TIKRIT, Iraq — Army intelligence officers tracked more than 9,000 members of extended families loyal to Saddam Hussein, using arrests, interrogations and occasional rewards until one of Saddam's most trusted tribesmen pinpointed his location.
About six months ago, Army officials began focusing on the investigative theory that just as a few families had propped up Saddam's government, they might also lead to the deposed dictator in hiding.
The backdrop to the effort is the fundamental importance of tribal loyalties in Iraqi culture, the strength of which surprised Army officials even after they learned to look for it.
Months ago, Army analysts began with just four names and eventually amassed outlines — kept classified — representing thousands of relatives.
It took pressure to get information from the tribes. The Army detained more than 1,200 key family members, of which more than 800 remain in U.S. custody, according to Maj. Stan Murphy, senior intelligence officer for the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division.
The arrests, with soldiers hauling people from their homes in hoods and handcuffs, can be harrowing for the targets.
Those who came forward voluntarily, on the other hand, received benefits. Some got cash rewards for useful tips. Some were given more general encouragement for ongoing help, such as weapons permits to protect themselves. One, who worked in radio, received help from the Army in starting up a new station.
Officials have said the key information in locating Saddam came from a man arrested Friday in Baghdad and taken to Tikrit for interrogation Saturday, just hours before Saddam was seized. He was, Murphy said, among the 20 people most trusted by Saddam and a member of a key family identified months ago.
Murphy, 41, a Mineral Wells, Texas, resident based at Fort Hood, Texas, was interviewed about the complex family-based search at his brigade's base in a former presidential palace on the edge of Tikrit.
Saddam personally saw only the most trusted members of the tribes, Murphy believes. He probably saw it as too risky to have much contact with others, making it unlikely that he was giving specific orders to the militants attacking U.S. troops, Murphy said.
Saddam "fell back on his family, and he used those ties, and he fell back on tribal customs, and those customs are very strong and deeply rooted."
Murphy thinks Saddam relied on Arab culture. "You show up as a guest at someone's house and you have to be taken care of," he said.
"There was a point where we began to say, 'We need to focus on the families,' " he said.
The strategy started in late June and led the brigade to cooks, bodyguards and drivers from the trusted families that Saddam used as messengers from his hiding places. Soldiers sifted through the key figures and their cousins, multiple wives, mistresses and children through marriage or otherwise.
Other units were also part of the search, including the Special Forces who actually found Saddam in his "spider hole" last week.
There were also other clues leading to Saddam, hinging on suspected payments to insurgents he was approving. By tracking who paid whom, the investigators were moving up the chain toward Saddam.
But following the money in Tikrit also meant following top members of the trusted tribes who controlled it.
"The importance of the tribal society is above and beyond anything I ever imagined," said Capt. Alan Roper, a reservist from Arkansas who works with Murphy. "There is nothing like it in the United States."
Tribal code dictates that members look to their tribe for protection from criminals, for welfare in hard times and, in Saddam's case, refuge. It's especially prevalent in countries where other networks, like government or commerce, are weak or untrustworthy.
Saddam generally enriched some of the chosen tribes from his home region around Tikrit and they supported him in return.
Murphy said he wasn't surprised that none of the many relatives decided to collect the U.S. government's $25 million in reward money for exposing Saddam.
"You don't go against your family," he said.
Murphy said he believed Saddam may have been at the farm where he was captured for only a couple of days, though he said it's hard to tell.
Looking at new clothes still in wrappers at the site, Murphy speculates that Saddam wasn't there long and that he had other such safe houses.
Despite the squalor and clutter of the two-room structure with a dirty bathroom, "Saddam maintained a level of comfort," Murphy said. Expensive brands of honey and candy were found at the site.
Murphy said he believes Saddam used the money he had — about $750,000 was found when he was captured — to buy silence or support and take care of his expenses while on the run.