Posted on 09/22/2003 11:57:13 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON – A former Army intelligence analyst says a number of Iraqi exiles have reported the deposed regime stashed small missiles, weapons and ammunition at mosques in and around Baghdad.
U.S. forces have confiscated large caches of weapons in raids of Iraqi homes, but they are barred from raiding religious sites.
Guerrilla fighters continue to attack troops with mortars, grenades, homemade explosives and small arms fire on a daily basis. They are tapping into a huge arsenal left behind by the former regime, one that some military officials in Iraq fear could supply fighters for several years.
Iraqi exiles from differing ethnic groups and religions have reported that mosques are the source of the seemingly endless supply of arms.
"I've gotten enough reports that are almost identical from people who are independent from one another to figure there's some credence to it," said ret. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Stephen H. Franke, a former Iraq weapons inspector and Arabic translator who has debriefed Iraqi defectors.
"They say they [remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime] are hiding arms in mosques, hiding stuff under mosques, hiding stuff in basements of mosques or storage rooms in mosques," added Franke, who recently returned to Iraq as a contractor. "They say they stashed small missiles, weapons and ammunition inside the mosques – stuff that would be a super no-no under the Geneva Convention, but they don't care."
The Taliban also used mosques as arms depots, as well as command-and-control centers, during the Afghanistan conflict.
Under the law of land war, religious properties cannot be used to shield military forces or equipment.
If they are, such properties "may be targeted only if it is determined that an attack is a military necessity and meets a proportionality test," explained Pentagon spokesman Army Maj. Ted Wadsworth.
"Targeting analyses for such objects should take into account the value to the civilian population of such objects and the harmful results of attacking such objects," he added. And they should also factor in their cultural and historical significance.
In other words, Iraqi mosques are off-limits, says a U.S. Central Command official.
"This politically correct stuff is going to continue to get our guys killed," he said. "They're continuing to hide bombs, grenades and other stuff in those mosques."
More than 70 American troops have been killed by hostile fire in Iraq since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations there.
Stockpiling weapons was part of a secret postwar plan by Saddam Hussein to sabotage the U.S. occupation. A Jan. 23 memo classified "Top Secret" and found in Iraqi intelligence files calls for, among other things, "purchasing stolen weapons from citizens" and "mobilizing of dependable elements and bringing them into mosques."
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Who would have thunk it.
Gosh, this guy has been reading my posts!
Anybody doubt they would burn every single church in sight to the ground, whether they contained weapons or not?
How many mosques have been searched YTD? -----none.
This is very interesting, could you tel us more?
From same Author, Sperry, in WND, Sept. 10th:
----> A Jan. 23 memo classified Top Secret and found in Iraqi intelligence files orders Saddam's agents to carry out acts of sabotage in the event of the collapse of his regime. They include infiltrating mosques and assassinating imams – specifically in the holy city of Najaf, a key religious center for Shia Muslims oppressed by Saddam's deposed Sunni Muslim regime.
Among other things, the 11-point plan calls for:
* "Mobilizing of dependable elements and bringing them into mosques."
* "Joining the religious centers in Najaf."
* "Assassination of imams and preachers of mosques."
Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim and more than 100 of his followers were killed in last month's car bomb massacre at the Najaf shrine he led. Not long before his assassination, he had accepted the U.S. occupation and even sent his brother and deputy, Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, to serve on the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.
The secret directive issued before the war by Saddam's general intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, "is authentic," asserted ret. Lt. Col. Stephen Franke, a former Army intelligence analyst who served as Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's personal Arabic interpreter during the first Gulf war and as a weapons inspector in Iraq after the war.
"I've tracked the various Iraqi intelligence security organizations since '91, and these citations are accurate," he said in an exclusive WorldNetDaily interview. "They're very consistent with the government documents I've reviewed."
Franke, who translated the document from Arabic, notes that other orders on the post-invasion sabotage list have been followed in Iraq by Saddam's loyalists. They include looting and burning government buildings, stockpiling weapons, and destroying water and power installations and other utilities.
"It's the M.O. of everything that's going on," he said.
"It's very similar to orders Hitler promulgated for homeland defense and followed by the Werewolves – the motley guys who wanted to stick around and form paramilitary cells and put up resistance" after the war, Franke added.
Saddam is said to be a fan of Hitler.
Heck, just think of what we would learn if we just bugged a US mosque! Ill tell you this much; all of those who foolishly cling to the notion that Islam is a religion of Peace, will be rightfully horrified by what is preached about America in US mosques..
Gosh, this guy has been reading my posts!
Well, it's a trade-off for whether or not a policy of raiding mosques will cause more or less trouble, isn't it?
I think having Americans conduct the raids will hurt more than it helps. If the raids can be conducted by Iraqis, then it would probably help more than it hurts.
And of course, the real key here is to mount the right sort of PR campaign that pits normal Iraqis against militant mullahs.
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