Lt. Gen. Sanchez Press Briefing on Uday and Qusay Hussein (DoD Transcript)

Presenter: Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Commander, Combined Joint Task Force Seven (CJTF-7) Tuesday, July 22, 2003

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Sanchez: I'm going to give a short statement. I'll answer a couple of questions. And then tomorrow morning, Eastern Time, I will come back and present a detailed briefing on the operation that was conducted today.

Today our coalition forces associated with the 101st Airborne Division, Special Forces and Air Force assets conducted an operation against suspected regime members. An Iraqi source informed the 101st Airborne division on today that several suspects, including Qusay and Uday, numbers two and three on the U.S. Central Command's most-wanted list, were hiding in a residence near the northern edge of the city.

The six-hour operation began when the division's Second Brigade Combat Team approached the house and received small-arms fire. The division subsequently employed multiple weapons systems to subdue the suspects, who had barricaded themselves inside the house and continued to resist detention fiercely.

Four persons were killed during that operation and were removed from the building, and we have since confirmed that Uday and Qusay Hussein are among the dead. The site is currently being exploited.

Four coalition soldiers were wounded in the operation, and I pray for their speedy recovery.

The coalition is committed to working with the citizens of Iraq to maintain a safe and secure environment for all of its people, and we will continue to strive for a better quality of life for all Iraqis in this country.

Q: General, could you tell us whether the tests on the two bodies that you said belong to Qusay and Uday are positive?

Sanchez: We are currently continuing to exploit the site, and we continue to investigate the elements that were recovered from the scene.

Q: Sir, Harris Whitbeck from CNN. If in fact you use DNA to confirm the identities, where would the original sample have come from?

Q: Andrew Marshall from Reuters. Did you get any information resulting from today's raid that might lead you to the whereabouts of Saddam himself?

Sanchez: We are still continuing to exploit the site and everything that we captured in that raid.

Q: General, Sayid Selau (sp) from Al-Arabia. How come you confirmed that it's Uday and Qusay, Saddam Hussein's sons, was there?

Sanchez: Because we're fairly -- we're certain that Uday and Qusay were killed today.

Q: Could you be more specific, though, sir? Jeffrey Kaufman, ABC News. Could you be more specific? How were you able to make a positive identification?

Sanchez: We have had -- we've used multiple sources to identify the individuals.

Sanchez: They died in a fierce gun battle. They resisted the detention and the efforts of the coalition forces to go in there and apprehend them, and they were killed in the ensuing gunfight and the attacks that we conducted on the residence. And tomorrow I'll give you additional details on how that transpired.

Q: Sir, there were two $15 million rewards for information leading to these characters. Were those rewards -- will those rewards be paid out?

Sanchez: We're pursuing that at this point in time. I would expect that it probably will happen.

Q: Sir, two things. First, can you -- do you know who the two other people killed were? And second, can you just give a little more about what -- the circumstances behind the informant coming to you this morning?

Sanchez: It was a walk-in last night that came in and gave us the information that those two individuals were in that residence. And the other two that were killed in there, we're still working to get the final confirmation on who they are.

Q: Do you think that you are coming closer to Saddam Hussein? And do you have an idea where is Saddam Hussein?

Sanchez: Sir, we remain focused on finding, fixing, killing or capturing all members of the high-value target list.

Q: Do you think that the killing of Uday and Qusay, as you put it, is going to have an impact on the guerrilla warfare that's being carried out against your forces?

Sanchez: I believe very firmly that this will, in fact, have an effect. This will prove to the Iraqi people that at least these two members of the regime will not be coming back into power, which is what we stated over and over again. And we remain totally committed to the Hussein regime never returning to power and tormenting the Iraqi people.

Q: Sir, I was on the street a little while ago speaking to people, Iraqis, about this, and they were extremely skeptical and said, "Prove it. We have to see pictures. We have to see evidence." They seemed extremely distrustful of this kind of word. Is there something you will do to confirm in their minds that this has in fact transpired?

Sanchez: Yeah, you can come back tomorrow when we conduct a detailed briefing of the operation. We will show you additional details.

Q: Sure, just on the identification. I mean, were the bodies in such a condition that it wasn't just apparent from looking at their faces that -- who they were?

Q: Sir, there were reports that there was a teenager among the four who were killed. Any information on who that might have been?

Sanchez: We're continuing to work on the other two bodies at this point; get the final confirmation on who they are.

Q: We hear shooting tonight in Baghdad, and we hear the Americans also shot some bullets. Was it a celebration or some kind of -- you know, people who are fighting the Americans and their occupation to Iraq?

