Posted on 04/04/2003 9:30:39 AM PST by arthur003
NEW MISSION FOR THE SNATCH SQUAD WHICH SAVED PRIVATE JESSICA LYNCH
by Gordon Thomas
The snatch squad which rescued US army private Jessica Lynch is poised to carry out an even more sensational rescue – snatching Top Gun pilot Michael Scott Speicher from his TWELVE YEAR incarceration as Saddam’s prisoner. Incredibly, the CIA and other US intelligence agents in Iraq, believe the pilot is still alive – and incarcerated in one of Saddam’s torture dungeons in the north-east suburbs of Baghdad.
A week before the war started, Captain Speicher was “spotted alive” being driven out of one of Saddam’s palaces along the bank of the Euphrates. The sighting was made by deep-cover Mossad agents in Baghdad – Iraqi Jews who have been providing vital intelligence about conditions in the city to the Coalition forces.
Their information is relayed in short-burst high-frequency transmissions across Iraq’s Western Desert to a Mossad communications post on the Jordan border. From there it is sent to Tel Aviv. After evaluation, it is down-loaded to the CIA – and then bounced from Washington on a secure line to US Command HQ in Quatar. Speicher was originally declared killed in action after his F-18 jet was shot down by a missile over Iraq on January 17, 1991. Later his status was listed as “missing in action” after his flight suit with no body inside was found by a Red Cross team searching the area.
But now, based on “credible intelligence”, US Navy Secretary Gordon England, has listed Speicher as “captured” – effectively saying he is a prisoner of war. “Our intelligence leads continue to suggest strongly the government of Iraq can account for him”, said a Navy spokesman.
The rescue operation is being coordinated by the American Department of Defence. James Brooks, its spokesman, said “we are determined to resolve the fate of Captain Speicher”.
The search team consists of US Marines, CIA operatives and Black Hawk helicopters. They carry with them a closed-circuit TV infra-red camera link that enables operation commanders to monitor the operation from their HQ in Kuwait.
President Bush is said to be taking a close personal interest in the bid to retrieve Captain Speicher – either alive or dead. And Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, confirmed that “based on the numerous intelligence reports, there is a strong indication Iraq is holding Speicher. I am holding out hope for the day we see him a free man”. Intelligence sources say that, while they have no hard intelligence as to the physical and mental state of Captain Speicher, for him to have survived for twelve years would be an incredible feat.
The one fear being expressed is that he may have become a victim of the US blitzkrieg which has hit Baghdad. “It would be the ultimate tragedy of friendly fire”, said Senator Roberts. When the snatch squad do move into Baghdad to try and locate Captain Speicher, they will be confronted by a defence system which President Bill Clinton sold to China – and which Beijing gifted to Saddam. The system is a fibre-optic network which criss-crosses Baghdad and will allow Saddam’s mobile radars – another gift from Beijing – to pinpoint Coalition forces as they advance through the streets. The system could enable mortar fire to be accurately targeted.
The Mossad under-cover agents have also reported that until recently, technicians from China’s People’s Liberation Army were in Baghdad setting up the system. Saddam has also been presented with a copy, translated into Arabic, of the PLA’s own strategy bible – “Unrestricted Warfare”. Its 400 pages contain a detailed plan of how to conduct a street by street defence.
Any only days before the war started, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered plane loads of state-of-the-art night vision goggles, electronic jamming equipment and a large number of AT-14 Kornet anti-tank missiles to be sent to Saddam. The equipment is now the inner circle of Baghdad’s defences. http://www.globe-intel.net
GROAN! AARGH!
Those Kornets have taken out took of our finest tanks so far, if I heard right.
If this is true, the US should immediately cut off all aid to the stinking Soviets. I have always maintained that Putin was still KGB, thus still communist. You can take the boy out of the KGB but you cannot take the KGB out of the boy. He is still a communist and thus our enemy. If this is true, he is responsible for the deaths of some of our service people. He needs to be taught a valuable lesson. Screw with us and WE WILL SCREW YOU!
There will be one hell of a party in Jacksonville the night his freedom is announced, you can bet on that.
However, I'm sure that all of that is secondary to getting this man home, alive. I'd bet that his wife and best friend feel the same way.
far as I know, they got hit in the rear, where the armor is thinner- nothing and old 3.5" bazooka couldn't have done...
Then again, also heard is 23mm in the rear exhaust louvres.
Either way, I'm unvoncinved the AT14s can eat through the frontal armor.
One thing that probably didn't help get things handled properly was that the same charlatans who hyped, lied, and swindled their way through the 1980s jumped onto the Speicher bandwagon very early. The Pentagon noted who was pushing the case, and discounted their reports (lie to the POW/MIA folks often enough, and they won't believe you if you suddenly start telling the truth)>
She did.
When the snatch squad do move into Baghdad to try and locate Captain Speicher, they will be confronted by a defence system which President Bill Clinton sold to China – and which Beijing gifted to Saddam.
There's your legacy, Bill, aren't you proud.
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