Multiple U.S. intelligence sources saw Saddam Hussein enter a building in Baghdad on Monday and not emerge before four 1-ton Air Force bombs destroyed it, government officials said yesterday. One official said some analysts believe the multiple eyewitness accounts suggest the Iraqi dictator is dead. The penetrating bombs reduced the building near the popular al Saa restaurant to rubble.
| FoxNews last night was showing one fellow, apparently one of Sammy's bodyguards, who was hanging around the crater. They matched it with the earlier pictures of Sammy pressing the flesh in the neighborhood. |
The official described the CIA yesterday as being "in a state of euphoria." They say there is no doubt he is dead," said a U.S. military official. But an intelligence official cautioned yesterday that Washington has not made a final determination on whether Saddam was killed in the strike. This official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there is no doubt senior Ba'ath Party and Iraqi intelligence officials were killed, but "in terms of knowing who was killed, we just don't know."
| It sounds like his communications are down. They've probably heard references in other communications to whether he's alive or a layer of jam... |
The conclusive evidence could come in the form of DNA from the site, or monitored communications of "chatter" to confirm a death that might bring the collapse of the Ba'ath regime and a speedy end to the war.
| Judging by what's happening in Baghdad today, he's either dead or otherwise gone. Remember, the minders didn't show up. Info Man is nowhere to be found... |
The bombing culminated a fairly complex operation of tracking Saddam's movements. His youngest son, Qusai, the heir apparent and the director of Baghdad's defenses, also may have been seen entering the building. The hunt for the Iraqi leader intensified after his regime broadcast Friday on state-run television a videotape of Saddam suddenly emerging in the Mansur neighborhood, greeting a crowd of well-wishers. He may have felt relatively safe there on Monday. He also had taken a walk there and not been harmed. The area is a Ba'ath stronghold. One U.S. official said the fact that Saddam had been in the neighborhood during the war meant he might return — which he eventually did. The CIA determined the videotape was that of Saddam, not a double, and was fairly recent. The assessment meant Saddam had survived a March 19 bombing similar to the strike Monday. The United States stepped up surveillance in the Mansur area, using Iraqi spies, CIA officers, and Army Delta Force commandos who wear disguises to appear as Iraqis.
| I think it's damned good work just to determine which neighborhood he was in. Seems there was more video than we saw... |
Intelligence officials declined to say how they learned of the meeting Monday. But an estimated 30 persons attended, including officials of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, or the Mukhabarat, and senior Ba'ath members. An intelligence report reaching Washington said the meeting would take place near a well-known landmark — the al Saa restaurant, a popular eatery for the upscale inhabitants of Mansur. The Washington Times reported yesterday that Saddam's meeting place was under or behind the restaurant. An official said yesterday that the target was in a bunkered house behind the restaurant. On Monday afternoon, Saddam showed up with his bodyguard entourage and entered the building, the eyewitnesses said. The dictator was being tracked by the CIA, a CIA-recruited spy and a Delta commando. One of them communicated on a secure line to the CIA's headquarters in Langley, which alerted the U.S. Central Command forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar. Central Command gave the order to an airborne B-1B bomber crew, armed with 2,000-pound penetrating bombs for just such an opportunity to kill a high-value target in a bunkered building.
| Now, that is real-time intel — and one hell of a level of tech sophistication. The Russers and the Chinese are probably taking the gas pipe over these revelations — which probably shouldn't have been revealed. They're going to cost us special ops guys in the future... |
In minutes, the four-seat Air Force bomber was over Baghdad, and released four of the satellite-guided GBU-31s. They obliterated a block of businesses and residences. One resident said 14 bodies were seen at the site during the ongoing rescue effort, including children. "What we have for battle-damage assessment right now is essentially a hole in the ground, a site of destruction where we wanted it to be, where we believe high-value targets were," Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director of operations of the Joint Staff, said at a Pentagon press conference. "We do not have a hard and fast assessment of what individual or individuals were on site." U.S. informants did not see Saddam leave the building before the bombs hit.
We won't have it until we can go root through the rubble. But we'll also know from chatter, and if Admiral Canaris Izzat Ibrahim (Curse his moustache!) starts issuing orders... |
Central Command said yesterday it would like access to the bomb site to determine who was killed. But allied forces do not yet control Mansur. While U.S. intelligence has picked up communications "chatter" that Qusai is still directing troops, it has heard nothing from Saddam's other son, Uday. There are unconfirmed reports that he was killed in the March 19 bombing from which Saddam had managed to escape.
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