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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka . . Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti TIME JULY 28, 2003 box of star-cluster signal flares. "They initiate ambushes with these;' says Lieut. Colonel Steve Russell. The flares are nuther evidence that the Tikrit area, home base for Iraq's fallen leader and his most fervent supporters, is a center ofresistance to the U.S. forces . . Raids like this, designed to flush out Saddam and his top aides, happen every few days. On one level, they have been successful. In their recent operations around Tikrit, U.S. soldiers with the 4th Infantry Divi~ion's 1st Bngade-known as the Raiders-have enjoyed several big scores: they helped special forces nab Saddam's trusted aide Abid Hamid Mahmud, seized more than a ton of plastic explosives and hundreds ofweapons and uncovered at a farm more than $9 million in cash plus a buried chest of jewels worth more than $1 million that belonged to Saddam's .firstwife Sajida. But the U.S. forces have been unable to capture Saddam, even as the former Iraqi leader somehow circulates recorded messages calling on Iraqis to .fight against the U.S. occupation. The U.S. is desperate to find him. At home, Americans are concerned about the. constant flow of U.S. casualties resulting from what new Central Command General 56
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dent.ro de la Prensa..,Basm Özeti John Abizaid described last week as a "classical guerrillàtype campaign:' While there is no evidence that Saddam is directing the attacks, U.S. war planners believe that as long as he is at large, he will continue to galvanize his followers. "Until the myth dies:' says Lieut. Colonel Russell, who oversees \:hetown of Tikrit, "people are going to . show unnatural fear of his return:' Capturing Saddam . would also give a lift to the Bush Administration, roiled by' . allegations that it misledthe . . public about Sàddam's . weapons. "Time to find Saddam:' said a top Republican operative last week. "Time to change the subject:' Russell is doing his best to oblige. "We get nothingif we do nothing:' he says, and so he sends his 22nd Infantry Regiment out on almost daily raids and ambushes. The strategy is clear. As long as the . coalition forces keep up the pressure, says a Pentagon official, Saddam will eventually make a mistake and be caught. "It's just a matter of :waiting for Murphy's Law to ;kick in:' says this official. At . the same time, the steady stream of arrests of Saddam loyalists, the Americans hope, will eat away at his support structure. "He needs money and trusted friends to move around:' says the official, "and we're scooping up both:' The more former regime members U.S. forces nab, the more they are learning about Saddam'sunderground network. Brigade commander Colonel James Hickey says a core group of bodyguards around Saddam apparently is moving his money around the area, from Baiji, 30 km north of Tikrit, to Balad, 80 km to the south. At the end of June, the brigade intercepted a nephew of Saddam's who was carrying $800,000 in a Samsonite briefcase, . . presumably moving it from a '. hidden stash to a delivery point The farm where the brigade found millions of dollars and Sajida'sjewels is believed to have been a way station for those aiding Saddam. He will not be an easy . catch. Although he was Iraq's President, Saddam has been living like a man OQ the run for more than a decade. A butler who worked for him from 2000 until the day Baghdad fell tells TIMEthat the former dictator rarely spent more than 10 straight hours in a location ..After waking up, Saddam would move on to another place before the call to morning prayer. Though he had his pick of huge palaces, says the butler, Saddam . preferred to stay in small houses inside the palace' compounds. Almost certainly, Saddam is traveling with only a few companions. A former private secretary to the dictator tells TIMEthat a small number of Saddam's bodyguards and close associates disappeared . when he vanished after the fall .of Baghdad. Everyone else froin the former regime, the secretary says, is accounted for..These missing few, he says, are known around Tikrit as shabbah, or ghosts. "No one . has seen them:' he says, "but we know they are out there, helping hirn:~ , . The rnostprominent ghosts come from Owja, Saddam's home village just south ofTikrit. Khalil Ibrahim Omar al-Mouslit and his brothers Mohammad and Radman were, respectively, Saddam's favorite bodyguard, personal chauffeur and close escort. Mohammad was seen by the butler driving Saddam's white Mercedes out of the Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiyah after the President . made a public appearance there on April 9, as the ,Americans were trying to take control of Baghdad. And the same diy, says the former secretary, Radman personally told the other close associates of Sadda~ that they were no longer needed. Russell believes that the ghosts are doing more than ushering Saddam around. He thinks they are also doling out cash and heavy weapons to those who want to attack U.S. forces. And plenty want to. In Tikrit last week, stencils reading GOD,COUNTRY, LEADER-with Saddam's profile silhouetted in the middlewere painted at many prominent intersections. There are pro-Saddam screeds, ; everywhere in the city. ("He's coming back. We are waiting patiently:' "Cooperate with th~ Americans and die"). Shopkeepers and homeowners are too frightened to remove the messages, so Russell sometimes does. Raiders hand-paint sabers through the silhou\:lttes of Saddam's head, and snipers lie in wait to see who comes to remove them. Russell has also made his own stencil, which bears Saddam's face and the words: WANTED DEADORALIVE: $25,000,000. The Raiders~ aggression has riot been withoutcost. Russell's 22nd Infantry . Regiment alonehas lost two, men and has been awarded 22 Purple Heartsfor soldiers WOunded in action silice the . beginning Of June. Yet . '. American commanders in the region insist that their tactics-especially the capture of Mahmud-are weakening tIle opposition. Signs of progress: the number, of attacks on U.S. forces around. Tikrit is down, Iraqi police officers patrol the,town at . : riight; and the city's curfew" " has been changed from. ' . 10 toll p.IIt. At the same time, attacks' on éiVllians are on the rise. And shopsare being shot up for selling to Anlericans, :. last week two,Iraqis working With U.S. forces died-one' shotin his son's auto-repair shop, the othermysteriously' drowned in the Tigris. .. . The fact is, many Tikritis remain fiercely loy~ to the old regime ..In a modest, tWo-story home iIi Tikrit, ", Mahnioud Omar, 30, a' . teacher at a~econdary school,. says hè hopes SàddamWill , .. .iEitlirn. The owners 'of the 'house proudly disi?~~ytheir photos ofSaddam.,One, , bound in leather, shows a yourig Irian from the famQy, ,', in uniform, standing next to . Saddam: He was a bodyguard for the former Presid~nt: "wè'. are keeping these in the' . house:' says the owner, who doesn't want to be identified for fear of retribution from the Americans. "We will never throw them away:' Some neighbors, Omar says, . are burying their Saddam photos so the Americans won't confiscate them. "You have to understand:' he says, "these are people who knew SaddamHussein from the day they were born." In a Tikrit teahouse, Hakim Salih Mohammad, a formèr . warrant officer in the Special Republican Guard, praises Saddam and contends that the ex-leader came to Saddam International Airport in early April and fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPG)from his own shoulder 57
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INSTITUT URD DE PARIS Bulletin de l
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Sommaire: • IRAK: ATTENTATS ET RE
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11°220-221 - juillct-c1oüt 2003 H
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n° 220-221 • juillet-aoüt 2003,
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n° 220-221 • juillet-aoüt 2003'
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n° 220-22] • juiIJet-août 2003,
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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhev
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