Sanchez: I couldn't answer that. I don't know. Probably a combination. What we've been experiencing here on a daily basis is that we're having engagements. We're still fighting a war. That's likely to be going on out there right now. And also, given that the Iraqi people have watched CNN, it's probably very appropriate that they would be celebrating about now.

Okay, any other questions? If not, I'll see you tomorrow for the detailed briefing on the conduct of the operation.

They are going to be showing the evidence tomorrow at a special briefing from CENTCOM!

PRESS ADVISORY from the United States Department of Defense

PRESS ADVISORY Jul 22, 2003

Commander of Coalition Joint Task Force Seven Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez will conduct a videoteleconference press briefing on Wednesday, July 23, at 8 a.m. EDT, in the DoD Briefing Studio, Pentagon 2E781. He will discuss the confirmation of the deaths of Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein in a firefight with coalition troops.

Media representatives without a Pentagon building pass who are interested in attending this event must have proof of affiliation and two forms of photo identification and be at the Pentagon North Parking Entrance by 7:30 a.m. Please call (703) 697-5131 for escort into the building.

Advisory

Here is more detail, it's from Debka, so everyone is free to use their judgment, but sounds plausible to me:

Talabani’s Kurdish Tribesmen Spotted Qusay, His Son Mustafa and Uday Hussein en Route to or from Syria
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=528

DEBKAfile World Exclusive

July 23, 2003, 1:16 AM (GMT+02:00)

Their death leaves Saddam without successor

Late Sunday night, July 20 - or early Monday morning - Qusay Hussein, his 14-year old son Mustafa and his brother Uday arrived at the spacious villa estate of their father’s cousin three times removed in the northeastern al Falah district of Mosul.

Qusay habitually took his teenage son everywhere to keep him safe for the succession, in case something happened to Saddam or himself. They were on their way to or from Syria. That cousin, Marwan Zeidan of the Abu Nasser tribe, is one of Mosul’s richest and most colorful figures. He owns the biggest clay brick factory in town and the largest used car agency in the region. Unlike other Iraqi towns, where the different communities live in separate neighborhoods, Mosul is mixed; Sunnis, Arabs, Kurds and Turkemen live cheek by jowl on the same streets as neighbors.

This population admixture was the cause of the downfall of Udai and Qusai Hussein.

The Al Falah district is shared by Sunnis and Kurds. Zeidan’s villa is surrounded by Kurdish families loyal to Jalal Talabani, head of the Kurdish Patriotic Union, the PUK, and a member of the new 25-man Iraqi governing council.

These neighbors were the first to catch sight of Saddam’s sons when they arrived at the villa.

According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, a group went running to their leader’s nearest military headquarters to bring him the news in person. Talabani, who also happens to rent one of the Saddam family’s villas in Salman Pak, went straight off to US administration offices in Baghdad, where deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfovitz is presently based for his week’s stay in Iraq. The Kurdish leader and US military chiefs conferred and decided that PUK intelligence would go ahead and secretly surround the Zeidan villa and bar it to both ingress and egress, also installing sensors and eavesdropping devices. The Kurdish agents were instructed to prepare the site for the US special forces to come in by helicopter and seize the building and Saddam’s two sons.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that in retrospect these careful advance arrangements were seen to be superfluous. The two brothers and the teenager were inside the villa with only a single bodyguard. The circle of people whom they trusted had apparently shrunk to almost nil. Saddam may be in the same boat. They ventured into a district which far from being out of the way is lively and crowded. This signified that they had experienced some unexpected holdup and been forced to break their journey to or from the Syrian border only 35 miles away at the home of their father’s cousin.

According to our sources, their visit was unexpected. Zeidan, his wife and 19-year old son were arrested after the US raid on their home. The American-Kurdish command decided to occupy the houses around the target villa before the main assault. A US special force of some 200 commandos landed early Tuesday, July 22, and opened fire on the villa. The three Husseins and their bodyguard went down shooting, overwhelmed by US ground fire and helicopter-fired missiles. The US commander waited two or three hours before giving the order to storm the property in case more people were hiding in cellars or outhouses or trying to escape through hidden exits. Pilot-less Predator drones were lofted to survey the property from all sides. However when the troops went in, they found no one but the charred, bullet-riddled bodies of Saddam’s two sons, his grandson and their bodyguard.

Talabani’s Kurdish followers will no doubt claim the $30 million bounty promised by the US government for the capture of the two sons of the deposed ruler.

Saddam himself still eludes capture along with his cached weapons of mass destruction. According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, President George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair are in the process of assembling a mass of material evidence of this arsenal to be released soon.

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