Saddam, sons targeted in strike

MSNBC.com ^

[GulliverSwift]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 8 — A U.S. Air Force warplane dropped four enormous bombs Monday on a residential neighborhood where “extremely reliable” intelligence information indicated that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his two sons were staying, senior administration officials told NBC News. The sources would not rule out the possibility that Saddam could have moved before the planes struck, but they said it was highly likely that he and his sons were dead if they were still there when the bombs hit.

BASED ON an intelligence source on the ground in Baghdad, U.S. military officials were confident that Saddam and his sons, Uday and Qusay, were attending a meeting in the neighborhood, senior officials said.
Officials quickly called in Air Force jets to strike the location Monday with four GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition weapons, the 2,000-pound smart bombs known as “bunker busters.” Diplomatic officials and officials at the Pentagon told NBC News that they were highly confident that they killed everyone at the meeting.
Military officials at U.S. Central Command forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar, confirmed the airstrike but would not comment on its possible effect.

BUSY DAY FOR COALITION
If Saddam was killed, U.S. military planners would have achieved one of their prime objectives in the war. It would cap a dramatic day in which U.S. forces established a foothold in one of Saddam’s palaces in Baghdad after swooping into the city the day before.
Coalition forces moved to cut off escape routes from the capital. Meanwhile, in a city near Baghdad, the military was led to a site where suspicious chemical compounds were stored — a discovery that, if verified, could prove that Iraq had continued its banned weapons programs.
U.S. troops remained in the presidential compound on the west bank of the Tigris River, apparently determined to deliver a powerful message to residents and Saddam loyalists that his regime was broken.
They had been part of an early morning assault by more than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting vehicles from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. The attack was a power play designed to prove to Saddam and the Iraqi people that “we can come and go at our pleasure,” a U.S. military official told NBC News on condition of anonymity.

[1poedpatriot]

THIS JUST IN: Generallissimo Francisco Franco is still dead

[Mark Hamilton]

That is all I do know; i.e. Jaguar is an encryption system that the British sold Iraq in the Iran/Irag war of the 1980's and that Saddam had been confident that it was the only electronic system that was secure.

Although codebreaking is extremely difficult these days, it's not surprizing that the Brits would provide the US with its schema, and the Brits (see Ultra) were superb at code-breaking themselves.

Lot's of conflicting information at this point though. For example I heard that the info was given to Centcom in the morning and the strike was at 2:00 P.M. Bagdad time - a longer cycle time than intially reported.

Unless the regime announces the deaths, I don't see how we are going to confirm it...maybe they'll find an ear or nose 200 yards from the blast zone :)

[Spunky]

"US intel reports that they were able to identify that the occupants of the building were within 4 meters of each other and that they were discussing the ways and means to escape from Baghdad at the time the bombs landed. How cool is this!'

Now I want to know how in the heck could US intelligence know the occupants were within 4 meters of each other, without being there themselves?
Headline: US Intelligence operative sacrifices own life in order to let the Air Force know where to strike Saddam

[justa-hairyape]

Next Double !

Looking forward to when they run out of human look-a-likes and start dressing up camel buts as Saddam look-a-likes.

[txradioguy]

"Now I want to know how in the heck could US intelligence know the occupants were within 4 meters of each other, without being there themselves?"


You'd be surprised what the SOF guys can do with the sophisticated toys they're given to play with.

[Action-America]

Fox is reporting that all that is left of the bomb site is a big hole in the ground.

It looks like if we are going to prove if Sadam was in the building, we are going to have to develop a way to do DNA testing on dust.

 

[txradioguy]

via the Drudge Report:


"The U.S.-led coalition bombed a Baghdad commercial block yesterday after receiving a tip that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was there, Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough are reporting for the WASHINGTON TIMES.

A U.S. military official tells the TIMES that the allies bombed the al Saa restaurant block at 3 p.m. Baghdad time yesterday on information from a 'sensitive intelligence source.'

The source said that Saddam and senior Ba'ath Party leaders were meeting with 30 intelligence officials in a facility behind or beneath the restaurant."

[Keith in Iowa]

FoxNews: Monsur Ijaz reprots his sources say the gathering was for Iraq senior leaders to decide how to get the heck out of dodge; and someone who was supposed to be at the meeting ratted them out.

[429CJ]

Saddam is having an interview with Satan right about now.

I wonder what he has to say for himself.

[GummyIII]

http://www.racom.net/jaguar.htm

http://www.spyworld.com/sitemap.htm

http://www.armedforces.co.uk/army/listings/l0085.html#JAGUAR

Jaguar Communications Ltd. I think markets it.

Too tired to make links........all I could find in a hurry.

[Kevin Curry]

Playing whack-a-mole with bunker busters.

[areafiftyone]

There is a huge thread here CLICK!

[JustPiper]

He's dead again!!

LOL, my first thought! I guess they killed him while dead on life support? Oo Oo, I know, they blew up his bones? it's not just Bagdad Bob who's going SNL on us!

[whadizit]

Ollie North just said when he told the guys, that they just rolled their eyes, like "Yeah, right." Ollie is pretty skeptical.

[DannyTN]

"the intel was hard and he was confident "

I hope it was hard. Be a heck of a way to take revenge on that neighbor you never liked.

Hey, Uncle Sam!!! Saddams over there!!! 141 Sycamore Dr. And his sons!!!!

I'll teach Ackmed to curse my mustache!!!!

[JustPiper]

a) At least Saddam and one son (perhaps both) are "strongly" believed to have been in the building when struck by 4 JDAM bunker busters (5000lb each?).

Sounds just like the first time he was killed

[JustPiper]

All that was left was a heap of concrete, mangled iron rods, ruined furniture and clothes.

And lemme guess...Saddam carried out on a stretcher. Saddam on life support? An ambulance carted him away?

[JustPiper]

He looks like an incestual dummy