thedrifter
07-23-03, 05:21 PM
Signs of the Father?
Investigators Seek Evidence of Saddam in Rubble Where Sons Died; Odai May Have Killed Self
B A G H D A D, Iraq, July 23— As U.S. troops and intelligence experts search the shattered Mosul villa where Saddam Hussein's sons died for signs of their father's whereabouts, ABCNEWS has learned that Odai Hussein may have committed suicide during Tuesday's intense firefight.
military official who has seen photographs of the bodies of Saddam's sons said that Odai appears to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the head.
The firefight that left Odai and Qusai Hussein and two others dead gutted the fortified villa in northern Iraq where the men were hiding out. Although bullets and missiles left gaping holes in the building's facade and destroyed the interior, there seemed to be some evidence left over for investigators to sift through in their search for Saddam.
Photos of the destroyed villa taken by the Arab satellite television station al Jazeera show what appears to be a computer monitor and keyboard along with scattered papers.
Reporting from Mosul today, ABCNEWS' Jim Sciutto said intelligence gathered from the villa had been sent south to Baghdad for further examination amid renewed hopes that the noose was tightening around Saddam himself.
‘Not Coming Back’
U.S. officials expressed hope that the deaths of Saddam's sons would put an end to violent resistance in Iraq that has left 41 U.S. soldiers dead since President Bush announced the end of major combat operations on May 1.
"A lot of the attacks taking place are being based on the idea that somehow the Saddams are coming back, he and his sons are coming back," Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, told ABCNEWS.
"They're not coming back. Two are dead. It won't be long before we get the father," he said.
Although its authenticity has not yet been confirmed, an audiotape purportedly recorded by Saddam was aired today by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television. The voice on the tape urged Iraqis to keep fighting U.S. forces.
In Washington, Bush sent the message that the killing of Saddam's sons was a sign that the "former regime has gone and will not be coming back."
In an upbeat progress report on the military operations in Iraq delivered from the White House Rose Garden, Bush said the "careers of two of the regime's chief henchmen came to an end" on Tuesday.
Flanked by Bremer, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers, Bush said holdouts of resistance against U.S. forces in Iraq were being conducted by "enemies of Iraq's people" and he vowed that they would be "hunted" and "defeated."
Bush's remarks came hours after U.S. military officials released details of Tuesday's raid.
At a press briefing in Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in Iraq, said he believed a TOW antitank missile delivered the final blow in the firefight with Saddam's sons.
Photos released by the Pentagon today and taken by U.S. Army photographers during the raid show just how overwhelming the U.S. firepower was to the Iraqis holed up inside the villa. The cream-colored tile exterior and ornate metal railings are shown pockmarked and smoldering.
In another image, flame erupts over nearly a quarter of the home's exterior after a TOW missile makes impact.
Timeline of the Raid
Amid reports of skepticism in the Arab world as to whether Odai and Qusai were indeed dead, Sanchez said medical and dental tests, along with identifications by individuals, had established beyond doubt that the two were killed.
The body of Qusai Hussein, heir apparent to the former Iraqi dictator, offered a 100 percent dental match, he said. Sanchez added that dental tests on Odai's body provided only a "90 percent match" due to injuries sustained to his teeth.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the deaths of Saddam's sons would "put a spike in the heart" of conspiracy theories circulating among several Iraqis.
U.S. officials are weighing whether to release graphic photographs of the two men, Wolfowitz said. "We are going to make sure the Iraqi people believe us at the end of the day," he said.
And in another victory claimed for coalition forces in Iraq, Sanchez announced the capture of Barzan Abd al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid al-Tikriti, No. 11 on the 55-strong U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis.
He declined to provide details of the capture.
‘Find, Kill or Capture’
Sanchez employed an array of maps, slides and visual materials to describe the coordinated raid in Mosul that involved members of the 101st Airborne Division, Special Forces, as well as Air Force elements and members of the Iraqi police force. The raid was prompted by a tip from an Iraq, Sanchez said.
The operation began at around 10 a.m. local time on Tuesday after U.S. troops and Iraqi police forces had cordoned off the area the night before. U.S. troops attempted to enter the villa after they received no response to an order relayed on a bullhorn for people to vacate the premises.
During two attempts to enter the building, U.S. soldiers came under small-arms fire from the second floor of the three-story structure where it was determined that Saddam's sons were holed up, Sanchez said.
