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Intelligence picks up signs Saddam incommunicado with military after attack
AP | 3/20/03 | JOHN J. LUMPKIN

Posted on 03/20/2003 10:04:30 AM PST by kattracks

WASHINGTON, Mar 20, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- U.S. intelligence picked up early signs the Iraqi leadership might be incapacitated or out of communication with military field commanders who failed to muster a coordinated response after a dawn Thursday strike on a suspected Saddam Hussein hideout, government officials said.

The officials, who spoke to The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity, said it was too early to determine whether Saddam and his sons were caught in the dawn attack, but there was growing optimism the strike had left the Iraqi leadership in disarray.

Early intelligence reports suggested Iraq's leadership was not organizing any coordinated response to the U.S attack, suggesting the Iraqi regime might be in chaos or cut off from the military.

There was no coordination in security and military efforts around Baghdad and the rest of the country, the officials said.

Military officials "believe it is significant that there is a lack of coordination and significant resistance to what we did," one official said.

"It's little things here and there. Some individual commanders are hunking down while others are launching small attacks and setting fires," the official said.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said military planners had good reason to believe Iraqi leaders were at the site of the bombing.

"We are in communication with still more people who are officials of the military at various levels - the regular army, the Republican Guard, the Special Republican Guard - who are increasingly aware that it's going to happen, he's going to be gone," Rumsfeld said.

The sources said U.S. intelligence suspected Saddam's sons, Qusai and Odai, may have been with him during the strike on a complex where Iraqi leaders were suspected of sleeping.

Even if Saddam and his sons weren't killed, U.S. officials hoped the surprise attack would leave them distrustful of their inner circle, suspecting betrayal by one of their advisers.

Officials said the surprise attack was the product of a complex operation that benefited from human intelligence, electronic spying, special military operations and changes in technology that permitted military chiefs to quickly reconfigure the cruise missiles for a special, pinpointed attack.

The officials said the attack began with about three dozen cruise missiles that leveled the aboveground structures and which were followed up quickly by Air Force F-117 precision bunker-busting bombs that could penetrate deep into the leadership compound.

---

AP writer John Solomon contributed to this story.

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN Associated Press Writer



TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
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To: Thebaddog
"I don't think Saddam is in the picture anymore."

Neither do I. I saw him bombed with my own eyes. ;-)


41 posted on 03/20/2003 12:14:28 PM PST by Spunky
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To: Spunky
That is the funniest thing I've seen in quite a while. Thanks for that! LMAO.
42 posted on 03/20/2003 12:35:39 PM PST by Pagey (Hillary Rotten is a Smug , Holier-Than-Thou Socialist.)
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To: kattracks
Even if Saddam and his sons weren't killed, U.S. officials hoped the surprise attack would leave them distrustful of their inner circle, suspecting betrayal by one of their advisers.

I've been wondering about this strategy myself, i.e., start flooding the so-called inner circle with rumors about other inner-circle members. Attribute information to them, and then some how make that information come to pass. We can start by broadcasting that we got the whearabouts of the bunker we busted last night by _____ and ______. That oughta liven things up!

43 posted on 03/20/2003 12:44:55 PM PST by 1L
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To: Salvation; All
Did anyone else hear a report that Hussein was possibly wounded in the attack last night?

No

But that is my belief...there doesn't seem to be a power struggle or we would have picked up something in the chatter. A Saddam missing several body parts and perhaps still in surgery would explain this. Barely alive, and in no condition to direct the war.

44 posted on 03/20/2003 12:45:43 PM PST by Lael ("C'mon, George, lets NOT get wobbly in the legs" - Margaret Thatcher to George the First!)
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To: Travis McGee
A great question is why we are permitting Iraqi Bagdad TV to stay on the air.

What I'm wondering is is the Iraqi broadcast communications equipment advanced enough that they can broadcast from anywhere without our being able to pinpoint it. This may sound like a stupid question, but this isn't CNN we are talking about.

