The capture of Saddam Hussein is a great example. News of the Hussein capture came on Sunday morning after all the major newspaper’s print editions had gone to press. Feeling “let down” by the traditional press, people flocked to their televisions and to the Internet to get details of the big news. 

The Internet encountered heavy traffic, as the only place one could go to read the news of the capture. Those who normally get their news from the Internet were joined by hundreds of thousands who usually rely on newspapers for their information. The Sunday morning print editions of the New York Times, Washing Post, San Francisco Chronicle and other large newspapers did not report even a hint of the capture yet the Web sites of these papers carried the news in detail. The print newspapers caught up with many issuing Special Editions on Sunday evening. What a great combination of the low-tech newspaper delivery system being augmented by the high-tech Internet.

Hussein’s capture itself is also a story of how high-tech and low-tech come together. Within sight of the village where he was born, Saddam Hussein was discovered Saturday night, 6 feet underground in a simply dug hole, certainly a very low tech hiding spot. High-tech surveillance techniques combined with the latest powerful night-vision equipment to help US soldiers to the successful climax of their long hunt for Hussein. A military camera crew documented the operations in high-resolution digital video. Yet, the old-fashioned gathering of “information from people” may be what ultimately led authorities to the site where they found Hussein. Sometimes combining high-tech with older tried and true methods brings about the best solution to a problem.