President Bush got the call at 3:15 p.m. Saturday. He wanted to believe Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said Saddam Hussein had been captured. The president also wanted to be certain.
"How do you know," Bush kept asking Rumsfeld during Saturday's call with the initial report on the capture, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
Bush was spending the day at Camp David in Maryland with first lady Laura Bush when Rumsfeld told him U.S. forces "believe they've captured Saddam Hussein." Rumsfeld also cautioned that "first reports are not always accurate," McClellan told reporters.
Bush had his doubts initially, partly because of previous false starts and the existence of Saddam impostors.
At Camp David, Rumsfeld said he got his reports from the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. John Abizaid, who described how U.S. forces found the former Iraqi leader in a hole. Bush kept asking "how confident" is Abizaid, according to McClellan.
"Very confident" Rumsfeld said. The general determined it was Saddam "through some identifying marks."
After that initial call, Bush contacted Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who in turn notified Secretary of State Colin Powell and Andy Card, the White House chief of staff, and Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet, according to McClellan's account.
At the time, Bush "was still reserved in his judgment and was still expressing some caution," McClellan said.
Official confirmation that it was Saddam came Sunday at 5:14 a.m. local time in Washington. This time, Rice called "and that was essential confirmation that we got Saddam Hussein," McClellan told reporters. The president was just waking up, he said.
Bush and the first Lady watched the news briefing Sunday and was "particularly moved to see the outburst of joy from the Iraqis" during the news briefing, McClellan said.