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'These are the men who return to frighten us when you go'
The Times ^ | April 1, 2003 | Greg Swift

Posted on 03/31/2003 2:10:23 PM PST by MadIvan

BRITISH forces staged a dawn raid on a Baath Party headquarters yesterday after receiving intelligence that it was still being used to exert Saddam Hussein’s will.

Five people were arrested and taken away for interrogation in a swift assault designed to send a powerful message to the intimidated local population that the Baath Party’s reign of fear is over.

The two-storey complex stood on the southwest edge of the Basra National Oil Refinery, three miles from the port city and surrounded by a shanty town.

A sniper team from Zulu Company, the 1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, kept the building under covert observation all night before the attack. At exactly 5.30am local time a 36-tonne Warrior armoured vehicle crashed through the perimeter wall.

At the same time the vehicle’s rear hatch opened and a section of infantrymen kicked down the front door and stormed the complex.

Amid the confusion, the fusiliers systematically scoured the complex hunting for Baath Party members.

One by one, doors were smashed down before soldiers with fixed bayonets burst into the rooms. Once inside the sprawling HQ the opulent lifestyle enjoyed by Saddam’s henchmen — in stark relief to the poverty just yards away — became clear.

Leading from each side of the grand entrance stood two huge kitchens with extensive cooking facilities. From these ran two cavernous store rooms filled with food.

While local Iraqis are short of even the most basic items the Baath Party HQ was crammed with enormous humanitarian aid relief sacks of rice and grain.

Fresh garlic, tomatoes and sauces stood alongside chest freezers filled with meat and frozen produce.

Along wood-panelled corridors the British soldiers raced through a series of comfortable bedroom suites, each one made up of two rooms in which a TV, armchairs, a sofa and a bed were placed. In the heart of the complex a number of imposing rooms fanned out from a central reception area.

In one was a bar and a snooker table with cues still resting on the green baize. In another an office had been set up and documents sprawled across a mahogany table. In a filing cabinet were two bottles of single malt whisky.

While an Arabic-speaking soldier trawled the paperwork for possible intelligence, the rest of Z company poured into a large dining room.

Around a table capable of seating up to 40 people were chrome-plated dining chairs. On the table, knives, forks, glasses and salt and pepper pots were neatly arranged over a linen cloth.

At the far end of the room was a huge, smiling picture of Saddam. Upstairs, dozens more bedrooms were searched until the whole building had been cleared.

The ferocity of the raid stunned locals who, still fearful of the malign influence of the Baath Party, were reluctant to approach the newly-cleared building. The officer Commanding Z Company, Major Duncan McSporran, told the villagers that the building now belonged to them. And within an hour soldiers returned to patrol the area to find the building being looted.

Captain Alex Cartwright, 28, a Grenadier Guardsman attached to 1st Battalion, said he was happy to allow the mob to continue. “Normally we would stop looting, but in this case we decided that it would send a powerful message — that we are in control now, not the Baath Party.”

Captain Cartwright said that villagers pointed out a number of men who were considerably better dressed and groomed then the locals and who appeared to be agitated by what they saw.

“It was also noticeable how the locals’ body language and attitude changed — they became more fearful, more cowed,” he said.

“One villager, having warned us that there were ‘eyes and ears everywhere’ said, ‘These are the men who disappear when you turn up and come back to frighten us when you go’.

“We wanted to arrest these guys and so appealed to their vanity by inviting them into the building explaining that we needed to talk to them in private.

“Once they were in the building they were told they were under arrest and were coming with us. They protested, we searched them and then they were made forcibly aware that they were under arrest.”

Under the rule of the Geneva Convention captured prisoners of war are not allowed to be paraded.

But Captain Cartwright said he made sure that all the villagers could see the men being led into the back of a British Army Warrior in handcuffs.

“That will have done our cause here immeasurable good because the people here now know that we are right behind them doing everything we can to rid them of the regime that has blighted their lives for so long.”


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: baathpartyhq; blair; bush; embeddedreport; humanitarianrelief; iraq; iraqifreedom; saddam; uk; us; war
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To: MadIvan
BRAVO BRITS !!
41 posted on 03/31/2003 2:53:05 PM PST by snooter55 (People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do)
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To: wideawake
heh, yep. I imagine a bullpup buttstroke or three were applied in the course of this conversation.
Good.
42 posted on 03/31/2003 2:55:12 PM PST by demosthenes the elder (scum will never cease to be scum - why must that be explained to anyone?)
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To: Citizen of the Savage Nation
Damm, these Brits are smart. Anyone want to imagine what a Fustercluck this would be if the French were running the show? Anyone??

If they were running the show, the gloom-and-doom "quagmire" b.s. from the media would actually be an accurate (if understated) assessment of the situation.

43 posted on 03/31/2003 3:05:34 PM PST by timm22
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To: SuziQ
Now we know that Hussein's "Oil for Food" shipments were being given to the Baath party members for their own use, while the ordinary Iraqis were starving to death on the rations being handed out by the Govt.!

They always do this and I do mean always.

