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| Iraq |
| Iraqis in custody say Saddam survived airstrikes |
| 2003-06-13 |
| Iraqi officials in U.S. custody have told coalition investigators that Saddam Hussein and his sons survived the March 19 and April 7 airstrikes on residential compounds where the CIA believed they were meeting, and that they are still in Iraq. U.S. military and intelligence officials have been frustrated in their intensive efforts to locate Saddam, his two sons and other top regime officials. Officials say they are relying almost exclusively on tips from Iraqi citizens. Often, those tips are unreliable and generated by people seeking revenge against neighbors by connecting them with the former regime. The failure so far to capture or otherwise account for Saddam has hurt the U.S. occupation effort. "I think it does make a difference because it allows the Baathists to go around in the bazaars and in the villages, which they are doing, saying Saddam is alive and he's going to come back," Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, said Thursday. Agreed, we need to show the Iraqi people a body. In an interview in Iraq earlier this month, Bremer said the longer Saddam's fate is unknown, the more likely it is that former members of the now-dissolved Iraqi army, police, Baath Party and intelligence services will continue attacking U.S. forces. Since May 1, when President Bush declared major hostilities over, 12 U.S. troops have been killed in combat. Ahmad Chalabi, head of the anti-Saddam Iraqi National Congress, said that among the indications Saddam is alive is the appearance of leaflets in Baghdad with the former Iraqi leader's picture and name and a slogan. He said, "If we look for him in an intelligent way ... I think he will be found." When asked to clarify what he meant, Chalabi said U.S. forces should have better cooperation with their Iraqi allies. "More cooperation, more activity, more ways to operationalize intelligence from these Iraqi sources ... is what is called for," he said. Meanwhile, there is little hard evidence leading to Saddam. U.S. military and intelligence officials say they are pursuing tips about the whereabouts of Saddam and other top Iraqi officials. Most leads come from Iraqis who approach U.S. forces on the street. "There is a lot of intel. There are a lot of reports we follow up on," says Army Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, who commands coalition ground forces in Iraq. "From day one, and it continues today, we're searching for everybody on the blacklist (the U.S. most-wanted list), including his family." The tips are passed to the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, which contact their Arab operatives. These agents blend into the local population and try to confirm the information by going where the men are believed to be hiding. Lately, search teams have been concentrating on the western Baghdad neighborhood of al-Mansour, where several members of Saddam's former regime are known to have lived. U.S. aircraft destroyed a house there April 7 after CIA officials said they believed Saddam and other members of his regime were meeting there. Last week, U.S. troops began excavating a 60-foot crater at the site of the house in hopes of finding human remains. Results of the search, which ended earlier this week, have not been released. Some tips have led to the capture of lower-level officials. Dozens of suspected Iraqi officials, their family members and sympathizers have been arrested, military officials say. Amir Rashid Muhammad, a former presidential adviser and oil minister, was captured April 28 after U.S. forces on patrol in a Baghdad neighborhood received a tip on his whereabouts, says Sgt. Cynthia Burkhart, of Bethesda, Md. Muhammad and other Iraqi officials who have been apprehended have been taken to one of several detention centers in Baghdad, including a makeshift jail at the city's international airport, where they are being interrogated by CIA and DIA investigators, U.S. military officials here say. Many of the tips turn out to be rumors. On May 18, U.S. troops, backed by Apache helicopters, descended on the home of tribal leader named Mushaan Al-Dulaymi in western Iraq after receiving a tip from Iraqis that he was harboring Saddam. Dulaymi was a longtime friend of the former Iraqi leader. Saddam wasn't there. Among the many people who claim to know Saddam's whereabouts is a businessman, Marouf Noori, who is the brother-in-law of former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, No. 20 on the Pentagon's list of most-wanted Iraqis. Noori, 49, says Saddam and Qusai, his younger son, are hiding together in a Baghdad suburb. Uday, Saddam's older son, he adds, has taken refuge with a small group of supporters nearby. "Saddam is in Baghdad, gathering his supporters and hoping to make a comeback," Noori says. He says Saddam is "encouraging these attacks against U.S. soldiers." U.S. officials say they can't confirm Noori's allegation. But they have received unconfirmed reports that Saddam has visited Baghdad at night to meet loyalists. U.S. military and intelligence officials feel pretty sure Saddam, his two sons and other leaders are not hiding in the more than two dozen underground bunkers and tunnels in Iraq. Coalition soldiers have searched the bunkers and tunnels in Baghdad, in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, in the northern city of Baiji and in western Iraq. All were empty. Some contained food wrappers and water bottles. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Saddam hid in several houses in Baghdad neighborhoods, which prevented U.S. troops from finding him, according to Mike Vickers, a Pentagon adviser and former Army Green Beret. Some coalition officials say Saddam may be disguising his appearance to avoid capture. Even before the war, he was known to dress as a truck driver, travel in taxis and ambulances, and sleep in different homes several times a week. One of the last confirmed sightings of Saddam may have been on Arasat Street in downtown Baghdad on April 5. On April 1, residents say, Iraqi security officials and carpenters arrived at a small house on Arasat Street and began piling bricks in front of its windows, installing extra phone lines and moving in a hospital bed for Uday, Saddam's older son. Uday is believed to be disabled after a 1996 assassination attempt. Some U.S. officials believe Uday may have been injured in one of the recent missile strikes. On April 5, a silver minibus with tinted windows rolled into the courtyard of the house. Three men, dressed in long white robes and wearing kaffiyehs, emerged. Only their eyes were visible. They stayed one night and left before dawn. After they left, neighbors say, Iraqi security officials, who had been guarding the house, conceded that the men were Saddam, Uday and Qusai. U.S. military officials, who last month inspected the house and interviewed its owner, say the account appears to be accurate. The house, which had stood empty for months, contains a fake wall, complete with bookcases. The wall swings open to reveal a passageway to three rooms where Saddam and his two sons are believed to have slept. Each of the rooms was decorated simply with a bed, nightstand and phone. U.S. officials believe there are dozens of other safe houses, where Saddam and his sons may be have stayed — and may be hidden — in Iraq. "Saddam has foregone the pleasures of his palaces and elaborate tunnels for the safety of these houses," says Atheer Al-Bawi, 61, the caretaker of the house. "He'll be back. He has to. He's among us." Need to find them and stick their heads on pikes in the city square. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 I prefer Mussolini style |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-06-13 16:44:25 |