According to Sanchez, the gunfire came primarily from AK-47 assault rifles.
Responding to a question about the extensive use of firepower in the face of small-arms fire from two men widely sought for human rights abuses and war crimes, Sanchez reiterated the goal of the mission was to "find, kill or capture" the "high-value targets."
"That was the decision made by the commander on the ground and that was [the] right decision," Sanchez said. "He made the right decision based on the conditions on the ground."
A New ‘Saddam Tape’
Details of the raid came as the purported new Saddam audiotape was aired on the Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya.
Calling on Iraqis to resist the U.S. occupation, the voice on the tape said the war was not over, although it conceded that the United States had achieved military superiority. But, the tape warned, America would not achieve "supremacy in the battle of wills against the Iraqi people."
The Saddam audiotape was dated July 20, two days before Saddam's sons were killed.
The U.S. military, faced with growing guerrilla attacks and a steadily mounting death rate, hopes that the killing of Saddam's influential and widely feared sons would bring an end to the violence in Iraq.
But two U.S. soldiers were killed and eight wounded today in separate assaults on convoys — one west of Baghdad in Ramadi, the other near Mosul.
On the Arabic al Jazeera satellite station today, masked gunmen warned that if the news of Odai and Qusai's deaths were true, the resistance against the "invaders" would be brutal.
Dreaded Heirs
Odai, 39, and Qusai, 37, were two of the most feared figures in prewar Iraq. Odai, in particular, was said to torture or kill Iraqi citizens seemingly on a whim.
Both sons held important positions in the Baathist regime before Saddam was ousted from power earlier this year.
Before the war, Qusai served as the head of the all-powerful Special Security Organization, an extensive network of intelligence, security and paramilitary wings that once permeated all levels of Iraqi society.
Odai had been considered his father's likely heir until a 1996 assassination attempt left him barely able to walk. His list of alleged crimes included rape, torture, intimidation and murder.
ABCNEWS' Martha Raddatz and Brian Hartman in Washington, Jeffrey Kofman in Baghdad and Jim Sciutto in Mosul contributed to this report.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/WorldNewsTonight/iraq030723_sons.html
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Investigators Seek Evidence of Saddam in Rubble Where Sons Died; Odai May Have Killed Self
B A G H D A D, Iraq, July 23— As U.S. troops and intelligence experts search the shattered Mosul villa where Saddam Hussein's sons died for signs of their father's whereabouts, ABCNEWS has learned that Odai Hussein may have committed suicide during Tuesday's intense firefight.
military official who has seen photographs of the bodies of Saddam's sons said that Odai appears to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the head.
The firefight that left Odai and Qusai Hussein and two others dead gutted the fortified villa in northern Iraq where the men were hiding out. Although bullets and missiles left gaping holes in the building's facade and destroyed the interior, there seemed to be some evidence left over for investigators to sift through in their search for Saddam.
Photos of the destroyed villa taken by the Arab satellite television station al Jazeera show what appears to be a computer monitor and keyboard along with scattered papers.
Reporting from Mosul today, ABCNEWS' Jim Sciutto said intelligence gathered from the villa had been sent south to Baghdad for further examination amid renewed hopes that the noose was tightening around Saddam himself.
‘Not Coming Back’
U.S. officials expressed hope that the deaths of Saddam's sons would put an end to violent resistance in Iraq that has left 41 U.S. soldiers dead since President Bush announced the end of major combat operations on May 1.
"A lot of the attacks taking place are being based on the idea that somehow the Saddams are coming back, he and his sons are coming back," Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, told ABCNEWS.
"They're not coming back. Two are dead. It won't be long before we get the father," he said.
Although its authenticity has not yet been confirmed, an audiotape purportedly recorded by Saddam was aired today by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television. The voice on the tape urged Iraqis to keep fighting U.S. forces.
In Washington, Bush sent the message that the killing of Saddam's sons was a sign that the "former regime has gone and will not be coming back."
In an upbeat progress report on the military operations in Iraq delivered from the White House Rose Garden, Bush said the "careers of two of the regime's chief henchmen came to an end" on Tuesday.
Flanked by Bremer, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers, Bush said holdouts of resistance against U.S. forces in Iraq were being conducted by "enemies of Iraq's people" and he vowed that they would be "hunted" and "defeated."
