Clan, Family Ties Called Key To Army's Capture of Hussein

Washington Post ^ | 12/17/03 | Vernon Loeb

[saquin]

The Army general whose forces captured Saddam Hussein said yesterday that he realized as far back as July that the key lay in figuring out the former Iraqi president's clan and family support structures in and around Hussein's home city of Tikrit.

Following a strategy similar to that pioneered by New York City police in the 1990s, who cracked down on "squeegee men" only to discover they knew about far more serious criminals, Maj. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said his analysts and commanders spent the summer building "link diagrams," graphics showing everyone related to Hussein by blood or tribe.

[saquin]

Also in this article, some info about the new Stryker vehicles:

"On Sunday, Odierno said, one of the brigade's new Stryker vehicles drove over a roadside bomb. While the explosion ignited a fire that damaged the inside of the vehicle, he said, the Stryker protected the driver from everything except a sprained ankle, even though the bomb exploded directly beneath him."

[vbmoneyspender]

As two suicide bombs rocked Baghdad yesterday morning, Odierno said the Army's new medium-weight Stryker Brigade Combat Team, recently deployed to Iraq and attached to his division, was attacked by Iraqi forces in Samarra.
Iraqis on two motorcycles fired on one of the new Stryker vehicles, eight-wheeled, armored troop carriers, in an attempt to lure it into an ambush using rocket-propelled grenades and command-detonated roadside bombs, he said.

But the Iraqis did not realize that infantrymen from the Stryker Brigade had already dismounted and were able to fire upon nearby Iraqi fighters who were ready to spring the ambush. In all, he said, the U.S. soldiers killed 11 Iraqis.

Sounds like our drones are being put to good use.

[Oztrich Boy]

Family Ties Called Key To Army's Capture of Hussein

Yay for Alex P. Keaton!