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| Iraq |
| Germans 'gave US Saddam war plan' |
| 2006-02-27 |
| GERMAN intelligence agents in Baghdad obtained a copy of Saddam Hussein's plan to defend the Iraqi capital, which was passed on to US commanders a month before the 2003 invasion, The New York Times has reported. In providing the Iraqi document, German intelligence officials offered more significant assistance to the US than their government has publicly acknowledged, the newspaper said on its website. The plan gave the American military an extraordinary window into Iraq's top-level deliberations, including where and how Saddam planned to deploy his most loyal troops, the Times said. An account of the German role in acquiring a copy of the Iraqi plan is contained in an American military study, which focuses on Iraq's military strategy and was prepared in 2005 by the US Joint Forces Command, it said. The German government was an especially vociferous critic of the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq. While the German government has said that it had intelligence agents in Baghdad during the war, it has insisted it provided only limited help to the US-led coalition. After the German agents obtained the Iraqi plan, they sent it up their chain of command, the paper said, citing the study. In February 2003, a German intelligence officer in Qatar provided a copy to an official from the US Defence Intelligence Agency who worked at the wartime headquarters of General Tommy Franks, according to the American military study. The Iraqi plan called for massing troops along several defensive rings near Baghdad, including a "red line" that Republican Guard troops would hold to the end, the paper said. Ulrich Wilhelm, the chief spokesman for the German government, would not comment on the report, the Times said. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #8 We (the US military) knew the Soviet War Plan for any attack against US forces in Europe called for the use of overwhelming numbers - more tanks, more aircraft, more APCs, more people. The United States has been working on a battle capability to combat overwhelming numbers since at LEAST 1975. The Iraqis used basically the same war plan the Soviets created, and we destroyed them accordingly, because we've been more or less successful in defeating overwhelming numbers with speed, intelligence, innovation, tactical surprise, coordinated maneuver, and superior technology. The Iraqis were nowhere as capable as the Soviets. By preparing to fight the best that could be brought against us, taking on fourth or fifth (or 70th) best was more or less a cake-walk. It didn't matter if we had their plans - we were capable of defeating them in depth because of OUR plan. Never, Never, NEVER underestimate the US military. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2006-02-27 19:38 |
| #7 I suspect the Germans will conclude the same thing about hthe U. S. Another nice move to undermine U. S. intelligence capabilities by the NYT (New York Traitors). |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-02-27 12:28 |
| #6 Those weasels! I should never have trusted them. |
| Posted by: Saddam Hussein 2006-02-27 12:18 |
| #5 There are still a lot of German soldats who hold the US military in high esteem, and would be more than willing to do their "Ami comeraden" a favor or two. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-02-27 10:53 |
| #4 The thing about plans is they never survive contact with the enemy. The plans the Germans gave us could very well have been perfectly valid. Until the poorly paid, poorly trained Iraqi troops (and lets me realistic even the republican guards sucked) were faced with utter annihilation at the hands of a vastly superior force. |
| Posted by: AllahHateMe 2006-02-27 10:01 |
| #3 How did the Germans find the information? From the briefcase of a dead Iraqi courier washed up on the banks of the Euphrates? Sorta makes you wonder if Saddam was disappointed the Germans gave the information to the Americans. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-02-27 08:21 |
| #2 A "plan" that was utterly useless, both to the defenders and to the attackers. Re-read "Thunder Run". No one expected Baghdad to fall as quickly as it did, and the drive to the center of Baghdad was an impromptu affair, put together after the swing to the airport demonstrated that enough firepower would let an armored column operate in urban (or suburban) territory. If there was a secret plan, it was as full of bluff and bluster as Fisk's reporting. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-02-27 07:28 |
| #1 So - why didn't this secret plan contain the details of the Republican Guard disbanding to fight an insurgency? |
| Posted by: gromky 2006-02-27 02:45 |