President got first heads-up of capture Saturday afternoon

WASHINGTON -- President Bush first learned that Saddam Hussein may have been captured on Saturday afternoon, and was given confirmation of the most sought-after prize in the Iraq war early Sunday, a senior administration official said.\nDefense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the president, who was spending part of the weekend at his Camp David retreat in Maryland, around midday Saturday to deliver the news of the raid's possible success.\nJust after 5 a.m. Sunday morning, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice called Bush -- by now back at the White House -- to say the person in custody had been confirmed to be Hussein, the official said.\nThe president had returned to Washington late Saturday to be back in town before a snowstorm that hit Sunday could prevent him from attending the taping of a television Christmas special.\nBush had planned to attend church Sunday morning across the street from the White House, but decided not to make the trek through the snow.\nAides rushed in to the White House from miles away early Sunday, but it was still relatively quiet Sunday as news of Saddam's capture spread and was confirmed by a news conference in Baghdad.\nAides delivered no official reaction, despite the long-sought development that could bring significant vindication for the war Bush started nine months ago.\nDramatic military strikes came up empty in their efforts to kill Saddam at the start of the war. Since then, he has appeared in both video and audio tapes. U.S. officials named him No. 1 on their list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, the lead card in a special deck of most-wanted cards.\nU.S. officials scored another major victory earlier this year when they killed Saddam's two sons during a raid.