Rumsfeld said that there had been communications between the Americans and leaders in the Republican Guard in Iraq. He said that the details could not be disclosed now, but urged listeners to wait for coming days.Posted on 04/17/2003 7:33:16 AM PDT by bert
The Deal
Walid Rabbah, exclusive.
ONE day after the start of the war against Iraq American Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on American television screens to say something that the press interpreted as some sort of American propaganda. In reality, though, it was the basis for what was later to take place.
Rumsfeld said that there had been communications between the Americans and leaders in the Republican Guard in Iraq. He said that the details could not be disclosed now, but urged listeners to wait for coming days.
Three days later the American media played an audio tape on which recorded voices could be heard speaking in Arabic guiding American forces to important bombing targets. The voices were translated immediately in the headquarters of the American forces so that orders could be issued accordingly.
In fact, Rumsfeld was not just talking at random. There had been communications that took place in total secrecy between the leaders of the Republican Guard and the Commanders of Saddam's Fedayeen, unbeknownst to the Iraqi leader and his son who was in charge of a huge military organization that could have made life hell for the American forces had they joined the battle.
The communications grew in intensity after the Republican Guard entered its first battle against the American forces in the environs of Baghdad, and after much of its equipment was destroyed. The Americans could see that they were facing a force with high military preparedness, one that was well trained and could inflict tremendous losses on the American forces whenever they tried to enter Baghdad.
The offer proposed by the American command in Iraq to the Republican Guard and Saddam's Fedayeen was generous. The offers were run past Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who okayed them immediately. The provided for:
1. In return for not opposing American forces and for laying down their weapons, the United States will give the following:
2. As a guarantee of this (which the commanders of the Republican Guard did not completely trust), the United States disclosed some of its agents whom it had planted among the "human shields" who were guiding the American military to positions to be bombed and where President Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi leadership could be found. A brief meeting was held between one of the agents serving as a "human shield" and some members of the Republican Guard during which the latter were handed official written documents addressed to the first echelon of the Republican Guard. These reassured the Republican Guard commanders that the assurances were reliable. The documents provided for:
From the beginning, the heads of the American Central Intelligence Agency followed a plan to use the work of agents posing as "human shields." The CIA chiefs used peace activists in America carefully and systematically. They sent three groups of peace activists to the region, and in particular into Baghdad on the basis that that would be the place where the decisive battle would be fought.
The deception worked with the Iraqi leaders who placed different groups of human shields in important places such as: factories and manufactories that had great importance for the population. Storehouses of weapons belonging to the Republican Guard were located inside those factories and manufactories, and this fact was openly acknowledged. But inside, hidden under ground, there were huge stockpiles of weapons sufficient for waging a resistance struggle for years. These were ostensibly civilian installations but on the inside were military. These included centers where rockets were gathered for destruction under the UN supervised program, while some of them were stored in underground military storehouses.
The Iraqi measures, whereby they distributed the human shields to vital locations, was in fact a trap set for the Iraqis, for the human shields carried difficult-to-detect delicate communication devices for communicating with the American forces during the bombing. It later became clear that these devices played an outstanding role in pinpointing the positions of Saddam and his leaders, as well as places where weapons were being stored.
The occupation of Saddam International Airport was a turning point inasmuch as it enabled the American forces to carry out their entire plan as it had been detailed in the documents that they had been given and as they had been promised. The commanders of the Republican Guard were reassured, in particular those of the first echelon, that what the American forces had promised them was the truth. The Republican Guard commanders then provided complete information about the various military positions around the airport and inside of it. They also gave complete information about the tunnels that extended from the Republican Palace to inside the airport, tunnels that had been built especially so that the Iraqi president could use them should he ever be in danger. American forces occupied these tunnels, unknown to any but the first echelon of the Republican Guard.
On the second day after the occupation of the airport Muhammad Sa`id as-Sahhaf assured the world that Saddam International Airport was still in the hands of the Iraqi forces. He based his assurances on a promise of an "innovative and unusual" sort of response, as he put it, when Iraqi fighters and Republican Guards would sweep from the palace through the tunnels and on towards the airport in a surprise attack on the American forces occupying the airport. He did not know even as he spoke that American forces had discovered the location of those secure tunnels and that they would confront the small numbers of Iraqis who were sent there, under the leadership of third echelon commanders of the Republican Guard, and who would find the Americans waiting for them.
