now come together and reject violence and build a new Iraq." — President Bush

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"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. . . . The tyrant is a prisoner." — U.S. Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer

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"He ought to stand trial for his life. They estimate that he has killed upward of 1 million people. They have found mass graves of 300,000." — Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah

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"We didn't stay there long. It smelled really bad." — A soldier describing the mud hut and "spider hole" where Saddam was captured

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"Death to Saddam! . . . Down with Saddam!" — shouted by Iraqi journalists at a news conference announcing Saddam's capture

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"He was subservient and broken. . . . He was speaking as if he did not know what was going on around him." — Iraqi Governing Council member Mouwafak al-Rabii on Saddam

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"He didn't seem apologetic. He seemed defiant, trying to find excuses for the crimes in the same way he did in the past." — Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a Shiite Muslim political party official who visited Saddam after his capture

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"Where his rule meant terror and division and brutality, let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people of Iraq." — British Prime Minister Tony Blair

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"Saddam Hussein raised us. He's our father." — Sohayb Abdul-Rahman, a resident of the Adwar area, where Saddam was captured

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"He was like a father to Iraqi people. He struggled and fought against Israel and others who would hurt us." — Mohammed Azawi, one of about 200 young men who gathered in Adhamiya to mourn Saddam's capture

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