Bush's remarks came hours after U.S. military officials released details of Tuesday's raid.
At a press briefing in Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in Iraq, said he believed a TOW antitank missile delivered the final blow in the firefight with Saddam's sons.
Photos released by the Pentagon today and taken by U.S. Army photographers during the raid show just how overwhelming the U.S. firepower was to the Iraqis holed up inside the villa. The cream-colored tile exterior and ornate metal railings are shown pockmarked and smoldering.
In another image, flame erupts over nearly a quarter of the home's exterior after a TOW missile makes impact.
Timeline of the Raid
Amid reports of skepticism in the Arab world as to whether Odai and Qusai were indeed dead, Sanchez said medical and dental tests, along with identifications by individuals, had established beyond doubt that the two were killed.
The body of Qusai Hussein, heir apparent to the former Iraqi dictator, offered a 100 percent dental match, he said. Sanchez added that dental tests on Odai's body provided only a "90 percent match" due to injuries sustained to his teeth.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the deaths of Saddam's sons would "put a spike in the heart" of conspiracy theories circulating among several Iraqis.
U.S. officials are weighing whether to release graphic photographs of the two men, Wolfowitz said. "We are going to make sure the Iraqi people believe us at the end of the day," he said.
And in another victory claimed for coalition forces in Iraq, Sanchez announced the capture of Barzan Abd al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid al-Tikriti, No. 11 on the 55-strong U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis.
He declined to provide details of the capture.
‘Find, Kill or Capture’
Sanchez employed an array of maps, slides and visual materials to describe the coordinated raid in Mosul that involved members of the 101st Airborne Division, Special Forces, as well as Air Force elements and members of the Iraqi police force. The raid was prompted by a tip from an Iraq, Sanchez said.
The operation began at around 10 a.m. local time on Tuesday after U.S. troops and Iraqi police forces had cordoned off the area the night before. U.S. troops attempted to enter the villa after they received no response to an order relayed on a bullhorn for people to vacate the premises.
During two attempts to enter the building, U.S. soldiers came under small-arms fire from the second floor of the three-story structure where it was determined that Saddam's sons were holed up, Sanchez said.
According to Sanchez, the gunfire came primarily from AK-47 assault rifles.
Responding to a question about the extensive use of firepower in the face of small-arms fire from two men widely sought for human rights abuses and war crimes, Sanchez reiterated the goal of the mission was to "find, kill or capture" the "high-value targets."
"That was the decision made by the commander on the ground and that was [the] right decision," Sanchez said. "He made the right decision based on the conditions on the ground."
A New ‘Saddam Tape’
Details of the raid came as the purported new Saddam audiotape was aired on the Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya.
Calling on Iraqis to resist the U.S. occupation, the voice on the tape said the war was not over, although it conceded that the United States had achieved military superiority. But, the tape warned, America would not achieve "supremacy in the battle of wills against the Iraqi people."
The Saddam audiotape was dated July 20, two days before Saddam's sons were killed.
The U.S. military, faced with growing guerrilla attacks and a steadily mounting death rate, hopes that the killing of Saddam's influential and widely feared sons would bring an end to the violence in Iraq.
But two U.S. soldiers were killed and eight wounded today in separate assaults on convoys — one west of Baghdad in Ramadi, the other near Mosul.
On the Arabic al Jazeera satellite station today, masked gunmen warned that if the news of Odai and Qusai's deaths were true, the resistance against the "invaders" would be brutal.
Dreaded Heirs
Odai, 39, and Qusai, 37, were two of the most feared figures in prewar Iraq. Odai, in particular, was said to torture or kill Iraqi citizens seemingly on a whim.
Both sons held important positions in the Baathist regime before Saddam was ousted from power earlier this year.
Before the war, Qusai served as the head of the all-powerful Special Security Organization, an extensive network of intelligence, security and paramilitary wings that once permeated all levels of Iraqi society.
Odai had been considered his father's likely heir until a 1996 assassination attempt left him barely able to walk. His list of alleged crimes included rape, torture, intimidation and murder.
ABCNEWS' Martha Raddatz and Brian Hartman in Washington, Jeffrey Kofman in Baghdad and Jim Sciutto in Mosul contributed to this report.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/WorldNewsTonight/iraq030723_sons.html
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: