Posted on 01/02/2004 12:39:57 PM PST by saquin
MOSUL, Iraq - A dozen former leaders of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party have handed in weapons caches in northern Iraq to curry favor with the U.S. military and claim a role in a new Iraqi leadership, the commander of the Army's 101st Airborne Division said. "They're coming to us, saying they want to be part of the new Iraq," Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. "It has slowly sunk in that Saddam isn't coming back."
Separately, the 101st Airborne has paid more than $20,000 in rewards in recent weeks to a black marketeer who has handed in 300 shoulder-fired missiles.
The Baathists who have recently begun to cooperate with the division held positions in the second, third and fourth tiers of the Baath Party, top-level officials banned by the U.S.-led administration from any leadership role in Iraq's government and public institutions. The men have handed over more than 270 AK-47 semiautomatic rifles, as well as rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons.
On Monday, some of the men — whose names have not yet been made public — will publicly renounce their participation in the Baath Party at a regional headquarters of the 101st Airborne's 1st Battalion in Talafar, south of Mosul.
Petraeus said he doubted the former leaders had taken a direct role in aiding the five to 10 anti-U.S. guerrilla cells operating in the region, and he characterized their decision to cooperate with the U.S. military as an opportunistic move to regain stature.
"They were on the fence. I'm not sure whether they were aiding and abetting," Petraeus said. "They were opportunists before and they're still opportunists. They're chameleons."
The series of weapons hand-ins began Dec. 19 in Talafar when, over three days, a third-tier Baathist gave up 65 AK-47s, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and more than a dozen grenade rounds, according to a division data sheet. None of the men requested a reward, Petraeus said.
By Dec. 28, the 101st's 1st Battalion Combat Team had received 267 AK-47s, along with ammunition magazines, a pair of grenade launchers with 15 rounds as well as 15 hand grenades.
On Dec. 31, a second-tier Baath Party member — among the highest-ranking officials in the region from Saddam's former government, handed over seven AK-47s and 14 magazines to the 101st's 3rd Brigade.
The division's 2nd and 3rd battalions have been seeking contacts with other former regime leaders in northern Iraq, trying to convince them to cooperate as well, Petraeus said.
The 101st Airborne has also paid rewards of about $1,200 apiece for intact Russian-made SA-7 missiles with their launch tubes and sights to a black marketeer who has turned in 300 of the shoulder-fired missiles, said division spokesman Maj. Trey Cate.
The division pays smaller rewards for individual components.
The shoulder-launched missiles are among the most feared weapons in Iraq. They have been used to attack U.S. military helicopters and two aircraft taking off from Baghdad International Airport. Iraq's civilian airports remain closed to most commercial air traffic because of the missile threat.
This week the 101st Airborne paid the black marketeer, whose name has not been released, an overdue $22,500 for 270 of the missiles he turned in during previous weeks. When the division halted reward payments because it ran short of cash, the man ceased delivering the weapons, Petraeus said.
"He was a regular turner-inner until we stiffed him," Petraeus said during Thursday's battle update briefing, a daily meeting of the division's leadership.
The black marketeer does not say where he buys the surplus launchers in Iraq, and the division is more interested in simply getting the weapons off the open market than finding out who owned them — and perhaps halting future reward sales, Cate said.
"It's more of a capitalist approach," Cate said. "He's not going to provide services until payment is provided."
I think the locals will take care of that one.
Is this an example of government creating a demand? If the weapons cost $100 apiece, and you're paying $200 for them . . . you're creating a demand.
Once again, the press have it wrong. They are so used to reporting "semi-auto" as it relates to firearms in the U.S. that they don't understand the difference.
Dear press, they are fully automatic in Iraq. Only in the US are they the semi-auto version.
They're hoping to avoid this by turning things in. That's probably the same reason Saddam is singing like a bird.
It has also sunk in, that the non-Baathist locals are actively stalking and killing the upper level Baathists.
Good news PING. Winning the hearts and minds.
More on the suddenly cooperative former leaders of Iraq:
Just trying to survive in the "new" Iraq.
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