NYT: Saddam's Agents behind attacks in Iraq

[duck]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/politics/29ENEM.html?hp

"Hussein's Agents Are Behind Attacks in Iraq, Pentagon Finds
By THOM SHANKER

Published: April 29, 2004

WASHINGTON, April 28 — A Pentagon intelligence report has concluded that many bombings against Americans and their allies in Iraq, and the more sophisticated of the guerrilla attacks in Falluja, are organized and often carried out by members of Saddam Hussein's secret service, who planned for the insurgency even before the fall of Baghdad.

The report states that Iraqi officers of the "Special Operations and Antiterrorism Branch," known within Mr. Hussein's government as M-14, are responsible for planning roadway improvised explosive devices and some of the larger car bombs that have killed Iraqis, Americans and other foreigners. The attacks have sown chaos and fear across Iraq.

In addition, suicide bombers have worn explosives-laden vests made before the war under the direction of of M-14 officers, according to the report, prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency. The report also cites evidence that one such suicide attack last April, which killed three Americans, was carried out by a pregnant woman who was an M-14 colonel.

Its findings were based on interrogations with high-ranking M-14 members who are now in American custody, as well as on documents uncovered and translated by the Iraq Survey Group. While the report cites specific evidence, other important assessments of American intelligence on Iraq have been challenged and even proven wrong.

The contents of the report were either quoted directly or summarized by five United States government officials and military officers who had read it. It provides a more detailed portrait of the insurgency. In the past, American officials have typically described the insurgents as a rudderless guerrilla movement of foreign fighters, Islamic jihadists, former Baathists, and common criminals. The report does not address the question of how broad-based support for the insurgency is..."

[HELEX]

Again this old "Saddams thugs" are responsible fot the Insurgency BS? :cantbeli:

[Threelions]

do we have enough confidence to trust the pentagon intelligence circles yet??

Cheers

[Uninen]

do we have enough confidence to trust the pentagon intelligence circles yet??

Cheers

:roll: Eh? Is that supposed to be a joke?

[catdat]

LOL you guys crack me up. Unless you're on the "inside" you won't know what's true and what's disinformation. I reccomend keeping a very open mind when reading anything in the NYT or WSJ.

Trust the pentagon? I think it's Foggy Bottom you need to worry about.

Chew on this interview a while with Victor Marchetti before you respond :

There is a second reason for secrecy. That is that if the public doesn't know what you are doing you can lie to them because they don't know what the truth is. This is a very bad part of the CIA because this is where you get not only propaganda on the American people but actually disinformation, which is to say lies and falsehoods, peddled to the American public as the truth and which they accept as gospel. That's wrong. It's not only wrong, its a lie and it allows the government and those certain elements of the government that can hide behind secrecy to get away with things that nobody knows about. If you carefully analyze all of these issues that keep coming up in Congress over the CIA, this is always what is at the heart of it: That the CIA lied about it, or that the CIA misrepresented something, or the White House did it, because the CIA and the White House work hand in glove. The CIA is not a power unto itself. It is an instrument of power. A tool. A very powerful tool which has an influence on whoever is manipulating it. But basically the CIA is controlled by the White House, the inner circle of government, the inner circle of the establishment in general. The CIA is doing what these people want done so these people are appreciative and protective of them, and they in turn make suggestions or even go off on their own sometimes and operate deep cover for the CIA. So it develops into a self-feeding circle.

FD: Spreading disinformation is done through the newsmedia.

Marchetti: Yes. Its done through the newsmedia. The fallacy is that the CIA says the real reason they do this is to con the Soviets. Now I'll give you some examples. One was a fellow by the name of Colonel Oleg Penkovsky.

FD: Penkovsky Papers?

Marchetti: Yes. I wrote about that in `The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. The Penkovsky Papers was a phony story. We wrote the book in the CIA. Now, who in the hell are we kidding? The Soviets? Do we think for one minute that the Soviets, who among other things captured Penkovsky, interrogated him, and executed him, do you think for one minute they believe he kept a diary like that? How could he have possibly have done it under the circumstances? The whole thing is ludicrous. So we're not fooling the Soviets. What we're doing is fooling the American people and pumping up the CIA. The British are notorious for this kind of thing. They're always putting out phony autobiographies and biographies on their spies and their activities which are just outright lies. They're done really to maintain the myth of English secret intelligence so that they will continue to get money to continue to operate. Thats the real reason. The ostensible reason is that we were trying to confuse the Soviets. Well that's bull**** because they're not confused.

[nerdman]

Again this old "Saddams thugs" are responsible fot the Insurgency BS? :cantbeli:

How are the MAJORITY of the attackers then?

Here's a quote for an Iraqi Blog I read (http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/)... And the fact that Iraqi writer is not anti-American (still critical of our actions though) does not make his account any less valid.


