Posted on 03/11/2003 7:03:30 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
Anti-Hussein messages, secret missions part of psychological warfare
By Richard Whittle, The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON - The message in Arabic crackles over the radio waves above Iraq, beamed down by a U.S. Air Force EC-130 "Commando Solo" aircraft:
"Soldiers of Iraq. Since the beginning of time, there has been no profession more honorable than that of a soldier. ... Saddam has tarnished this legacy. ... Do not let Saddam tarnish the reputation of soldiers any longer. ... Make the decision."
No bombs have fallen on Baghdad yet, but U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf are busily "preparing the battlefield," as military experts put it, for war. The psychological warfare waged by Commando Solo aircraft is only a small part of efforts that include increased retaliation against Iraqi defenses in the no-fly zones and clandestine missions by special operations units.
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently acknowledged indirectly that U.S. personnel already have been in Iraq. "He didn't classify them as DOD [Department of Defense] or another agency," noted a Pentagon official who deals with intelligence matters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Michael Vickers, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran who also was a CIA special operations officer in the 1980s, said liaison teams have been sent into northern Iraq to work with Kurdish militias that are expected to play a role in a war.
The Kurds operate with relative freedom thanks to the no-fly zones enforced by U.S. and British warplanes in the northern and southern portions of Iraq.
Night patrols
Special operations teams of four to six men, or at most a dozen, also have been flying into the western Iraqi desert by cover of night to scout sites Iraq might use to launch Scud missiles, Mr. Vickers ventured. "They typically would insert by helicopter," he said. "They may have all-terrain vehicles."
The reconnaissance teams may return to secret bases in neighboring countries before sunrise. Or they may wait out daylight in "hide sites" – holes in the sand or cover provided by the terrain. Equipped with night-vision goggles, they emerge after sundown to conduct their ghostlike reconnaissance patrols.
The battlefield is also being prepared in more visible ways.
U.S. and British planes enforcing the no-fly zones have dramatically picked up the tempo of retaliatory strikes against Iraqi air defenses that fire on them – especially in the south.
The number of such strikes in the last four months was greater than the previous eight months combined in the southern no-fly zone – the direction from which most U.S. and allied aircraft would approach Iraq in a war.
Strikes picking up
Coalition aircraft struck Iraqi air defenses in southern Iraq six times in October. The rate nearly doubled in November and December to 11 times each month, then rose to 12 strikes in January and 15 in February. The quality of the strikes also has changed, with command, control and communications elements of Iraqi air defenses often targeted rather than guns or missiles that fire on coalition aircraft.
Four times in the last month, U.S. planes also have bombed surface-to-surface missiles that Iraq had moved within range of Kuwait, where more than 100,000 American troops have been deployed for a potential invasion from the south.
The Frog-7 short-range surface-to-surface missiles posed a threat to U.S. troops gathered in Kuwait for a possible invasion of Iraq. "So we have struck," Gen. Myers said.
As the military buildup in the Persian Gulf reached a crescendo last week, U.S. commanders also more than doubled the number of aircraft flying patrols over the no-fly zones – a step partly aimed at making it harder for Iraqi defenders to detect the start of a war, if President Bush orders one.
Warning leaflets
U.S. planes also have been dropping hundreds of thousands of colorful leaflets on Iraq nearly every day that carry messages similar to those beamed down by Commando Solo aircraft. Some warn Iraqi civilians to stay away from military equipment and installations. "Coalition forces do not wish to harm the noble people of Iraq. To ensure your safety, avoid areas occupied by military personnel."
Some echo Commando Solo broadcasts that seek to incite hatred of the Iraqi leader:
"People of Iraq. The standard of living for Iraqis has dropped drastically since Saddam came into power. Every night, children go to sleep hungry in Iraq. The sick suffer from ailments that are easily treatable in the rest of the world. ... How much longer will this corrupt rule be allowed to exploit and oppress the Iraqi people?"
And like Commando Solo broadcasts aimed at Iraqi troops, some leaflets urge Iraqi soldiers to "Leave now and go home." The most recent have included admonitions to Iraqi military leaders to disobey any orders to use chemical or biological weapons against U.S. troops.
Similar messages have been e-mailed to Iraqi commanders. Such "spamming" is "just a more sophisticated way of leaflet dropping," said the Pentagon official who deals with intelligence.
The goal of the leaflets, broadcasts and e-mails, the official said, is "to get into the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and the regular army."
U.S. military planners assume that Iraq's Republican Guard and the Special Republican Guard that protects President Saddam Hussein will fight. But based on the waves of regular Iraqi soldiers who surrendered during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, they hope to induce as many as possible to do the same again.
"The leaflets, the broadcasts, are to try to get – if there is a conflict – to keep the worst case from happening," Gen. Myers said.
"Apparently they're having some effect," he added, "because we understand the Iraqi regime tells the populace that these leaflets are coated with chemicals and are actually out there picking them up with chemical suits on and gloves."
Messages warning noncombatants to stay away from military targets are one way U.S. leaders hope to lower civilian casualties.
"It is very important, no matter what we do militarily, that we not create a situation where, after the war, you lose the peace," explained a senior Central Command official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"Maintaining the ability for a country to grow and flourish and have an economy after any military operation is important, and you do that by ensuring that collateral damage is kept to a minimum," the official added.
Gen. Myers denied that the battlefield preparation means Mr. Bush has decided to go to war. "Absolutely not," he said.
Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that while he believed the Bush administration "some time ago decided it was in all likelihood going to go to war," the psychological warfare and other steps being taken don't mean war is inevitable.
"You have to be ready, and the military pieces are coming together," Mr. Levin said.
Mr. Vickers, however, said that the "leaflets and the Special Forces operations and the e-mails to Iraqi commanders, all that is properly classified as preparation of the battle space for war – things you do to get ready, that we wouldn't be doing otherwise.
"Is this a transition to war? Yes."
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