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The Hidden Underside Of The War In Iraq
By Georges Malbrunot, in Amman

Translated from Le Figaro (Paris), Apr. 15:

The disappearance of the Iraqi leaders, news that's covered up or truncated,
doubts about the post-Saddam era -- this conflict is rich in enigmas

Le Figaro
April 15, 2003

http://irak.figaro.net/operations/20030415.FIG0778.html

Saddam's regime has fallen, but the four weeks of the war in Iraq have been
marked by many areas of obscurity and "failures" hidden by American political
and military officials who, from start to finish, have sought to control the
flow of information.  On the Iraqi side, the organized self-dissolution of
power remains enigmatic.

The first discordant noise in the Anglo-American offensive: at the very
beginning of the conflict, a British Tornado fighter jet was shot down by a
volley of Patriot missiles stationed in Kuwait.  "The Americans have never
identified who was operating the Patriot battery," points out a Western
military expert in the Near East.  And for good reason, according to a British
military source in Kuwait -- the Patriot missile was mistakenly fired by a
Kuwaiti soldier.  The inquiry undertaken by American headquarters produced no
result, so as not to embarrass the Kuwaiti authorities.

On the first day of the war, the Iraqi army fired several missiles at the
emirate of Kuwait.  During the course of the very violent fighting in
Nasiriyah on March 23, about fifteen American soldiers fell into an Iraqi
ambush.  During the course of a spectacular commando mission by special forces
into the city's hospital several days later, Jessica Lynch was saved, with
lots of publicity.  "Headquarters didn't say, however, that seven bodies were
found," says the expert.  "Their faces had been savagely mutilated.  Some of
them had had their hands cut off.  They were repatriated to the United States
in the greatest silence, without being successfully identified.  The morale of
the nation was not to be affected at a moment when the war was still far from
being won."  On Sunday, seven more of these soldiers, who were presumed to be
prisoners, were found safe and sound north of Baghdad.

Several days before the Nasiriyah trap, there was a propaganda announcement
that announced prematurely the surrender of the 8000 soldiers of the Iraqi
51st Division deployed in Basra, further to the south.  This in fact really
took place as the American command had announced.  "But instead of taking all
the men prisoner, the Americans asked them to return to their barracks,
because they thought that other divisions would probably follow them and
surrender," says this expert.  "Informed of this by Ba'ath Party envoys, the
Baghdad regime then threatened the families of the officers, who, under
pressure, went back to fighting the Americans."  The United States had
underestimated the Iraqi regime's powers of coercion, but this setback was
never mentioned.

The affair of the Syrian bus is another example of the American omerta [law of
silence] concerning this war.  On March 23, five Syrians were killed and ten
others wounded in Rutba in a missile attack against their bus, which had left
Baghdad and was supposed to return to Damascus.  The State Department
presented its condolences and said the shooting was accidental.  In reality,
the vehicle was coming from the Syrian capital and was heading for Baghdad. 
According to an American military source, "the attack was deliberate, and was
due to information that had identified among the passengers some members of
the Lebanese Hezbollah who were coming to support Iraqi resistance."

Another mystery of this war:  why, of all the diplomatic missions, did the
looters target only the French Cultural Center in Baghdad (CCF) and the French
ambassador's and the German ambassador's residences, which were certainly the
countries most hostile to this war?  Several French diplomatic sources blame
the inaction, even the encouragement, of American soldiers witnessing these
misdeeds.  With regard to the French Cultural Center, Kuwaitis were seen among
the vandals.  The American army recruited about a hundred Kuwaiti officers for
the war in Iraq and quite a few translators are from the neighboring emirate. 
Twelve years after the Iraqi pillaging of Kuwait City, the desire for
vengeance no doubt remains strong.  Three hundred meters away from the French
Cultural Center, the office for French interests in Iraq was not, however, the
target of vandals: the ocher brick building was discreetly but effectively
protected.

The greatest enigma of this war will remain the disappearance of Saddam's
faithful during the night of April 8-9.  It seems that the regime preferred
self-dissolution rather than a humiliating surrender.  During the night
curfew, an order, confirmed by CIA intercepts, was given to cease fighting and
disperse into the surroundings.  It would appear that five thousand men simply
vanished, according to an Iraqi businessman close to the regime.  Who gave the
order?  Saddam Hussein, if he was still alive.  If not, the Ba'ath leadership.

On the preceding Monday, intense bombing had targeted a building in the
fashionable al-Mansur district where Saddam and his two sons, Uday and Qusay,
were thought to be.  Since then, there is uncertainty about the fate of the
three men.  According to this businessman, who is contact with the security
forces of the former regime, only Uday was killed in the strike.  He was
hiding in a secret house that served as refuge for members of the clan.

Why was there such a surrender, which was far from the hell that the regime
had promised American troops?  The surprise visit to Moscow a few days before
by Condoleezza Rice, George Bush's national security advisor, has inspired
many speculations.  Did she perhaps go to Russia to obtain exile for Saddam in
exchange for an end to hostilities, since the Russians still had communication
channels with Saddam?

In February Yevgeny Primakov, former KGB leader and long a friend of Saddam,
went to Baghdad to try to convince the Iraqi leader to give up power.  The
Turks and the Egyptians had already discreetly attempted the same thing. 
Later, during the Arab summit in Sharm el Sheikh, the United Arab Emirates
broke a taboo.  Sheikh Zayed publicly offered exile to Saddam to avoid a
bloodbath for his people.  This leader was a longtime personal friend of
Saddam's, whose courage and Bedouin pride he admired.  In fact, it was Barzan,
one of Saddam's half-brothers, who suggested this idea to Sheikh Zayed during
a visit to Abu Dhabi.  "I cannot do it myself, but if it comes from you, he
might listen to you," Barzan explained to his host.

Several days before the war, Saddam called a family council with his two sons,
Uday and Qusay, his three half-brothers, Barzan, Watban, and Sabaoui, his
personal secretary Abed Hmoud, and Ali Hassan al-Majid, his cousin.  Saddam
asked Barzan: is it true that you proposed the idea of my exile to avoid war
to Sheikh Zayed?  Yes, answered Barzan, in glacial silence.  Suspecting his
half-brother's loyalty, Saddam placed him under house arrest in Qas al-Fares,
a palace near the airport.  Two weeks later, when American troops took control
of the airport before launching the offensive against Baghdad, Barzan fled in
a car to Ramadi, sixty miles from the capital, where he owns a farm.  It would
take the Americans a week to be informed about the new location of Saddam's
half-brother.  Barzan is said to have called members of his family who had
remained in Europe.  He was the object of intense bombing on the night of
April 10-11, and is believed to be dead.

As for Saddam and the fifty centurions who are being sought since that famous
night when everything gave way, no one can say where they are.  No doubt in
the heart of Sunni country, where they may be able to rely on the complicity
of certain tribes.  "If Saddam and his cronies do not reappear, alive or dead,
within two months, it will be appropriate to consider the possibility of a
secret deal with the United States," says one European diplomat.

--
Translated by Mark K. Jensen
Associate Professor of French
Chair, Department of Languages and Literatures
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447-0003
Webpage: http://www.plu.edu/~jensenmk/
E-mail: jensenmk@plu.edu

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