A trusted lieutenant of Hussein, who ultimately pointed U.S. interrogators to the former president's hideout, was one of at least five brothers in Hussein's inner circle, Army officers said. Though U.S. officials have not released the informant's name, they described him as a senior officer in Hussein's elite Special Security Organization with roots in the village of Abu Ajeel, just north of Tikrit.
A longtime confidant, this senior security official emerged as Hussein's "right arm" after U.S. forces captured Hussein's personal secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmud Tikriti, in June, a U.S. military officer said. Tikriti was not replaced, and his duties as Hussein's de facto chief of staff were divided among those in the inner circle, in particular the senior security official and his brothers. The official served as a direct liaison between Hussein and the broader resistance organization.
Hussein himself was a rallying symbol, an irreplaceable "icon," according to Col. James Hickey, whose 1st Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division captured him. But U.S. commanders said they had no evidence that the former president, who moved from one safe house to another and rarely stayed longer than a week in one place, played a role in directing the insurgency.
The loyalists with access to Hussein numbered no more than 40, including those who cooked for him and the drivers who transported him between his estimated 30 hideaways in aging taxis, pickups and riverboats, according to U.S. intelligence estimates.
These inner-circle loyalists, largely middle-aged men referred to by U.S. officers as the "42-inch waistband guys," usually insulate themselves from capture by keeping their distance from attacks on U.S. and allied troops. To avoid detection, they rarely travel with weapons or large amounts of money, slipping to clandestine meetings at modest farmhouses and nondescript cafes.
Their underlings are trusted members of their own families, which can number in the hundreds because men in this region of Iraq frequently take more than one wife and may father more than a dozen children.
Below the top tier are the mid-level operatives who organize specific attacks on U.S. and allied forces, providing arms and arranging financing. At the lowest level are the fighters, who U.S. officials said carry out the ambushes, prepare bombs and fire mortars in return for payments of $250 to $1,000, getting bonuses when they succeed in causing casualties.
Now wait just one minute....I don't know how to take that!