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| Iraq |
| Detective work led to Saddam raid |
| 2003-12-19 |
| A peek behind the scenes of intel work: Two junior military intelligence analysts helped capture Saddam Hussein by building a giant Who’s Who of Iraq. The pair, Lieutenant Angela Santana and Corporal Harold Engstrom, spent months on the project, a huge chart of 9,000 Saddam Hussein associates. The chart was their first piece of military intelligence work. Time for promotions. Ultimately, it enabled them to identify a man who knew where the ousted leader was hiding. US forces seized that man a day before capturing Saddam Hussein. He has not been named, but is believed to be a tribal figure from Iraq’s Sunni Triangle area, the base of Saddam Hussein’s support. Lieutenant Santana heard the results of her work live from another officer listening to military communications. "I was ecstatic," she told the Toledo Blade, her hometown newspaper. "I could not believe it. It was one of those pinch-me type of moments," she said, describing how she then ran from room to room in her base - a former Saddam Hussein palace - shouting "We got him!" She told the Wall Street Journal the task of connecting the dots to Saddam Hussein was "completely surreal". Their chart - which they nicknamed "Mongo Link" - brought together masses of information from interrogations and interviews. It included such details as ages, family relations, home villages and even height and eye colour for thousands of members of the Sunni Triangle’s six most important families. They mapped how people were connected to each other and to the deposed Iraqi president. The detectives realised that the people carrying out attacks on US forces in Iraq were not the ones closest to Saddam Hussein. His near associates - many tied to him and each other through marriage - were keeping their distance, planning and financing operations but not carrying them out, they concluded. They were too quiet, so they stood out from the crowd. Eventually they identified a man they now refer to as "the source". The military has not named him publicly, but detainees had said he was among the financiers of the resistance. When Lieutenant Santana and Corporal Engstrom realised his importance, orders were issued for the 4th Infantry Division to track him down. He was arrested in a raid on a Baghdad house on Friday after eluding capture several times. "When I heard this source was captured, I knew we were onto something," Lieutenant Santana said. The following day, a bedraggled and bearded Saddam Hussein was found. Outstanding work, LT. Keep it up. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 Santa Maria! |
| Posted by: Tobacconist 2003-12-19 12:57:43 PM |
| #1 "No one ever beat Mongo before - Mongo impressed!" |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-12-19 10:50:29 AM |