Posted on 03/25/2006 6:23:46 PM PST by blam
Saddam planned to deploy 'camels of mass destruction'
By James Langton
(Filed: 26/03/2006)
Saddam Hussein planned to use "camels of mass destruction" as weapons to defend Iraq, loading them with bombs and directing them towards invading forces.
The animals were part of a plan to arm and equip foreign insurgents drawn up by the dictator shortly before the American-led invasion three years ago, reveals a 37-page report, captured after the fall of Baghdad and just released by the Pentagon. It is part of a cache of thousands of documents that the United States Department of Defence says it does not have the resources to translate.
British soldier in Iraq
Earlier this month, the Pentagon released copies in the original Arabic onto the internet in the hope that others would interpret them into English.
Handwritten on official paper, one of the reports appears to be a road map for the insurgency, with detailed instructions for training what it calls suicide bombers.
In the memo, they are described as "estishehadeyeen", Arabic for suicide martyrs, and would almost certainly have been foreign volunteers.
The memo details a training commission to be headed by senior officers, including a colonel from the "Directory of Political Orientation". Their job, says the report, was to "prepare a very intensive training course", "to raise the physical fitness and train in the use of Kalashnikovs and hand grenades".
It continues: "The largest section of the course will be specialised to focus on using the explosive material in the body, in motorcycle, in cars, and in camels". Camels will be "provided by the Directory of General Military Intelligence".
The memo also reveals the incredible bureaucracy that underpinned Saddam's Iraq. Rifles and hand grenades were to be provided by a Department of Armament and Equipping, explosives by the Directory of Military Engineering and "religious sermons that emphasise jihad'' by the Directory of Political Orientation and the Religious Scholars.
The papers have been translated by Arabic-speaking members of Free Republic, a conservative internet discussion forum that believes the documents will justify British and American claims that Saddam had made Iraq a haven for terrorists.
If the translation is correct, it suggests that many of the foreign fighters now attacking coalition forces and bombing Iraqi civilians were directly trained by the Saddam regime, although there are no known reports of camels being used in suicide attacks.
FR - show prep for the msm worldwide. ;o)
Long Live free Republic. The credit goes to our brave troops. God bless them all and God bless America.
Jim, thank you very much.
That one goes back to Gulf War I, IIRC.
OTOH, this one didn't last long, sad to say.
I am your humble freeper :)
Thank you, jveritas! Great job!!
I'd walk a mile for a Camel...and ride him ten for a Lucky Strike!
BTTT
Yeppers...between the Rathergate thing...the wonderful appearances by Kristinn, Trueblackman, mhking, and now jveritas...
Free Republic is gonna be the #1 forum in all the land!!
Congratulations...
...along with donkeys of death, grenade-launching goats, asphyxiating oxen....
My grand-dad used to roll his own with Prince Albert tobacco from a pocket sized can.
Great job humble freeper :)
J deserves a debt of gratitude from all of us...I've been reading his translations
Thank you J
I'll bet he can't even do that OUTSIDE in some cities.
Indeed terrorist group Hizballah started using donkeys and mules in suicide terrorist attacks in the 80's. Most of the terrorist tactics used today were created and developed in Lebanon during its civil war. After we achieve the ultimate victory against the islamic terrorism, and when the history of the war on terror will be written, Lebanon would be identified as "Where everything has started".
Ping, and a toast to jveritas!
Mom did tell me those things would kill ya but I thought it was just from smoking them, not having them go boom!
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