A slide-show essay on Saddam Hussein's private photo album.

A slide-show essay on Saddam Hussein's private photo album.

A slide-show essay on Saddam Hussein's private photo album.

The social network that caught a dictator.
Feb. 23 2010 7:39 AM

Saddam Hussein's Private Photo Album

These 10 rare family pictures helped lead to the Iraqi dictator's capture.

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Click here  for a slide-show essay on the private photo stash that helped lead to Saddam Hussein's capture.

On the night of June 18, 2003, the soldiers in the 1-22 Infantry stormed a farm in Tikrit, Iraq, hoping to find a fugitive Saddam Hussein. They didn't find their target, but they did find a consolation prize: Saddam's family photo album, which had been stashed at the location along with $8 million in cash and his wife's jewelry collection.

These photos were more than a window into the brutal dictator's family life. In addition to images of his family, the album included photos of his friends and bodyguards from the Tikrit area, where Saddam and most of his close associates grew up. The soldiers who were hunting Saddam had a hunch that these were the same bodyguards who were now helping him elude capture. The problem: They didn't know who many of them were. Now, with their photos in hand, they were one step closer to capturing their quarry.

When he returned from Iraq, Lt. Col. Steve Russell, the commander of the 1-22 Infantry, donated the album to the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Ga., which provided Slate with a variety of the photos for this series.

Click here for a slide-show essay on this private photo stash that helped lead to Saddam Hussein's capture.