Posted on 03/25/2003 6:14:21 PM PST by blam
Doctors might be treating Saddam in bunker
Tue Mar 25, 6:00 AM ET
Jack Kelley USA TODAY
KUWAIT CITY -- CIA operatives and Army commandos who are hunting for Saddam Hussein believe that the Iraqi leader could be in a Baghdad bunker receiving medical attention from military doctors, U.S. intelligence and military sources said Monday.
''We know we hit him. We know he was wounded'' Thursday in a missile and bomb attack on a compound south of Baghdad, said a U.S. intelligence official involved in tracking Saddam. ''We also believe he hasn't left Baghdad.''
The assessment came on a day in which Saddam gave his second address on Iraqi TV since that attack, which U.S. officials said was aimed at ''decapitating'' his regime in the opening hours of the war. Saddam appeared more robust than the pale, shaken figure who was shown a few hours after the attack. He taunted coalition forces in referring to battles in southern Iraq .
''Have you found what the devil that besets your soul promised you?'' he asked, imploring Iraqis to fight coalition forces. ''Cut their throats and even their fingers. . . . We will make it as painful as we can. . . . Victory is imminent.''
U.S. intelligence officials said they believe the person in the latest video was Saddam. Even so, they and the White House said the tape could have been recorded before the war began and didn't necessarily prove that he was in control of his army. On the tape, Saddam praises his army's 51st Division. But some troops in the 51st have surrendered in southern Iraq, U.S. military and Kuwaiti government sources said.
Publicly, U.S. officials say they aren't sure whether Saddam is alive. But air attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere continue to make Saddam's residences and command centers a priority, suggesting an assumption that he is alive.
Intelligence and military sources said intercepted communications, captured Iraqi generals, spy satellites and aircraft are being used to try to track Saddam's movements. It's a difficult task, the sources said, because he can move from bunker to bunker via underground tunnels in Baghdad.
But two intelligence gains have given U.S. officials more hope. Intelligence sources said Delta Force commandos in Baghdad have tapped Saddam's underground phone lines, and said the CIA has recruited an Iraqi official who knows where Saddam sleeps.
Some of the bunkers are 300 feet underground and are beneath mosques, hospitals and schools to keep coalition forces from bombing them, U.S. intelligence officials said.
It is spelled lose. L-O-S-E!! Loose means not tight or to let go of.
If you are going to rant incoherently, please try to spell correctly!
Thank you.
I am so sorry to see that you failed the English as a second language course!
Good grief, it's a good thing you were born into 20th century America, you'd never survive if you had been born 20 years earlier.
The griping is insanity and stupid, and expected. What goes completely unreported and totally misunderstood is the political element in all this. Going in, the White House needed the smallest possible force. What we have, the 4ID, included, was the reply.
Why, then, the rolling start? First, politics: the Prez couldn't wait any longer. He had to go. Next, Iraq: if there was any hope for capitulation, there had to be someone to surrender to. Then there was the need to suppress Iraqi defensive measures, the dire need to trap Saddam in Baghdad, as well as to keep the rest of the world out of Baghdad (imagine how bad the Syrian smuggling would be if we weren't on the ground?), and the equally dire need to suppress likely WMD use, exports -- and Scuds. I'm sure that Saddam never really thought we'd actually mount an invasion. He probably counted on air strikes alone, which he thought he could survive (you think?).
The ASAP and awesome march on Baghdad answered all the above. It also shocked the Iraqis to the core. There is nothing we couldn't have done by air that we're unable to do now with the 3rd ID at the doorstep. There's so much more we can do with them there. Furthermore, there's no reason we can't reinforce now, and there's many other reasons why it'd be more difficult to reinforce prior to an invasion (Turkey, Suez, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordon, etc.). With the 3rd ID up there, any pro-active objection or obstacles to the land invasion are mute. Most importantly, the Isreali card -- their ace, has been removed from the deck. The fight is contained to Iraq.
Which brings us back to the political realm: imagine the hand wringing now if we were still waiting on an invasion. With the position we have now, there's no more discussion and zero debate. It's done, we're in, and we can only win. We'll do what we have to do.
You will say that we should have had more already stationed. We didn't. We moved with what we had. Mute point. As for advance expectations: Of course we raised expectations of a quick victory. Not a good way to go to war, saying we'll lose. Neither is it a good way to get your enemy to give in in advance.
I'm glad we're alone on this thread now... so little background noise (oops, just bumped it to the top).
FRegards,
-Michael
... We never expected it to and kind of hoped it wouldn't
turkey will let us in...as if that would happen
... So we're flying over
decapitation...never happened
... so we castrated him when we blew his legs off
surrender of key officers...never happened
... I don't recall anyone saying this would come in the first week
Shock and awe...no one was shocked or awed
... No clean underwear in Saddam Hussein's bunker, no new videos being put out, just reruns
But the worse of all was underestimation of the enemy and sending too few troops...
... No one underestimated anyone except for CNN; and we aren't sitting less than 50 miles outside of Baghdad because the enemy is having a good week. And Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard sure aren't sitting 50 miles outside of Washington, DC.
Rumsfeld's arrogance and Powel's naivete..
... Have Iraqi leaders holed up below ground with no income from the oil sales nor even control over it's flow, while we take over and outfit airbases north of Baghdad and several to the west and dig pipelines for fresh water from Kuwait to Iraq, move thousands inland, and bomb Iraqi targets at will and have moved so fast we need to let the troops rest while our others catch up, and during the time we can improve opur supply lines and clean up. Hussein, meanwhile, still has to stay underground.
When its time for Powell to look at the French in the eye and call them for what they are...he blinks...
... but the French are doing all the whining and crying
On the other hand Rumsfeld's mouth is his own worse enemy. "saddam is loosing control of his country..."
... Which is true, since the only part he controls is between Baghdad and Tikrit, which can hardly be called "his country." And it is "losing" not "loosing."
Tell me that when you are in Baghdad and Saddam is in chains.
... What good is Baghdad without oil money, lights, or control over the rest of the country? Hussein can't even keep his lights, radio, water and TV on without our permission.
I just hope we get some troops in there
... I don't think that all we have deployed is diplomats. It takes time to get out troops in there; the same went for the Gulf War and just about everything else we have ever done. Did you think we have Star Trek transporter technology, or something, Mr. Sunshine?
because I don't see the people rising up to throw flowers.
On FOX yesterday I saw soldiers who had been given flowers by local people. The soldiers set them by their fighting holes and I tell you, it looked very sweet, like Home Sweet Home. Yesterday there were interviews of soldiers who had been invited into local homes to share tea, and earlier there was a group of Iraqis who wanted to kill a goat and share it with troops to celebrate the liberation of their town.
They are still terrorised by Saddam's thugs
... And this many days into the Gulf War the people were terrorized, too. It hasn't even been two weeks yet. we're trying to conquer an entire country and capture or kill one of the most vicious human beings on earth in a land full of terrorists- THIS IS NOT A PANTY RAID.
To quote another freeper :
"Are we there yet?"
"Are we there yet?"
"Are we there yet?"
"Are we there yet?"
"Are we there yet?"
"Are we there yet?"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.