45 posted on 03/20/2003 12:48:53 PM PST by 1L
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To: Spunky
Wow, our sateliites are awesome...

;-)

Æ
46 posted on 03/20/2003 12:49:21 PM PST by AgentEcho (If you're in a fair fight you've done something wrong.)
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To: kattracks

47 posted on 03/20/2003 12:49:35 PM PST by js1138
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To: Spunky
Love that movie..NOT
48 posted on 03/20/2003 12:50:15 PM PST by finnman69 (!)
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To: Travis McGee
I wonder if Saddam is going to give his favorite mistresses cyanide

Are you crazy? And have her in the way while he romps with the 72?

49 posted on 03/20/2003 12:58:16 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Someone left the cake out in the rain I dont think that I can take it coz it took so long to bake it)
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To: Travis McGee
I think it's actually more likely that Saddam is already dead, that he did not survive the direct hits by thirty-six cruise missiles and the four 2000-pound bunker buster bombs.

These were armaments calculated to do the job--and then some!

When you think about it, there is actually no reason whatsoever at this point to believe that he is still alive. (The fact that Saddam is incommunicado is potentially significant in that very regard.) The Iraqi's "live broadcast" of Saddam speaking doesn't add up, and we shouldn't count it as having any significance whatsoever.

In fact, several things about the broadcast positively argue that he is probably dead. According to one report I heard on TV, the "live broadcast" shows technical signs of being a videotape. I think the speech was pre-recorded as a generic rant for just such an eventuality. (Come to think of it, this would explain his tone. He was speaking as an unconvincing dead man.)

See my argument at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/870163/posts?page=10#10

See also 15 and 17 on that thread.

50 posted on 03/20/2003 1:27:40 PM PST by the_doc
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To: Travis McGee
I said "we shouldn't count it as having any significance whatsoever," but as the subsequent paragraphs reveal, I should have said "we shouldn't count it as having any reliability whatsoever."
51 posted on 03/20/2003 1:35:33 PM PST by the_doc
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To: Billthedrill
I guess you could put it that way. Body parts all over the place. "A certain young lady named Alice / Used a dynamite stick for a phallus..."

She had nothing to loose

So she lit up the fuse

And her insides were spread all about us.......

52 posted on 03/20/2003 1:43:01 PM PST by thepainster
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To: finnman69
"Love that movie..NOT"

And why NOT?

53 posted on 03/20/2003 1:51:22 PM PST by Spunky
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To: Travis McGee
Amen, Brother Travis, Now for the first time, the Iraqis have seen him as a tired, old, beaten nobody counting his final hours. Even alive, this is great psyops against him.

Which is why we haven't seen a tape of him for about 5+ years.

54 posted on 03/20/2003 1:58:58 PM PST by Grampa Dave (Stamp out Freepathons! Stop being a Freep Loader! Become a monthly donor!)
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To: rageaholic
when was this guy ever in touch with his military?

That's right. Not on his best day.

55 posted on 03/20/2003 2:01:55 PM PST by RightWhale (Theorems link concepts: Proofs establish links)
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To: the_doc
Naw, he's still alive...Arafat and Saddam are harder to kill than a sewer rat.
56 posted on 03/20/2003 2:04:35 PM PST by Cuttnhorse
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To: Cuttnhorse; Travis McGee
Well, maybe he's still alive. But the speech didn't look live. For that matter, he certainly didn't look wounded or even scratched.

(I think the Iraqis messed up by "admitting" that Saddam was wounded and then pretending that the broadcast was live. The apparent discrepancies in the account suggest to me that the Iraqis are just plain lying about Saddam's status.)

57 posted on 03/20/2003 2:15:18 PM PST by the_doc
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To: Travis McGee
Good theory.
58 posted on 03/20/2003 2:18:15 PM PST by ambrose
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To: the_doc
Time will tell!
59 posted on 03/20/2003 3:20:55 PM PST by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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