In 1973 when the army took over in Chile they found warehouse after warehouse full of food that the government had stored while the people stood in breadlines and went hungry.

44 posted on 03/31/2003 3:24:45 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Faith Manages)
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To: Poohbah; MadIvan; Happygal; aculeus; general_re; BlueLancer; hellinahandcart; ...
Love it.

“Once they were in the building they were told they were under arrest and were coming with us. They protested, we searched them and then they were made forcibly aware that they were under arrest.”

45 posted on 03/31/2003 3:33:34 PM PST by dighton (Amen-Corner Hatchet Team, Nasty Little Clique, Vulgar Horde)
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To: MadIvan
I don't know if we are prepared to execute these people, but anything less will be a terrible danger to the Shiites and other civilians in Iraq. Letting them loose would be similar to letting serial murderers and rapists loose on the population.

One alternative, although it would be a very risky one, is to arm the Shiites. Kind of a second amendment solution.
46 posted on 03/31/2003 4:04:11 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Cicero
I suggest we set up a series of Nuremburg trials and hang the Ba'athists. No more mercy for these Nazis.

Regards, Ivan

47 posted on 03/31/2003 4:06:20 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
I'd gladly supply the rope...
48 posted on 03/31/2003 4:27:49 PM PST by JDoutrider
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To: Ivan
Thanks Ivan! God bless you and keep you safe. God grant you enough rest, enough food, enough ammo, enough of everything you need until you are home. Thank you so much British soldiers, we Americans will NEVER forget that Prime Minister Blair and you guys risked it all. YOU ARE OUR HEROES!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are showing the terrorists that they can't keep the knife of blackmail at our throats without paying an awesome price: freeing the Iraqi's and everything else is added benefits

49 posted on 03/31/2003 5:36:20 PM PST by DianaN (Eternal Freedom)
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To: Ditto
Ah. The spoils of war. These guys have earned it.

And in an interview an hour later the officer Commanding Z Company, Major Duncan McSporran, when asked to comment further on the early morning attack said, "I love you ... no seriously , I know I don't say it enough but I lealy luv lu ... ha did you hear what I said, I said lu". Then proceeded to hug me. Back to you Jim.

50 posted on 03/31/2003 5:48:27 PM PST by Gumption
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To: wideawake
"I love British understatement"

Yea - ditto-

I laughed when I heard a British officer describing the mounds of ammunition and weapons they had taken in a raid -
He finished it off with and "we found other Bits and bobs."
51 posted on 03/31/2003 5:58:13 PM PST by ODDITHER
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To: Redleg Duke
Saddam can't surrender..."He's dead, Jim!"

Hey! They brought Spock back ...

52 posted on 03/31/2003 6:03:21 PM PST by reg45
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To: MadIvan
Captain Cartwright said that villagers pointed out a number of men who were considerably better dressed and groomed then the locals and who appeared to be agitated by what they saw.

“It was also noticeable how the locals’ body language and attitude changed — they became more fearful, more cowed,” he said.

“One villager, having warned us that there were ‘eyes and ears everywhere’ said, ‘These are the men who disappear when you turn up and come back to frighten us when you go’.

“We wanted to arrest these guys and so appealed to their vanity by inviting them into the building explaining that we needed to talk to them in private.

“Once they were in the building they were told they were under arrest and were coming with us. They protested, we searched them and then they were made forcibly aware that they were under arrest.”

#1 - Very good that the Brits took the initiative to do this

#2 - Kanan Makiya's war diary said the Fedayeen were better groomed than the general populace.

53 posted on 03/31/2003 6:06:30 PM PST by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: cyncooper
Another heartening report!
54 posted on 03/31/2003 6:16:49 PM PST by EllaMinnow ("Dark days are coming for the Dark Side")
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To: N. Theknow
Reminds me of gangsters. Filth bribed to prey on their countrymen who have nothing, running a giant protection racket.
55 posted on 03/31/2003 6:19:17 PM PST by Regulator
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To: MadIvan
Thanks! Another positive report.
56 posted on 03/31/2003 6:25:03 PM PST by hoosiermama (Prayers for all)
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To: MadIvan
Great job Ivan!God Bless your Lads!
57 posted on 03/31/2003 6:25:34 PM PST by oust the louse
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To: SuziQ
Outstanding!!! How brave of those villagers to point out the men to the soldiers

Is there a way to recognize those folks who help us? Is there a precedent for some kind of decoration for helpful civilians? I agree, this is the epitome of bravery. Contrast that to the cowards in the local rent-a-mob protest we are treated to nightly.

58 posted on 03/31/2003 6:26:15 PM PST by lawnguy
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To: MadIvan
SF types infiltrating for intel (the sniper team) - check.
Bravery (the assault) - check.
Justice (the treatment of the rest) - check.
Cooperation with friendlies (the informers) - check.
Triage the populace (the arrests) - check.

Not so hard, is it?

59 posted on 03/31/2003 6:28:56 PM PST by JasonC
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To: Regulator
Is there an imbedded reporter with this force, and is any video being released of these raids?
60 posted on 03/31/2003 6:30:23 PM PST by lawnguy
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