Two Novice Gumshoes Charted The Capture Of Saddam Hussein

Wall Street Journal via Early Bird ^ | December 18,2003 | Farnaz Fassihi, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal

[leadpenny]

Good catch. I missed that on the first read. And good for CPL Engstrom and the LT.

[LurkedLongEnough]

"two junior U.S. military-intelligence analysts in Tikrit"

   "junior" (without preconceived notions)
+ "in Tikrit" (local experience and presence)
________________
"WE GOT HIM"

Congratulations, analysts! You've helped to change the course of history!

[Capt. Tom]

I have to wonder why we are paying billions upon billions for professional intelligence bureaucracies. Where were they?

Are you kidding? They could get killed over there in Iraq. -Tom

[Blood of Tyrants]

The corporal joined after 9/11, so he has been in only two years. But why he didn't try for OCS (too old?) when he had a degree, I don't know. As for the Lt., perhaps she joined as enlisted, got her degree and then went to OCS.

[SamAdams76]

I do not think it is possible to overstate the magnitude of what was accomplished here. For all we knew, Saddam wasn't even in Iraq anymore yet that didn't stop our military from tracking him down anyhow. Finding one man in a spider-hole in a country the size of California is sort of like trying to find a particular grain of sand at the beach (without knowing whether or not the grain of sand you are looking for was moved to another beach altogether).

I hope this capture of Saddam takes the wind out of the anti-war "Where's Saddam?" crowd that taunted us for months. But I doubt it. They will simply switch back into the "Where's the WMD's" mode. Of course, we could have cannisters of nerve gas buried 20 feet under the ground under a children's hospital or out in the desert and it could well take thousands of searchers a hundred years to find them. These nimrods have no clue how difficult it is to find these kind of things. I have an acre of land in back of my house. If I was to bury a baseball out there, I would bet $100 that any one of these jerks couldn't find it even if I gave them the whole weekend to search for it. And we are just talking one acre here. Iraq consists of many millions of acres.

[Publius6961]

Who cares? Obviously they had the smarts to get the job done.
Sure beats the hell out of the mental midget officer material on these threads abusing Col West and spouting rules and regulations.

[leadpenny]

That's the kind of Army we had pre-73. Vietnam gave the Draft a bad name, but even then most who were called did their duty and many made a career of it.

In the early 60's I served with the draftees and for the most part they were older, had more life's experiences, and made better leaders (informal and formal).

General Shalikasvilli and Elvis Presley were drafted in 1958. Didn't hurt their careers.

[cynicom]

Amen...

[Lion in Winter]

Isn't the cut-off age for OCS, 32 years old?

[steplock]

"Their first thought: "Is he joking? This is impossible. We can't even pronounce these names," says Lt. Santana. "

I hate to say it, but if that quote is true - that is what is wrong with the Army!

If we got that same request in the NSG/MarSptBn (USMC) we would have simply said "Can Do!" and done it.

Gotta jab - can't have the army get a swelled head.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I don't know. It has been a while ('86) since I got out.

[elli1]

OCS age requirement 19-29. Age waivers on a case by case basis up to age 34. Sounds like the Cpl could well have missed the cutoff.

[tang-soo]

Over the years, I have discussed with friends many of the Clinton scandals involving many different people. It had occurred to me this kind of analysis of the who's and where's would be useful in documenting and maybe proving many of the scandals ignored by the media. For instance, how many know the owner of a small Chinese restaurant in Little Rock became acquainances of Barry Seal and Terry Reed. Later he was named to an important post by Clinton where he would attend CIA economic briefings then walk across the street and fax the information to China. Give you a hint, his first name is Charlie. How many know Webb Hubbell's father in law was Seth Ward - the same man that strong - armed Terry Reed into having a piece of the machine gun manufacturing project used to send guns to the contras.

[Ispy4u]

More than likely they are reservists. The CPL may not be, it states in the article he joined up after 9-11 leaving his teaching career. The LT with 11 Years is probably a direct commission LT, more than likely she spent the last 9-10 years enlisted.

Exceptional performance under pressure, two of the best this country has to offer.

[Principled]

"And I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those pesky kids!"

[gdc61]

......jarheads........yukyukyuk

[IGOTMINE]

There are computer programs that greatly assist in the process, too.

I can't believe that a national agency hadn't already produced such a product. I would not be surprised if they never thought of disseminating it down to someone who could actually use it.

[TRY ONE]

"It helped them separate the Known Knowns from the Known Unknowns and the Unknown Unknowns."

V-e-r-y Good, Rummy!

[ironman]

"Next to every name on the chart is a physical description -- hair and eye color, height, facial features that stand out -- as well as details about where they were last seen or any other information that might lead to their arrest. "


Where do you think this list of names and information came from that was in the database?

"They plumbed a huge database provided by central military intelligence."

[IGOTMINE]

They've over there, but they just don't talk to those stinky people in uniform. (At least that was my experience in Somalia.)