Intelligence picks up signs Saddam incommunicado with military after attack

AP | 3/20/03 | JOHN J. LUMPKIN

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON, Mar 20, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- U.S. intelligence picked up early signs the Iraqi leadership might be incapacitated or out of communication with military field commanders who failed to muster a coordinated response after a dawn Thursday strike on a suspected Saddam Hussein hideout, government officials said.

The officials, who spoke to The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity, said it was too early to determine whether Saddam and his sons were caught in the dawn attack, but there was growing optimism the strike had left the Iraqi leadership in disarray.

Early intelligence reports suggested Iraq's leadership was not organizing any coordinated response to the U.S attack, suggesting the Iraqi regime might be in chaos or cut off from the military.

There was no coordination in security and military efforts around Baghdad and the rest of the country, the officials said.

Military officials "believe it is significant that there is a lack of coordination and significant resistance to what we did," one official said.

"It's little things here and there. Some individual commanders are hunking down while others are launching small attacks and setting fires," the official said.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said military planners had good reason to believe Iraqi leaders were at the site of the bombing.

"We are in communication with still more people who are officials of the military at various levels - the regular army, the Republican Guard, the Special Republican Guard - who are increasingly aware that it's going to happen, he's going to be gone," Rumsfeld said.

The sources said U.S. intelligence suspected Saddam's sons, Qusai and Odai, may have been with him during the strike on a complex where Iraqi leaders were suspected of sleeping.

Even if Saddam and his sons weren't killed, U.S. officials hoped the surprise attack would leave them distrustful of their inner circle, suspecting betrayal by one of their advisers.

Officials said the surprise attack was the product of a complex operation that benefited from human intelligence, electronic spying, special military operations and changes in technology that permitted military chiefs to quickly reconfigure the cruise missiles for a special, pinpointed attack.

The officials said the attack began with about three dozen cruise missiles that leveled the aboveground structures and which were followed up quickly by Air Force F-117 precision bunker-busting bombs that could penetrate deep into the leadership compound.

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AP writer John Solomon contributed to this story.

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN Associated Press Writer

[Enterprise]

"If we know Saddam is in Communicado, then why don't we go get him?"

Standby. The coordinates of Communicado are just now being targeted.

[Coop]

Okay. Thanks a lot.

[King David]

If Saddam is still alive, now might be a good time for him to call Mohamar Khaddafi to figure out the proper behavior after a bomb is dropped on your head.

[RoseofTexas]

I have a problem with the SADdemon is alive notion! First of all the second video where they show him with his top brass, seems like an earlier film before the attack. They just look too damn calm, and second, don't you think he would have addressed his people by saying something like: Yesterday evening the DOGS of satan TRIED to kill your president etcetcetc...What I'm trying to say is, he would have said something to make the US look stupid for missing the target. You know what I mean?

[Jambe]

If we know Saddam is in Communicado, then why don't we go get him?

Man, do you know how many of those Communicado things are on the road? We don't even know the color or license plate number!

[Tijeras_Slim]

I don't think Saddam is in the picture anymore.

Think Jackson Pollock.

[ffusco]

splat!

[homeagain balkansvet]

Operation Desert Bris with the USAF as chief mohel

[Salvation]

Did anyone else hear a report that Hussein was possibly wounded in the attack last night?

[Salvation]

Did anyone else hear a report that Hussein was possibly wounded in the attack last night?

[Redleg Duke]

"The officials said the attack began with about three dozen cruise missiles that leveled the aboveground structures and which were followed up quickly by Air Force F-117 precision bunker-busting bombs that could penetrate deep into the leadership compound."

That sure beats firing a cruise missile at a tent and hitting a camel in the butt!

[Cuttnhorse]

I think you are right Travis...he did survive. But I have this mental image of him wandering around with both eyes crossed, bleeding from the ears, and looking for clean underwear.

[Defiant]

And David Westerfield is innocent, too, right?

[TheHeterodoxConservative]

"That sure beats firing a cruise missile at a tent and hitting a camel in the butt!"

That was my first thought, too. LOL

[Travis McGee]

LOL! Or worse!

[Argus]

I had heard about our military "taking over" Iraqi TV and radio transmissions, and while I was watching that Survivor Saddam episode last night, I kept hoping that some 19-year-old Army hacker would find a way to morph Beavis and Butthead or Homer Simpson onto the screen with him.

[tracer]

"Kohn yoo heer me nohw??"

[Zack Nguyen]

[Snicker.]

[Travis McGee]

"Stay Tuned!" LOL!

[ARCADIA]

Although [Saddam] survived, his C&C facilties did not, which is why they had to make a cheesy camcorder tape of him for television. A runner had to take the tape from the bunker to a surviving TV station for airing.

Also: even alive, to the Iraqi people his image is now shattered. Saddam always appears on posters and on TV as a vital studly vigorous take-charge man of about 50. Now for the first time, the Iraqis have seen him as a tired, old, beaten nobody counting his final hours. Even alive, this is great psyops against him.

I think this hits the nail on the head. Great sum up of the situation.

Dramatic change is appearance!! Make-up and lighting can do so much. This is what Saddam really looks like.