Free Republic

<p>BAGHDAD — U.S. and Iraqi forces captured more than 100 insurgency suspects in raids across the country, arresting a former Iraqi general and another Iraqi thought involved in a suicide bombing last month, the U.S. command said yesterday.</p> <p>Insurgents lobbed a mortar shell at a checkpoint near the airport in Baghdad yesterday, killing a U.S. soldier and wounding another, the command said.</p>

<p>Saddam Hussein (search) had weapons of mass destruction and his army was capable of firing them off in less than 45 minutes, according to statements from an Iraqi colonel.</p> <p>Lt. Col. al-Dabbagh told the London Telegraph that cases of WMD warheads were shipped under cover of darkness to front-line units, including his own, near the end of 2002, in a report published in Sunday editions.</p>

Iraqi Officers: Al Qaida Operatives Were Trained For War Near Baghdad (Trained For 911 By Iraq - Take That Rats!!) Saudi nationals helped Saddam Hussein recruit and finance Al Qaida insurgents as part of preparations to confront U.S. troops in Iraq. Iraqi officers who have been interrogated by the United States and coalition officials reported the Saudi role in recruiting and training of Al Qaida units in Iraq. The officers said Saddam, through Saudi contacts, had invited Al Qaida insurgents to form suicide and other units to stop the U.S. military in March. Saddam's contacts with Al Qaida, the officers...

Saudi nationals helped Saddam Hussein recruit and finance Al Qaida insurgents to confront U.S. troops in Iraq. Iraqi officers who have been interrogated by the United States and coalition officials said Saddam's contacts with Al Qaida preceded the group's Sept. 11, 2001 strikes on New York and Washington. They said Saudi envoys helped Al Qaida insurgents to enter Iraq and begin training in camps around Baghdad.

BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces arrested a former top officer in Saddam Hussein's once-feared security services suspected of directing anti-American attacks north of Baghdad, U.S. officers said on Monday. The man, a major-general in the former intelligence department, was detained during overnight searches in the town of Baquba, 40 miles north of the capital, they said. Dozens of people were arrested in similar raids on towns in mainly Sunni Muslim central Iraq, the scene of the fiercest armed resistance to U.S. occupation and where Saddam still enjoys wide support. Hundreds of Iraqis suspected of ties to the insurgents have...

TIKRIT, Iraq - After raiding two farmhouses, the soldiers had found no sign of Saddam Hussein. Under a moonless sky on Saturday night, they began combing the palm groves and orange orchards, then moved on to the open, furrowed fields.   Once again, it was beginning to look as if Iraq´s most wanted man had eluded them. An informant, a confidant of Hussein whom they had brought along on the operation, had led them to that farm on the Tigris River. Now he pointed them to the very spot where Hussein was hiding in an underground chamber, according to soldiers...

<p>LONDON — Chinese military advisers played a key role in helping Iraqi air defenses withstand coalition air strikes in the months preceding Operation Iraqi Freedom, an Iraqi colonel says.</p> <p>Lt. Col. al-Dabbagh, whose revelations about Saddam Hussein's battlefield weapons of mass destruction capabilities were revealed exclusively last week in the Sunday Telegraph, said he worked with a number of Chinese air-defense specialists during 2002 and the early part of this year to devise methods to stop coalition air strikes from destroying Iraq's air defenses.</p>

AN Iraqi officer has identified himself as the source for a British claim about Saddam Hussein's weapons that sparked a controversy marked by the death of a British government arms expert. The Sunday Telegraph said Lt Col al-Dabbagh identified himself as the source for the British government's assertion that Iraq could have deployed chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of a decision to do so. The paper gave the officer's surname only, citing fears for his safety if he was fully identified. Prime Minister Tony Blair's office declined comment on the newspaper report, which featured in...

The truth, at last(Filed: 07/12/2003) "The West should thank God that the Iraqi army decided not to fight," Lt Col Dabbagh tells the Telegraph's intrepid Con Coughlin in today's newspaper. "If the army had used these weapons there would have been terrible consequences." The weapons Col Dabbagh was referring to are Saddam Hussein's stocks of chemical and biological warheads. A senior officer at the heart of Saddam's armed forces, the colonel was the conduit of the now-infamous claim in the intelligence dossier which Tony Blair presented to Parliament and to the country: the claim that Saddam had the capacity to...