Time at that difficult juncture was golden. The American forces saw that the road had opened up to Baghdad, so they carried out two essential operations simultaneously:
The first operation: to introduce tanks to the approaches of Baghdad from where they would penetrate to the area of the Palestine Hotel, on condition that they would not cross the bridge to the opposite bank. This occurred after they were sure that orders had been issued to the Republican Guard to disappear in accordance with the "secret plan" to which the first echelon commanders had already alerted their junior officers.
The second operation: to prepare a military transport plane of at least 200 seats to transport the first echelon commanders of the Republican Guard and some members of the second echelon to secure locations.
The orders given to the American soldiers who advanced to secure a bridgehead for the rest of their forces were as follows:
Third: To shell the satellite dishes on the roof of the Palestine Hotel. It was here where the al-Jazeera journalist Tariq Ayyoub was martyred. Fourth: To deal with the limited resistance in the area of the bridge with small arms rather than with artillery bombardment because some of the second echelon the Republican Guard were too late to reach the appointed meeting places in time and might possibly have to reach the coalition forces by crossing the Sanak Bridge.
The American military aircraft took off from Saddam International airport at 8:00 p.m. on the third day of the occupation of the airport. Some sources in the American command maintain that the plane flew directly to the United States, via Germany. Others say that it took them by way of Kuwait. What is certain, however, is the fact that they left for the United States. At the same time two helicopters were whisking the second echelon commanders of the Republican Guard to Basra where they were met by British forces.
Happier times:
When Saddam secretly met Rumsfeld
The Fate of Saddam Hussein
Some American political sources maintain that those secret communications between Republican Guard commanders and the Americans took place according to American instructions that were issued to the Republican Guard leaders so as to prevent their being detected. The most modern technology was used, including tiny transmitter-receiver devices that had been given to the Republican Guard Commanders in their first meeting with the Human Shields. This is the secret of how they kept Saddam Hussein in the dark about their contacts.
The final task of the Republican Guard Commanders gathered at the airport was to give the important information about the location of the Iraqi president and his leadership in what was to be their last meeting in al-Mansour. This information enabled the American forces to aim at the place where the meeting was being held and strike it with guided missiles. Most probably the Iraqi President and his leadership, including his two sons, were killed in the bombardment. None of the leadership was saved from that attack except Muhammad Sa`id as-Sahhaf, the Information Minister, whose whereabouts are still unknown. He alone among the members of the leadership was out of the area at the time of the attack, which came shortly after he delivered a press statement in front of the Palestine Hotel that day.
The American Authorities have kept quiet about the whereabouts of Saddam's family, in particular the women and children among them, although they know where they are, and whether they are living or dead. There are some reports that they are in Syria. Others have said that they slipped away to Tikrit. In fact, however, the American forces bombed the location where the family was staying and were able to catch the whole family together after they slipped away to the place where the President's half-brother Barzan at-Tikriti was staying. When his house near Baghdad was bombed the family was wiped out.
A Final Word: This information was leaked by American sources. Nevertheless, it should be more than 75 percent true because it originated with political and not military personnel.
One question remains: Where did those mountains of weapons go? Where did the forces who "melted away" into the angry Iraqi population go?But one major question remains open. If they did not find the bodies of Saddam, his leaders and his two sons, the matter remains a source of embarrassment. Coming weeks will no doubt provide us much more information
Nice disclaimer.
If true than old BB was the sharpist knife in the Baathist draw.
From a propaganda perspective this feeds into Arab self-delisions about their inherent abilities and need for moral purity.
If this is all true then the disclosure of WMD might be a contingent part of the deal and parties on both sides are waiting for full compliance before disclosing.
Second, I guess will not be able to use the "human shield" trojan horse again soon. (Any chance the shields in Israel are maybe agents ? )
Except if you scratch a little deeper its obvious the "betrayal" was only necessary because of certain defeat.
Yeah, I thought the comments about the Rep. Guard causing a 'living hell' for the US military were a bit over the top. The battles that did take place were a turkey shoot. ( No offense to Turks...)
Only two seats in that ride, kids.
This story's implicit stance is that the "valiant Arab forces" would have defeated the US Army and Marines, but that they were sold out by venal bosses.
We know that in reality committed Iraqi commanders were losing hundreds of soldiers a day to desertion.
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