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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (108085)	7/26/2003 4:22:58 AM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

interview with one of Uday Hussein's bodyguards: thestar.com The Hussein family's conviction that the Iraqi military would successfully resist the U.S. assault on Baghdad prevented them not only from planning a guerrilla war but also led them to dismiss the proposals from other countries that they flee into exile. A U.S. missile attack on March 20 strike, intended to kill Saddam and his top aides in the south of Baghdad, missed badly. The targets were nowhere near, staying in private houses scattered around the city. A U.S. attack April 7, in which four tonnes of bombs were dropped on a residential neighbourhood, came close to killing Saddam and his sons. It destroyed homes and killed a reported 14 civilians only 10 minutes after the Husseins left the area. But the incident was a sting by Saddam against one of his own officers, who was executed for allegedly helping the Americans target the Iraqi leader. Video on Iraqi state television of Saddam and his sons during the war was genuine. The Americans who first occupied Baghdad missed many chances to capture or kill the first family of Iraq, even driving directly past Uday's vehicle at one point. Abu Tiba described his boss' mood as confident when the war started but increasingly distraught as things went badly for the regime. "Sometimes he was tense, especially when his properties or palaces were hit in the war," said Abu Tiba, one of a team of six bodyguards who worked in rotation with another team of six. "In the 1991 war, none of his sites were hit. He felt someone inside was giving information about his places. Then he'd get very tense and angry. He was most suspicious about his friends." Like his brother and his father, Uday moved every two or three days from one private house to another. Sometimes he stayed at one of the more modest of his many homes in regular residential neighbourhoods. Sometimes he stayed with friends. Coordinating Iraq's defence required frequent face-to-face meetings among the president, his sons and other top leaders. Too often for Saddam's liking, the meeting places then would be bombed. Suspecting a captain on his staff of informing the Americans, Saddam gave him word that the top brass would be meeting April 7 at a house in Mansour, a Baghdad neighbourhood. "We went inside and then out the back door," Abu Tiba said. "Ten minutes later it was bombed. So they killed the captain. One of Saddam's bodyguards did it." Nearly all the time Saddam had with him a television cameraman whose tapes would be broadcast on Iraqi TV. The footage — including the unexpected sight of Saddam greeting a crowd of citizens on a street — was not shot before to the war and did not show one of Saddam's doubles, as was widely suspected in the West. Despite this last attempt to encourage his people and troops, Saddam's hours as president were fast ticking by. On April 9, his oldest son watched the television coverage of American soldiers pulling down one of Saddam's statues. "After he saw the fall of the statue on TV, he was so tense,'' Abu Tiba said. "His nature changed. It became very hard to talk to him. ... He used to get angry at us, shouting at us endlessly." Fuming over the loss of Baghdad, Saddam accused his commanders of betrayal, Abu Tiba said. Commanders failed to carry out elaborate plans that included three lines of defence around the city, and the setting of explosive charges to kill approaching American troops and destroy their armour.