Top Saddam general shot dead From correspondents in Baghdad 06Dec03 GUNMEN shot dead today a former secret police general who had been in charge of western Baghdad under ousted strongman Saddam Hussein, a witness told said. General Khalaf Alussi died at his home under a hail of bullets fired by four men, said Wissam Idan, a 24-year-old building worker at the house in the capital's al-Yarmuk area. The general, who died on the spot, headed the feared secret police in the al-Kharkh district on the west bank of the Tigris river. At the hospital where the body was taken, his...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 December 3, 2003Release Number: 03-12-07 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEMBER OF FORMER REGIME CAPTURED AL FALLUJAH, Iraq—Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, conducted a cordon and search mission early Wednesday morning to capture former regime elements in Fallujah. Soldiers detained Brig. Gen. Daham Al Mahemdi during this operation. At his home, two AK-47s, five AK-47 magazines, a 9mm pistol, a 9mm pistol magazine, a shotgun, one 100 round drum of ammunition and assorted documents, including a...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 82 AD CAPTURES FORMER SADDAM HUSSEIN BODYGUARD AR RAMADI, Iraq – Elements of the 82nd Airborne Division successfully raided a house north of Ar Ramadi as part of ongoing operations in the area to capture individuals involved in anti-coalition activities. Elements of the 1st Battalion, 16th Mechanized Infantry Regiment, conducted a raid on a house north of Ar Ramadi suspected of insurgent activity. At approximately 3:00am, the unit established a cordon of the area and entered the house, capturing four Iraqi personnel. Brig. Gen. Khalid Arak Hatimy, a former bodyguard of Saddam Hussein, was one of the...

US troops in Iraq have captured two former Iraqi army generals in the town of Falluja, US officials have said. Military sources said the pair are believed to have financed and organised anti-coalition fighters in the area, west of Baghdad. The Pentagon, meanwhile, has announced plans to send thousands of additional troops to Iraq early next year. But, defence officials said the number of US troops currently serving in Iraq could be reduced by next May. Falluja raided Military officials said the generals were captured by paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division in an early morning raid in Falluja, about...

Raids Net Iraqi Generals in Fallujah By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2003 – U.S. service members captured two Iraqi generals suspected of being the money behind terrorist activities in Fallujah, Combined Joint Task Force 7 officials said today. Troopers from the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry, conducted the raids. Coalition officials said there were a number of raids across the country. DoD officials said the raids are part of regular, ongoing operations to secure and stabilize Iraq. "We conduct these raids whenever we have actionable intelligence," said a DoD official. "We treat all tips as...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 November 5, 2003Release Number: 03-11-01 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FORMER IRAQI GENERALS DETAINED, WEAPONS CACHE DISCOVERED Al FALLUJAH, Iraq – Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, captured two former Iraqi Army general officers in an early morning raid in Fallujah Nov. 4. The two generals are suspected of being key financiers and organizers of anti-coalition fighters operating in and around the city of Fallujah. Also, soldiers from 1-16 Infantry, attached to the 82nd Airborne Division, discovered...

<p>BAGHDAD -- Iraq's armed forces virtually evaporated during the war in March and April because of a confused and often ineffectual command structure, which oversaw hundreds of thousands of disaffected soldiers who had no idea of the battle plan. After decades of dictatorship, the war was fought with little gusto by anyone other than Saddam Hussein's inner circle, former Iraqi officers say.</p>

U.S. seizes Iraqi Republican Guard chief By D'ARCY DORAN Associated Press TIKRIT, Iraq - American soldiers rounded up 14 members of a family said to be a pillar of support for Saddam Hussein in raids Tuesday, including a Republican Guard officer and one of the deposed dictator's bodyguards. West of Baghdad, guerrillas attacked an American convoy with three roadside bombs, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding two. But the commander of American forces told The Associated Press the stakes are too high to let casualties deter the mission of pacifying Iraq. "Every American needs to believe this: that if we...

The Associated Press TIKRIT, Iraq Aug. 12 — American soldiers rounded up 14 members of a family said to be a pillar of support for Saddam Hussein in raids Tuesday, including a Republican Guard officer and one of the deposed dictator's bodyguards. West of Baghdad, guerrillas attacked an American convoy with three roadside bombs, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding two. But the commander of American forces told The Associated Press the stakes are too high to let casualties deter the mission of pacifying Iraq. "Every American needs to believe this: that if we fail here in this environment, the...

U.S. Moved to Undermine Iraqi Military Before War By DOUGLAS JEHL with DEXTER FILKINS ASHINGTON, Aug. 9 — The United States military, the Central Intelligence Agency and Iraqi exiles began a broad covert effort inside Iraq at least three months before the war to forge alliances with Iraqi military leaders and persuade commanders not to fight, say people involved in the effort. Even after the war began, the Bush administration received word that top officials of the Iraqi government, most prominently the defense minister, Gen. Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Tai, might be willing to cooperate to bring the war to a...

Iraq Had Secret Labs, Officer Says Goal was to someday rebuild chemical and biological weapons, general alleges. By Bob Drogin Times Staff Writer June 8, 2003 BAGHDAD -- Saddam Hussein's intelligence services set up a network of clandestine cells and small laboratories after 1996 with the goal of someday rebuilding illicit chemical and biological weapons, according to a former senior Iraqi intelligence officer. The officer, who held the rank of brigadier general, said each closely guarded weapons team had three or four scientists and other experts who were unknown to U.N. inspectors. He said they worked on computers and conducted...