Havens offered to Iraqi defectors

Washington Post via MSNBC ^ | 3/22/03 | Dana Priest and Walter Pincus

[browardchad]

In an intensified effort to divide Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from his inner circle, U.S. military and intelligence officers in recent days have communicated with some Iraqi commanders and have secretly designated buildings in the capital for defectors to occupy, promising they will not be targeted by U.S. airstrikes, senior U.S. officials said yesterday.

U.S. military and intelligence officers have also gained promises from some Iraqi commanders that they will not fire chemical weapons at American ground forces, the officials said. However, U.S. officials said they are monitoring one Republican Guard unit outside Baghdad that they believe has been issued artillery shells filled with chemical agents.

[tessalu]

Saddam is buried in Baghdad, and he is not buried facing Mecca, for he is buried facing the United States.

[Terry Mross]

And we trust these guys? They tell them what building we're not going to bomb and think they won't tell Saddam? Could this be a trick?

[TLBSHOW]

bttt