Posted on 04/26/2003 6:10:13 PM PDT by MadIvan
FORMER Iraqi prime minister Tariq Aziz has told American intelligence officials that he has not seen Saddam Hussein since the first night of the war, it was claimed last night.
Aziz, who surrendered to US forces last week, has fuelled speculation that the Iraqi dictator was killed or seriously injured when the bunker in which he was hiding with his sons has hit by cruise missiles.
According to US intelligence sources, the 67-year-old has said he does not know whether Saddam is alive or dead.
However, he has told his captors he presumes the former Iraqi leader was incapacitated as he played no role in coordinating the defence of Baghdad.
The director of the CIA, George Tenet, has reportedly been saying he believes Saddam is dead after being briefed on Aziz’s testimony.
Meanwhile, it was also reported last night that secret Iraqi intelligence documents uncovered in Baghdad show a direct link between Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network and Saddam’s regime.
The documents, discovered by a Sunday Telegraph journalist in the headquarters of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service, are said to reveal that an al-Qaeda envoy was invited to a clandestine meeting in Baghdad in March 1998.
According to the newspaper, the documents show the purpose of the meeting was to establish a relationship between Baghdad and al-Qaeda based on their mutual hatred of the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The meeting, which is said to have lasted for more than a week, is supposed to have ended with arrangements being made for a visit to Iraq by bin Laden.
Yesterday, at least a dozen people were feared dead after an ammunition dump near Baghdad exploded, showering homes up to two miles away with warheads, rockets and mortars.
The blasts at the open air store are believed to have injured at least 10 other people. Last night the US army said the explosions had been triggered by "hostile forces", which it accused of firing flares into the depot.
Six of the dead were understood to be from a single family whose street, a mile from the dump, was hit by a missile, although it was unclear if they were the only fatalities. The missile ploughed into the lane between two rows of homes, demolishing four of them.
Inside one of the houses, the impact killed a 50-year-old worker, his four teenage children and his 23-year-old daughter-in-law, a new mother.
Mohammed Khazaal, 15, the brother of the dead young woman, had been sleeping when the missile hit his home.
"Our house collapsed. That’s all I remember," he said from a hospital bed. Nearby, medical workers treated deep cuts in the legs of Zeineb Thamer, the one-year-old daughter of the woman who died.
Hundreds of enraged, screaming Iraqis blamed US-led occupying forces for the incident, criticising them for storing ammunition near homes.
Bloodstained resident Munthir Safir said: "Is this the safety that Bush promised us?" Around him, wailing women collapsed over the coffins of the dead. One man, waving his fist, shouted: "No Saddam! No Bush! Yes to Islam!"
As well as protests in the Zaafaraniyah suburb, which bore the brunt of the explosions, there were also demonstrations in the city centre.
Hours later, smoke was still pouring from a blackened crater left at the missile cache, as explosives boomed, a rocket whistled and rounds popped.
In Doha, Qatar, US Central Command spokesman Lieutenant Mark Kitchens blamed "the despicable people" who fired the flares. "This is not just an attempt to disrupt the process of peace. It’s a crime against the Iraqi people," he said.
The dump was sabotaged just before 8am local time as people living nearby slept or prepared breakfast. Sergeant Ronald King, a witness, said someone who was out of sight of US troops at the depot fired four flares over a wall around an open field that the forces had been using to store the ordnance.
Americans said some tactical weapons had been stored there by Saddam’s regime, which has previously been found to have hidden such items in schools and homes.
But the US military had also put some of the ordnance there itself, collecting abandoned Iraqi caches from around the city for later disposal, King said. Colonel John Peabody, commanding officer of the US Army’s 11th Engineering Brigade, which had been helping to handle the site, said the cache included Russian-made Frog-7 missiles and Iraq’s own Al Samoud II - 80 missiles in all.
The flares hit an ammunition pit, setting fire to wooden ammunition crates, King said.
Initial reports indicated up to 40 people had died, and the main hospital in southern Baghdad said there were 12 fatalities. The US said six people appeared to have died and 10 or more Iraqis sustained injuries. Residents said two would undoubtedly die.
Peabody said US forces initially came under small-arms fire when they went to the scene, and returned fire.
He would not speculate on exactly who fired the flares. "Somebody who does not want us to be here," he said, adding: "We are very sorry that the practice of Saddam Hussein putting his missiles throughout Baghdad has resulted in this."
Me too.American Military intelligence had a good reason for both hits and one day those reasons will be divulged. It would help us a lot if the names of those suspected of being there were released.
There is a deck of 55 cards, of which 13 are now in custody. There were reportedly 14 in the latter strike and an unknown number in the first. It is a pretty safe bet to say that half of the 55 are off the street.
I think if Aziz knowing provides false information, he may be turned over to the Iraqis for their brand of justice. That plus the confisction of any money his family might have to live on. The only thing he has to sell is truth.
I watched Tom Brokaw's interview. It *is* clear that President Bush believes he got Saddam the first night. It is also clear that he trusts the intelligence on the ground in Iraq that provided the information on Saddam's whereabouts.
Bush does not parse his words like a lawyer.
He doesn't. He's uncomplicated and straightforward. It's a waste of time to try and analyze what he says.
I think that he may have used a space or used lower case in his post name.
Regards, Ivan
Considering that president Bush has made a similar statement recently about Saddam getting killed the first night, I would think that strengthens the case that Aziz was the informant. And Aziz being alive, thus not likely at that bombed meeting, is another factor.
Exactly what my dh said. Aziz's statement was carefully worded.
Personally, I'd rather be optimistic. It won't change the circumstances of Saddam's whereabouts, but it makes me feel a lot better to think he's dead.
-From today's DEBKAfile.
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