- WASHINGTON -- Three Iraqis
who aided the CIA in the attempt on March 20 by the US to kill Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein were executed this week by Iraqi counterintelligence, former
and serving US officials told UPI.
-
- A super-secret US intelligence operation, working in
Baghdad for weeks before the war, provided the crucial targeting data for
the attack on Saddam and his sons, launched in an effort to pre-empt a
full-scale war, these sources said.
-
- The war had been scheduled to start on Friday, March
21, US officials told UPI.
-
- But after getting intelligence that a brief target opportunity
presented itself to decapitate the Iraqi leadership -- President George
W Bush instead announced at 6:15 am, March 20 (Baghdad time) that hostilities
had begun.
-
- Delta and Special Forces units in the country had help
from three Iraqi agents recruited by the CIA some time after June 2000,
when the first CIA paramilitary teams secretly entered Baghdad to do reconnaissance
and recruitment.
-
- Sources told UPI that Iraqi counterintelligence killed
the three, shooting two and cutting out the tongue of a third, who bled
to death. They said US intelligence had learned this from their forces
on the ground in Iraq.
-
- The March 20 operation involved more than 300 Special
Forces personnel, who moved into the country to join Delta troops and CIA
paramilitaries, these sources said.
-
- One former long-time CIA operative said it was the Delta
men, already in the country, who made the breakthrough for the US attack
by infiltrating a key Baghdad telecommunications centre and tapping a fibre
optic telephone line.
-
- It was this that enabled the US clandestine team to locate
Saddam Hussein and top leaders at Dora Farm, an Iraqi command and control
complex and a legitimate war target, US officials said.
-
- The Iraqi assets, recruited by CIA, played a key part
in the operation by providing "priceless" information, relating
to the phone system and details of Dora Farm, according to one former senior
CIA official.
-
- After CIA director George Tenet conveyed the information
to the White House, the administration quickly launched strikes by F-117
A warplanes and ship-launched cruise missiles.
-
- The attack was thought to have wounded Saddam and is
also believed to have killed his son Qusay, 37, who was being groomed as
Saddam's Hussein successor, according to half a dozen former and serving
US officials.
-
- The strike hit at 5:36 am (Baghdad time) March 20, after
Bush's ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or face war had expired.
-
- A senior administration official told UPI that Saddam
Hussein had suffered two burst eardrums in the attack, and "was bleeding
from the nose and mouth". This source added that Saddam Hussein was
so disoriented by concussion damage that he was in "a vegetative state"
for hours after the strike.
-
- Another administration official said that Saddam Hussein
was "definitely alive" after the strike and appeared on Friday,
March 21, wearing glasses because of concussive damage to the capillaries
of his retinas.
-
- Aerial photos showed that the three-building compound
had suffered severe damage from 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs and some
40 cruise missiles, US officials said.
-
- Details of the timing and recruitment of the Iraqi CIA
assets remain vague because "we want to protect our tradecraft",
a US intelligence official said. "The agency has been working for
months to hook up with Iraqi dissidents in country," an administration
official said.
-
- CIA paramilitary teams, working with Delta Forces, still
are inside Iraq, attempting to kill 30 top Iraqi leaders, including Saddam
Hussein's other son Uday, who commands the Iraqi Fedayeen, several US sources
said.
-
- One administration official confirmed that US intelligence
has the names, addresses and cell phone numbers of the 30 targets.
-
- At least a half a dozen US officials interviewed by UPI
said that they believe that Saddam Hussein was wounded but still alive.
-
- "The strategy is to goad him to appear so that we
can kill him," one former senior agency covert operative said.
-
- Saddam Hussein appears aware of this. On Tuesday, he
did not appear for a scheduled TV address. Instead, a senior Iraqi official
read a statement in his name.
-
- But self-composed and defiant Saddam Hussein apparently
made his first public appearance on Friday since US forces bombed his bunker
March 20. Iraqi TV showed pictures of him walking the streets of a Baghdad
neighbourhood where a throng of jubilant and enthusiastic residents greeted
him.
-
- The appearance was the culmination of several efforts
on Friday by the Iraqi president to rally his people against coalition
troops poised just outside the Iraqi capital.
-
- The date of his actual visit was not definitive, but
some nearby buildings showed possible bomb damage. US analysts noted the
apparent lack of smoke that has hovered over most parts of Baghdad for
days.
-
- It was one of the very rare public appearances of Saddam.
Commentators called it an act of courage and a strong message to Iraqis
and coalition alike that he was still alive, in control of the country
and ready for confrontation.
-
- http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_227857,0005.htm
|
