Around the globe, elation - and tension - over capture

They got him - but people around the world viewed what they got through sharply different lenses.

Across the globe, people in countries allied with the US lauded the capture of Saddam Hussein from a subterranean spiderhole as a major feat for international justice and the struggle to stabilize Iraq.

But others - particularly in neighboring Arab countries - saw the fallen Iraqi dictator's arrest as an event that would not necessarily bring an end to the violent Iraqi resistance to the US-led occupation, and which could further exacerbate Arab resentment toward the West.

Most likely, though, the startling images of an unshaven, unkempt Mr. Hussein, which Sunday played incessantly on television screens worldwide, would serve as a warning message to the Middle East's many less-than-democratic leaders: Those who wind up atop Washington's target list for regime change should not expect to escape justice.

"The Arab governments are in deep trouble now," says Hisham Kassem, the chairman of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights in Cairo. "None of them want to see the stabilization of a democratic Iraq. Then they will have to ask the question, who is No. 2? While Saddam Hussein is a psychopath, when it comes to governance every other regime in the region runs the same kind of dictatorship."

Since the disappearance of Hussein and his regime eight months ago, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran have frequently been singled out as countries which either oppress their citizens on as disturbing a level as the Iraqi regime did, or which are engaged in acquiring illegal weapons of mass destruction.

In Saudi Arabia, normal events almost ground to a standstill as news of Hussein's capture spread. At the Maglis As-Shura, a consultative council, which advises the ruling Saudi royal family, members' cellphones jangled nonstop and they passed furtive notes across the table about the startling arrest near Tikrit, Hussein's hometown.

"It's a wonderful moment," says Abdulmuhsin al-Akkas, a member of the council. "I would imagine now the insurgents and the resistance mainly conducted by agents loyal to Saddam Hussein will decline, if not be cut off completely. My feeling is that the major components of the remnants of the previous administration will be cut or completely eliminated. But Iraq is still not at peace with itself. This is a major step - the accomplishment today - but there is still no functioning government by the Iraqi people and accepted by the Iraqi people."

That and more has kept many critics of the US-led invasion frustrated with the postwar period, and Hussein's capture is not likely to change that sentiment.

"I didn't think Saddam Hussein would be captured like this. It is not a good thing for Iraqis," says Rokaya, a young Saudi woman in Riyadh, her pretty eyes peering out from a shroud of black that covered the rest of her face and body. "I think it was better for them before - when Saddam was there. It doesn't matter to people here - we only listen to the news because we want to know what the Americans are doing [to Iraq]. We care for the Iraqi people."

In most corners of the Arab world, emotions were mixed. The elation of bringing an infamous tyrant to justice was often tinged with nostalgia for a rare regional leader who blatantly thumbed his nose at America, viewed by many Muslims as a bullying empire.

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