Saddam's gun may go on display as memento at Bush presidential library

When the presidential library for George W. Bush opens in 2013 on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, visitors will most likely get to see one of his most treasured items: Saddam Hussein's pistol.

The gun, a 9-mm Glock 18C, was found in the spider hole where the Iraqi leader was captured in December 2003 by Delta Force soldiers, four of whom later presented the pistol to Bush. Among the thousands of gifts he received as president, the gun became a favorite, a reminder of the pinnacle moment of the Iraq war, according to friends and longtime associates.

Before Bush left the White House in January, he made arrangements for the gun to be shipped to a national archives warehouse just 18 miles north of his new home in Dallas.

For nearly five years, Bush kept the mounted, glass-encased pistol in the Oval Office or a study, showing it with pride, especially to military officials, they said. He also let visitors in on a secret: When the pistol was recovered, it was unloaded.

"We were getting ready to leave the Oval Office, and he told us, 'Wait a minute, guys, I want to show you something,' " recalled Pete Hegseth, the chairman of Vets for Freedom, who described a July 2007 visit. "The president moved back into his private study and he came out with the gun, inside this glass case. He said, 'The Delta guys pulled it off Saddam.' He was very proud of it."

Bush also showed Hegseth another item: a brick from the Iraq safe house where the al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. airstrike in 2006.

The gun is one of 40,000 artifacts and gifts the Bushes had collected, including the bullhorn Bush used to address rescue workers at Ground Zero in New York and a special-edition Cooperstown baseball bat signed by every living Hall of Famer.

The George W. Bush Presidential Center will cost $200 million. More than $100 million already has been donated, according to several of Bush's friends. The former president has raised much of the money, usually at small luncheons and dinners. Some donors have given as much as $5 million, the friends said.

Douglas Brinkley, an author and history professor at Rice University, said the pistol opened a psychological window into Bush's view of his presidency.

"It represents this Texas notion of the white hats taking out the black hats and keeping the trophy," Brinkley said. "It's a True West magazine kind of pulp Western mentality. For President Bush, this pistol represents his greatest moment of triumph, like the FBI keeping Dillinger's gun. He wants people generations from now to see the gun and say, 'He got the bad guy.' "

"The gun is an interesting artifact, and it tells you that the United States captured Saddam Hussein and disarmed him literally," said Mark Langdale, the president of the George W. Bush Foundation. "How we fit that into the decision to go to war, we haven't gotten to that point yet."