Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Ozeti
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Task Force 27 in Baghdad, walks out of the
Army compound, he hides his U.S. military
ID under his shirt and tells his friends he
works in construction. ''What if my wife
goes to the market and is kidnapped?" he
asks. Firas, 24, another translator working
with the U.S., says the Iraqis who cheered
him on the streets after the fall of Baghdad
now "look at me as if I'm a spy or a traitor:'
No one but his mother knows hés working
for the U.S. forces: "It's just too dangerous
out there;' he says.
The Iraqi fear of reprisals has complicated
the U.S. hunt for Saddam. In the past
month, two Iraqis working directly with
U.S. forces in Tikrit have been murdered.
One man, a source who led U.S.
troops to a number of weapons caches
'nd resistance organizers, was shot in
.is auto-repair shop in broad daylight.
'1would hate to see the stage;' says a
Pmtagon official close to the search
for Saddam, "where they start shooting
people who come and talk to us:'
FOR U.S. FORCES, THE COLLABORATION
ai Iraqi informants has become a critical
weapon in the fight against the
insurgency. Lieut. Colonel' Steven
Russell, commander of the 1st Battalion,
22nd Infantry Regiment, says
that by working from Iraqis' tips, his
troops, together with the élite specialforces
team Task Force 20, are knocking
out resistance cells and collapsing the support
structure around Saddam. Recent
raids, a U.S. intelligence official tells TIME,
have come tantalizingly close to capturing
the ex-dictator. "I can't say that the bed's
been warm" when the special forces have
raided suspected hideouts, he says, "but
there's certainly evidence to say he's been
where wéve been:' U.S. forces, says the official,
have found in hideouts a "certain
brand of cig~rs, certain food items" that are
consistent with Saddam's tastes. "He hasn't
cast aside his cravings:'
Iraqis who do come forward to talk to
HIT lISTTikritis
review the names of
"collaborators"
the Americans, especially in Saddam's
hometown of Tikrit, are risking their lives.
Former regime officials thought to have
pointed fingers at their old bosses are the
chief targets. of the insurgents' fire. Two'
weeks ago, members of the Fedayeen Saddam,
the former regime's guerrilla corps,
were seen about the town's main mosque
dropping photocopies of a letter listing 21
"traitors and spies who have direct contact
with the occupiers:' Ten of the names on
the list, a copy of which was acquired by
TIME, are those of Saddam's cousins. Last
week members of the Fedayeen in, Tikrit
went after another local man who had sympathized
with Saddam before the war
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According to a Fedayeen officer who
provides logistics and intelligence to
an active guerrilla cell, the suspected
turncoat was killed when two men in
a pickup truck, their yeshmaghs
wrapped around their faces, pulled
up to the man's car and sprayed it with
AK-47 fire before speeding off.
To militants agitated by the U.S.
presence.in Iraq, cooperating with
the coalition forces is an offense tantamount
to treason. In Tikrit, a block
from the parade grounds where Saddam
often celebrated his birthday,
graffiti on a wall in bold Arabic strokes
read ALL THOSE WHO COOPERATE
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