A Careful U.S. Plan to Dispel All Doubt on Hussein's Fate

[radfringe]

A Careful U.S. Plan to Dispel All Doubt on Hussein's Fate
By JIM RUTENBERG
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/15/international/middleeast/15VIDE.html?hp
Published: December 15, 2003

The announcement of Saddam Hussein's capture followed a careful plan devised over months and intended, according to those who worked on it, to dispel any doubt among Iraqis and a skeptical Arab world that he was in American hands.

Code-named HVT No. 1 — for High-Value Target No. 1 — the public relations playbook that the Pentagon followed was written back in the summer, in response to the widespread disbelief that greeted the announcement that American soldiers had killed Mr. Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, in July.

According to officials at the State Department and the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, the plan, which President Bush approved, stipulated that Iraqis were to have a role in announcing the news and that the images of the quarry were to be broadcast worldwide as quickly as possible, to leave little time for conspiracy theories to course through Iraqi towns and villages.

Crucially, the American military, Iraq's administrators and officials in Washington were able to keep the news of Mr. Hussein's capture on Saturday secret for 18 hours.

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so Baghdad-Bush had a plan for PR purposes? what else is new? what would really be news is if Baghdad-Bush had a plan that did not include photo-ops and politic motives

[lazarus]

1. Interesting

Apparently "as quickly as possible" is over 18 hours.

These people are too incompetent for us not to beat, if you think about it.

[radfringe]

2. ennywhoooo

this may bring up more questions about the "threat" of Saddam Hussein...

by showing him disheveled and in poor condition the idea is to show that he NOT a "super-god" - only another human being, soooooooooo, if he isn't/wasn't a "super-god" then how much of an immediate threat was he really that required us to invade?

how much of a threat was the old man in a hole? Granted, he wasn't in a hole when we invaded - but this does bring up more questions than it resolves

where are the WMD's? more importantly - where's bin-laden?

Heard one reporter yesterday refer to Osama as Osama Bin-Forgotten....

[Junkdrawer]

3. Oh, they were planning this for months alright...

Prague, 11 December 2003 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council this week set up a special tribunal to try former members of the Iraqi Ba'athist regime for crimes against humanity.

The creation of the tribunal, which will be staffed and led by Iraqi nationals, resulted from months of work. It will take many more months before the first trials actually start in Baghdad.

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/12/11122003181030.asp

But methinks they were holding him for a tad longer than 18 hours.

[Tinoire]

4. 18 hrs? They've kept this quiet for weeks! This is why Bush went in Nov

Nobody really believes Sadaam bricked himself into some sort of a lice-ridden hole like a field-mouse do they?




(Re-pasting this here for those who book-mark threads)
Devka: Indications Saddam Was Not in Hiding But a Captive

Disclaimer: My take on Devka is that they are 70% Mossad disinformation & 30% truth. Problem is it's hard to tell which is which. This report however makes a lot of sense!

==============

A number of questions are raised by the incredibly bedraggled, tired and crushed condition of this once savage, dapper and pampered ruler who was discovered in a hole in the ground on Saturday, December 13:



The length and state of his hair indicated he had not seen a barber or even had a shampoo for several weeks.

The wild state of his beard indicated he had not shaved for the same period

The hole dug in the floor of a cellar in a farm compound near Tikrit was primitive indeed – 6ft across and 8ft across with minimal sanitary arrangements - a far cry from his opulent palaces.


Saddam looked beaten and hungry.


Detained with him were two unidentified men, two AK-47 assault guns and a pistol, none of which were used.


The hole had only one opening. It was not only camouflaged with mud and bricks – it was blocked. He could not have climbed out without someone on the outside removing the covering


And most important, $750,000 in 100-dollar notes were found with him – but no communications equipment of any kind, whether cell phone or even a carrier pigeon for contacting the outside world.



According to DEBKAfile analysts, these seven anomalies point to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein was not in hiding; he was a prisoner.

After his last audiotaped message was delivered and aired over al Arabiya TV on Sunday November 16, on the occasion of Ramadan, Saddam was seized, possibly with the connivance of his own men, and held in that hole in Adwar for three weeks or more, which would have accounted for his appearance and condition. Meanwhile, his captors bargained for the $25 m prize the Americans promised for information leading to his capture alive or dead. The negotiations were mediated by Jalal Talabani’s Kurdish PUK militia.

These circumstances would explain the ex-ruler’s docility – described by Lt.Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as “resignation” – in the face of his capture by US forces. He must have regarded them as his rescuers and would have greeted them with relief.

From Gen. Sanchez’s evasive answers to questions on the $25m bounty, it may be inferred that the Americans and Kurds took advantage of the negotiations with Saddam’s abductors to move in close and capture him on their own account, for three reasons:




His capture had become a matter of national pride for the Americans. No kudos would have been attached to his handover by a local gang of bounty-seekers or criminals. The country would have been swept anew with rumors that the big hero Saddam was again betrayed by the people he trusted, just as in the war.


It was vital to catch his kidnappers unawares so as to make sure Saddam was taken alive. They might well have killed him and demanded the prize for his body. But they made sure he had no means of taking his own life and may have kept him sedated.


During the weeks he is presumed to have been in captivity, guerrilla activity declined markedly – especially in the Sunni Triangle towns of Falluja, Ramadi and Balad - while surging outside this flashpoint region – in Mosul in the north and Najef, Nasseriya and Hilla in the south. It was important for the coalition to lay hands on him before the epicenter of the violence turned back towards Baghdad and the center of the Sunni Triangle.


<snip>

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=743