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| Iraq |
| Paper: Israel Planned Hit on Saddam |
| 2003-12-16 |
| TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - The Israeli military planned a daring assassination attempt against Saddam Hussein in 1992 - a plot that would have involved landing commandos in Iraq and firing sophisticated missiles at him during a funeral, an Israeli newspaper reported Tuesday. The attempt was reportedly called off after an accident during a training exercise for the mission ended in the deaths of five soldiers. Damn. The Israeli military put together the plan to kill Saddam in retaliation for Iraq’s firing of 39 Scud missiles at Israel during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. However, the plan was never brought before the government for final approval, the newspaper said. It said critics warned that whether it succeeded or failed, it could have triggered Iraqi retaliation in the form of a biological attack. Unlikely. Who would give the order, and who would know (given usual Israeli operational security) who had sponsored the attack? Israeli military intelligence determined that Saddam himself, and not one of his doubles, would attend the funeral of his father-in-law in Saddam’s home town, and the assassination could be carried out there, Maariv said. The commandos would set up a few miles from the cemetery and fire two specially designed missiles that would home in on Saddam, who wore a lighter color military uniform from other soldiers. The custom-made missiles were named ``Obelisk,’’ the paper said. Every thug in the world now is going to be wearing black, which is strangly appropriate. After the assassination, the commandos were to be flown out of Iraq on an Israeli plane that would take off from a temporary airfield built in Iraq, the paper said. Built? The training mishap occurred during one of the final practices on Nov. 5, 1992, at the large Tzeelim training base in the southern Negev desert. The five soldiers, members of the elite unit, were playing the part of the targets, Saddam Hussein and his bodyguards, and the other commandos were to fire a dummy missile at them. By mistake, a live missile was substituted, and the five were killed. Six others were wounded. "Dammit, Moshe, we killed five of our own." "I know, boss, but look at the bright side." "WHAT BRIGHT SIDE YOU IDIOT!?" "They were all wearing white. The missile worked." The mishap led to cancellation of the assassination attempt. Maariv reported that in fact, as predicted by Israeli intelligence, Saddam himself attended the funeral where he was to have been targeted. Damn. Did we have JDAM’s in 1992? Not that it would have mattered, no one here would have given a ’go’ order. The top commanders of the Israeli military were at the base to watch the exercise, including the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak, later Israel’s prime minister. The fact of his presence came out a few days after the mishap, leading to rumors about the real mission, including the possibility that it was aimed at Saddam. Israeli military censors clamped a tight lid on the accident and the purpose of the training, banning publication of the details. After two foreign newspapers printed stories that the target was Lebanese Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the Israeli government suspended the press credentials of the papers’ reporters in Israel, charging that they had broken censorship rules. Maariv reported Tuesday that the Nasrallah story was a government plant to distract reporters from the real target - Saddam - and the suspension of the reporters’ press credentials was part of the deception. Worked, too. Damn. Think of the lives that would have been saved. |
| Posted by:Steve White (on location in Kitty Hawk) |
| #7 I don't think the story can be true as reported. Muslim funerals are supposed to take place within a day of the the person's death, and that's not enough notice to arrange an event like this. It's possible that the event that the Israelis were expecting him to attend was a memorial service or something else where you'd have plenty of advance notice, but I don't think this would work for a funeral. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-12-16 4:02:13 PM |
| #6 Yeah, yeah...an' then we were gonna poison his moustache, so it'd all fall out an' he'd be like, so embarrassed... (giggle) |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-12-16 12:05:00 PM |
| #5 The first JDAM kits went into "low rate" production in 1997. |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-12-16 10:58:16 AM |
| #4 Mossad is having fun with the Guardian again. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-12-16 7:49:58 AM |
| #3 C'mon, this is from the Guardian. It has a believability factor of 0.0001. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-12-16 7:47:52 AM |
| #2 "By mistake, a live missile was substituted, and the five were killed." And if a dummy missile were used, only the guy playing Saddam would of died? I'm not buying this. |
| Posted by: Ray 2003-12-16 2:27:59 AM |
| #1 Well, at least that's less wear and tear they'll have to put on The Death Ray... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-12-16 1:12:08 AM |