Low tech defeats high tech AGAIN!....just like the Serbs locating the STEALTH FIGHTERS WITH CELL PHONES!
Spying: U.S. Is Worried Foe Is Tracking Targets in Iraq
November 29, 2003
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 - Bush administration officials are
increasingly concerned that anti-American forces in Iraq
are using simple but effective means to monitor activities
and coordinate attacks against the American military,
civilian administrators and visiting dignitaries.
As evidence, Pentagon and military officials cite a recent
raid by troops of the 101st Airborne Division during which
they broke up an apparent plot to assassinate an American
colonel. The would-be assailants, they said, had observed
and charted the Army officer's daily routine - including
his jogging route and schedule of public appearances - to
plan their attack.
Evidence gathered by investigators also sheds new light on
the rocket attack that struck the Rashid Hotel during the
overnight visit to Baghdad by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy
defense secretary, in late October. Military intelligence
officers have reported that the hotel staff was infiltrated
over the summer by at least one former member of Saddam
Hussein's secret service.
Although Pentagon, military and intelligence officials
caution that some of the evidence remains circumstantial
while investigations continue, these concerns help explain
the extraordinary secrecy surrounding President Bush's
surprise visit to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day.
American troops already vary their routes and routines,
officials said, and are being encouraged to do it more. But
Baghdad's infrastructure of roads and secure places to stay
is limited, making it difficult to obscure actions that
might allow an observant resistance to plan attacks.
"It does not require a very robust intelligence capability
to pick up from time to time the presence of `high value'
American officials," said a Bush administration official
with access to intelligence reports from Iraq. "It is hard
to shield the large security presence that identifies
senior officials in Iraq."
Investigators are reviewing recent attacks on American
convoys hit by improvised explosives to see whether the
routes had become so routine as to make them obvious
targets. They are also examining the bombing of the United
Nations headquarters in Baghdad in August, in which the
explosives-packed vehicle detonated adjacent to the United
Nations special representative's window.
American officials say operatives loyal to the ousted
Hussein government do not require high-technology
eavesdropping devices to gather substantial amounts of
information on the activities of American officials. "Given
the size of our footprint, you can't overestimate the
amount of information you can gather just standing on a
street corner and watching," one official said.
Mr. Hussein's government operated a Stalinist-style
domestic security apparatus to control Iraqis, so there is
no shortage of agents skilled in traditional surveillance
techniques.
In the case of the Rashid, which had become home to
Americans and other foreigners working for the Coalition
Provisional Authority, "the hotel was penetrated,"
according to a Pentagon official.
Military intelligence officers discovered that, at least as
early as summer, the Rashid's catering service had on its
staff a former member of Mr. Hussein's intelligence agency,
officials in Washington and Iraq said.
But officials noted that given the large Iraqi staff at the
hotel, valuable information could just as easily have been
gathered by listening to coffee house gossip, or by
watching streets around the hotel for unusually large
convoys.
Much of the intelligence-gathering by supporters of the
former government falls into this category of waiting,
watching and listening in order to plan attacks, officials
said.
"It is not unusual for hostile factions to engage in both
passive and active collection against key coalition
leaders," a military intelligence officer in Iraq said. "As
such, we've received indications that some of our key
personnel have been observed and identified for possible
targeting."
American officials in Washington and Iraq offer differing
assessments on whether the multiple-rocket launcher set up
outside the Rashid's security wall during the visit by Mr.
Wolfowitz was specifically timed for that. One Army officer
was killed, and more than a dozen Americans and other
foreigners were wounded.
The launcher itself had taken weeks to construct, military
officials said. While Mr. Wolfowitz's visit was a closely
held secret before his departure, "I cannot believe that
former regime loyalists were unaware the deputy was staying
there," a senior administration official said. "He had been
in the country for a day or two, which was widely
publicized. He hosted an event the night before in the
hotel, and did not leave. He travels with not a small
footprint."
Military investigators say no suspects have yet been
detained who could confirm that the attack was timed to the
visit. "Would it have been possible for them to know, and
to target him? Yes," a military officer in Iraq said. "Do I
think it is likely they were targeting him specifically?
No."
But recent raids have uncovered other evidence about the
Rashid attack. By comparing technical fingerprints of the
rockets, like welding and wiring, military officers are
convinced that the same group that carried out the Rashid
attack was also responsible for similar attacks a week ago.
In the recent attacks, rockets were fired at the Palestine
and Sheraton Hotels and the Oil Ministry from four donkey
carts disguised as hay wagons.
Army officers in Iraq stressed that a significant number of
attacks had been thwarted by the American military and
Iraqi security services, by American intelligence agencies
and by information provided by Iraqi civilians.
The American-led alliance's intelligence system "continues
to get better every day in theater, and we receive credible
information which assists us in pre-empting potential
attacks against our soldiers," a military officer said.
Investigators also continue to scrutinize the Aug. 19
attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which
killed 22 people, including the special representative,
Sergio Vieira de Mello.
The explosives were detonated next to the window of Mr. de
Mello's office, investigators say, leading some to believe
that the suicide bombers knew specifically where the senior
United Nations official worked inside the building.
"You can certainly speculate and come to that conclusion,
but no absolute determination has been made," an American
official said.
Military intelligence officers also have realized that
improvised explosive devices, known as I.E.D.'s, have been
placed along routes frequented by American military
convoys. "If you look at the pattern of I.E.D.'s, they go
where we go," a military officer in Iraq said. "They watch
us. They migrate with the herd."
nytimes.com
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