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Iraqi hit squad quite active, documents suggest
Edited for brevity.The Iraqi Intelligence Service established a unit to assassinate Saddam Hussein's enemies at home and abroad that claimed 66 successful "operations" between 1998 and 2000, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Found on the floor of a looted Intelligence Service villa on the east bank of the Tigris River here, the six-page file described the program and contained suggestions for improving its effectiveness -- including obtaining poisonous gas disguised as perfume or explosives that would detonate when the car of the target passed by. None of the assassination targets was specified in the documents, dated April and May 2000, but the period mentioned was a time when prominent Shiite clerics were killed in suspicious circumstances inside Iraq, and a number of Iraqi dissidents abroad were at least targeted. While short of details, the file provides an insight into the inner workings of the feared Mukhabarat, with its memorandum that asks for recommendations for improving its assassination apparatus, and a response suggesting for a division of "quality control." The documents said the project was code-named "Al Ghafiqi." In Arabic, the code sounds like a person's name, but its significance was not clear. In a working paper attached to the file, the author -- known only in a coded designation -- refers to the "fulfillment" of 17 missions in 1998, 35 in 1999 and 14 in the first three months of 2000. It was not clear precisely when the program began or when, or if, it ended. The head of the Intelligence Service at the time was Tahir Abdal Jalil Habbush Tikriti, who remained in his post until the fall of the Saddam government this month. He is now a fugitive from the U.S. armed forces, and is the Jack of Diamonds on the U.S. military's deck of most-wanted Iraqis. The papers appear to corroborate the long-standing accusation that Saddam sanctioned assassinations of his opponents abroad. In the most famous case, the Mukhabarat plotted to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush during a visit to Kuwait in 1993. Posted by: Dar 2003-04-25 |
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