Wife Laid Trail to Saddam's Lair

[kainah]

This is a fascinating article that gives more context to Sy Hersh's article last week about the Israeli work & Task Force 121. Highly recommended reading.

http://www.news.com.au/common/printpage/0,6093,8189551,00.html

SADDAM Hussein was captured in a filthy underground hole because of the demands of the one woman he still trusted.

She is Samira Shahbander, the second of his four wives.
And now she may receive part of, if not all, of the $US25million ($33.8 million) bounty the US Government promised for information that led to the capture of the Iraqi dictator.

Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had been tailing her since she fled to Beirut, Lebanon, before the US invasion.

snip...

Other Israeli agents inside the Syrian side of the border had heard radio chatter between the unit - known as US Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force 121 - as they set about trying to track down Saddam.

snip...

"For political reasons, we had not been formally invited to join the party," said a source close to Meir Dagan.

Mossad - not for the first time - decided to keep to itself the information it was gleaning for the surveillance of Samira.

But on Thursday, December 11, that changed. The yaholomin team picked up a conversation between Samira and the man they were now certain was Saddam.

more....

[aquart]

1. Weren't our people purposely implying otherwise?

Didn't US spokesmen imply the info came from captured and interrogated members of Saddam's staff and government.

[kainah]

3. Yes, that's the impression I've gotten

that they had found him through better local intelligence. If this story from Australia is true, then it looks as though that's another feel good cover story.

Interestingly, I found this story when I went to the one about al Dhouri "surrendering" from this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=272591

At the bottom of that story, there was this headline. It seemed like quite a stunner to me so I followed and found this little gem.

[bemildred]

2. Cough, ** bullshit ** cough, cough.

Here I thought intelligence agencies didn't like to
reveal their methods and all that. But I guess this
was just too juicy to pass up, so we get the complete
soap opera.

[pinto]

4. if someone follows the story long enough, follow the money, we made such

a hullabaloo about the 25 mill reward (and I've heard now it won't be paid, 'cause "informant" was a terrorist). But if it ever gets paid, someone will know. May not be us, admittedly, but the money trail usually tells the tale. (Did anyone get reward for Saddam's sons' killing?)
As an aside, I don't trust this news source.
Something about the story sticks, though, it's been played elsewhere. And there's a reason for that.
Even a false float has a real purpose, but too much of this thinking leads to the dreaded conspiracy hole...I'm willing to wait and see.
Primary job for the world re: Mr. Hussein now is transparent trial.

[kainah]

6. The reward for Uday and Qusay

Yes, I think they were paid. At least, I heard that it was paid sometime during the coverage of the last few days & that the informers were taken out of Iraq and set up somewhere else.

[KoKo]

5. A little "simplistic" I think? Our 25 M "turned' Saddam's 2nd Wife? Why

did we need to pay 25M anyway? Saddam was NOT Osama. Our tax dollars at work once again.

[kainah]

7. That's not what interests me

What I find interesting is the links between Mossad & Task Force 121, which they admitted was involved, and the information that Seymour Hersh reported last week in the New Yorker. Which, unfortunately, I can't seem to find a link to.

[bemildred]

8. Is this it?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=24947

[paulthompson]

9. author: Gordon Thomas

This article was written by Gordon Thomas. He's a definite disinfo agent, writing extremely dodgy stuff, usually having to do with Israel. For instance, his most recent book pretty much blames China (!) of all countries, for 9/11. He may be accurate sometimes, but that's like a broken clock being right twice a day. Hold your nose, please.

[Tinoire]

10. Hmmm, Part 2 of that story or alternate version?

Saddam's hunters were set to kill dictator
By Patrick McDonnell
Adwar, Iraq
December 17, 2003

<snip>

Saddam was ratted on by a man from a prominent Tikrit-area family, a family so trusted that it was one of a handful to provide men to Saddam's presidential security detail and now was suspected of being heavily involved in attacks on coalition forces, Colonel Hickey said.

The informant, whom they had brought along on the operation, had led them to that farm on the Tigris River. Now he pointed them to the very spot where Saddam was hiding in an underground chamber, according to soldiers involved in his capture. Moments later, Iraq's fugitive former president was in US custody.

<snip>

The informant was a senior officer in Saddam's elite Special Security Organisation, according to Colonel Hickey.

The officer had been sought by US troops since early July because of his intimate ties to the former president, but had repeatedly eluded capture, including in a series of operations early this month.

When US Special Forces troops seized the informant on Friday during a raid in Baghdad, they did not immediately realise his importance. But by Saturday morning, US troops had determined his identity, brought him to Tikrit and won his vital co-operation, Colonel Hickey said.

<snip>
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/16/1071336958920.html