Senior Iraqi tipped off CIA about Saddam -

News 24 ^ | 23/03/2003 22:57 | Staff and news service reports

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

New York - A senior Iraqi official tipped off the CIA, telling Washington where Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be sleeping on the eve of the war, Newsweek magazine reports.

After months of US intelligence groundwork, the magazine quoted an unnamed "knowledgeable intelligence source" as saying Delta Force, the secret commando group, "managed to tap Saddam's underground phone lines in Baghdad.

"The real break came when the CIA managed to recruit an asset, a senior Iraqi official in a position to know Saddam's greatest vulnerability: where he sleeps each night," the news weekly added in its report due on news stands on Monday.

"Saddam, who had stayed alive and in power for more than three decades by never sleeping in one place for long, had to trust at least a few bodyguards. He made the rare mistake of relying on one henchman who was more afraid of the United States than he was of Saddam Hussein," the report says.

'Balance of fear'

"The Iraqi official 'weighed the balance of fear,' a senior administration official told Newsweek. "The Iraqi turncoat told his intelligence handlers that on the night of March 19, Saddam, probably accompanied by his sons Uday and Qusay, was sleeping in a bunker beneath a nondescript house in a residential area of Baghdad."

"At the CIA, Director George Tenet got the tip shortly before 23:00 Baghdad time ... Tenet raced to the Pentagon, bursting in on Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as he met with his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. The air war - the astonishing first wave of "shock and awe," hundreds of warheads raining down on Baghdad - was scheduled to begin the next night. But here was a chance to end the war before it even began. If Saddam and his henchmen could be killed in a "decapitating strike," hundreds and maybe thousands of lives could be saved.

Tenet, Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff chair General Richard Myers went to meet President George W Bush, who "considered but rejected the argument that Saddam be given until 03:00 (SA time) to respond to the ultimatum that he leave Iraq or face the consequences."

'Let's go'

"At Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar, General Tommy Franks ordered two F-117 stealth fighters, each carrying two 2 000-pound bunker busters, into the air from their bases in Qatar. At 19:12, President Bush said, 'Let's go.'," the report adds.

"The planes slipped through; their bombs struck home at about 05:30 Baghdad time," Newsweek reported.

"The CIA's spy, who was somewhere outside the bunker, reported that Saddam was inside. There were reports of rescue workers furiously digging in the rubble and that Saddam had been wounded.

But was Saddam still alive?

The CIA's spy didn't know or couldn't say."

[scott7278]

I hope this guy doesn't die for this information coming out...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I believe this is a South Africa source.

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[ClancyJ]

Sounds like a little tweaking to me to further paranoidize Saddam.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Here is an earlier story on this:

MOLES LED WAY TO ‘HIT' SADDAM

[rightisright]

Ho boy would I hate to be one (any) of his bodyguards. I think this one is less believeable than the "ear-print" from yesterday.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See link at post #5.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ear-print?

[Professional]

When was the last time we saw the typical faces surrounding Saddam's long table of cronies?

[Bogey78O]

Hmmm..this coiuld jive with the rumor that there's been a request for a surgeon to come from Russia to help a top official.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That was an interesting thread alright:

SOS for Saddam surgeon

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

No way to know what is a pre recorded tape and an actual view on the Iraqi Network!

[Bogey78O]

I just want to see him reference a current event. Like the POWs or the battle for Basra. None of this generic "today is Tuesday" BS

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Foxnews just raised the same issues .

They thought this Statement was to be done in about 40 minutes!

[The Raven]

I wish they would have followed the initial strike with another blast when they were bringing him out on a stretcher.

[Claire Voyant]

Could the senior Iraqi official be Tariq Aziz??? Just a hunch.

[kcvl]

Saddam is believed to have suffered abdominal injuries when cruise missiles scored a direct hit on his bunker on Day One of the war last Thursday.

British intelligence chiefs say that he was hauled from the rubble and whisked away in an ambulance hours after the sudden strike that launched Operation Iraqi Freedom.

They are convinced he underwent a major operation and a blood transfusion. And at one stage thought he may be dead.

But last night experts at GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham intercepted a message which suggests he is still alive — but in need of treatment the Iraqis cannot provide.

A senior government source told The Sun: “They requested urgent medical assistance for a senior government official who was injured.

“Saddam’s name was not mentioned during the conversation — but there is little doubt it was him they were talking about.

“They said he was not critically injured but demanded urgent treatment because he had lost blood and could get worse. This regime wouldn’t go to that trouble for anybody else — including members of his family.”

[8mmMauser]

When the surgeon is sent home, when the taxidermist is fired, and a panicked call is made to the wax museum, we will know more about his health.

[slambid]

I agree wholeheartedly.....but, that's all right!

[eureka!]

bttt