After two days of calm at my neighbourhood, clashes resumed this morning from around 9 in the morning until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. My brother witnessed masked Fedayeen using RPG's against US troops just two blocks from our house. We panicked when three American tanks and two Humvee's parked in front of our house after that. My grandmother was trying to cross the garden to our house in hysterics. The American soldier on top of one of the Humvee's alarmingly swivelled his machine gun at us while we were trying to help her through. Everyone was praying that they wouldn't come under attack at this moment because it would definitely mean shooting back in all directions, thankfully they didn't.

There was a solemn looking fellow in a red unmarked Opel driving back and forth on our street during the battle barking into a mobile phone, frequently pulling by near groups of people and talking to them, someone pointed him out as the local Fedayeen commander and that he was evaluating the situation as well as taking notice of US forces positions. There was another bearded guy on a motorcycle who looked suspicious. Every now and then we would hear a rocking KABOOM followed by loud cheers and frantic shooting. Helicopters were circling the area continously. The neighbourhood is a complete wreck, traffic signs and telephone posts have been run over by tanks, pavements damaged, parked cars flatly crushed by vehicles, and shattered glass from destroyed stores all over the place.


In Baghdad the fighting still continues in several areas, mostly in Sadr city and Adhamiya. Baghdadis don't venture much out of their neighbourhoods any more, you never know where you might get stuck. There has been talk that the night curfew might be implemented again. My neighbourhood has been surrounded by American troops for three days now, helicopters have been circling over our heads non-stop. Fedayeen are now visible on the street and they have become bolder than ever. Yesterday there were tens of them putting road blocks on our street and setting up mortars, they only come out in the open when Americans leave the area, then they start firing mortars indiscriminately and shooting their AK-47's in the air. They are setting the road blocks at the exact same positions they were during the war last year, which indicates they are the same people. And there is nothing we can do about it really, people who are suggesting that we go out and fight them are living in dream land. Even the IP and ICDC have abandoned the neighbourhood, and those are trained and armed, so don't expect scared civilians to do anything except to hide inside and pray a helicopter or a tank doesn't bomb them, and also how are American soldiers going to distinguish the brave and valiant civilians from the Fedayeen?

[Threelions]

do we have enough confidence to trust the pentagon intelligence circles yet??

Cheers

:roll: Eh? Is that supposed to be a joke?

Nope, no joke. I am asking a serious question.

Cheers

[catdat]

nerdman wrote:

And the fact that Iraqi writer is not anti-American (still critical of our actions though) does not make his account any less valid.

Maybe not nerdman that blog has all kinds of good info. In fact in the same post (which BTW was entered on 4/11) there's this little tidbit:

There were many tales about M1A2 tanks having some sort of electromagnetic field (or something to that effect) surrounding it which protects it from RPG attacks. Someone said that the Fedayeen have overcome this problem by smearing the rockets with mud, after previous attempts in the past of wrapping them with cloths or nylon failed.

I, for one, am quite pissed off that someone has leaked that our M1 force field is easily defeated by mud.

Beam me up Ivy -catdat

[nerdman]

nerdman wrote:

And the fact that Iraqi writer is not anti-American (still critical of our actions though) does not make his account any less valid.

Maybe not nerdman that blog has all kinds of good info. In fact in the same post (which BTW was entered on 4/11) there's this little tidbit:

There were many tales about M1A2 tanks having some sort of electromagnetic field (or something to that effect) surrounding it which protects it from RPG attacks. Someone said that the Fedayeen have overcome this problem by smearing the rockets with mud, after previous attempts in the past of wrapping them with cloths or nylon failed.

I, for one, am quite pissed off that someone has leaked that our M1 force field is easily defeated by mud.

Beam me up Ivy -catdat

What does 4/11 have to do with anything? Have all the Fedayeen disappeared since then. I doubt they were all killed by the last 500 lb bomb dropped in Falluja.

And yes that part about the force field was funny. Remember when some of the Iraqis thought the wrap around sunglasses many U.S. soldiers wear gave them X-Ray vision (to look under through Iraqi women's cloths). The place is a crazy ass rumor mill.

The whole Star Trek thing aside, it seems a like a good first hand account.

[usa320]

I think its a mix of former Fedayeen soldiers and Foreign terrorists.

In the initial attack, US forces pretty much drove around fallujah and dashed for bagdad. Im guessing that all the Fedayeen soldiers disappeared into the population and retreated to fallujah to re-emerge at a later time. Makes sense no?

[Uninen]

do we have enough confidence to trust the pentagon intelligence circles yet??

Cheers

:roll: Eh? Is that supposed to be a joke?

Nope, no joke. I am asking a serious question.

Cheers

Then hell no! Everything starting from wmd and how was it that Saddam was captured so far has been a lie, so no.. i do not trust them.

Not to mention lies before and after these.

:|

[nerdman]

Then hell no! Everything starting from wmd and how was it that Saddam was captured

How was he captured then?