← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Angler
Thread ID: 11502 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2003-12-17
2003-12-17 01:30 | User Profile
It looks like the Israelis had originally intended to do their own dirty work in Iraq, but in the end they decided that it would be better if their American slaves did it for them. Besides, merely killing Saddam wouldn't have changed much, since one of his sons probably would have taken over the Iraqi government in that event. The Israelis realized that a war was needed, so they made it happen. -- Angler
[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031216/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_stalking_saddam_1[/url]
Israel Had Plot to Kill Saddam Hussein
Tue Dec 16, 3:55 PM ET
By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - The revelation that Israel plotted to kill Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) at the funeral of a beloved uncle resolved an enduring mystery and infuriated current military chiefs who worry loose talk is harming Israel's security.
"Operation Bramble Bush," the plot to assassinate Saddam with a missile attack, was shelved in 1992 after five elite commandos were killed training for the mission.
Rumors had circulated for years that the training accident was linked to plans to kill Saddam, but military censors suppressed publication until Tuesday, three days after U.S. forces captured the former dictator.
Israeli security officials were furious about the revelation.
"There are things that are best left unsaid for security reasons, and should not be told to the whole world in an irresponsible fashion," military chief Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon said.
Israeli newspapers published details of the plot Tuesday, and officials involved in the planning ââ¬â including the intelligence officer who tracked Saddam ââ¬â spoke about it for the first time in radio and television interviews.
The Israeli plot was born after Iraq (news - web sites) fired 39 Scud missiles at the Jewish state in the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). Bowing to U.S. pressure, the military did not retaliate, and officials believed killing Saddam would restore Israel's damaged credibility.
Israel also felt killing Saddam would reduce the risk of further missile attacks, said Danny Yatom, a former top aide to Yitzhak Rabin (news - web sites). As prime minister in 1992, Rabin oversaw the later stages of the assassination plot.
Nadav Zeevi, an Israeli intelligence officer at the time, told Israel Army Radio on Tuesday he was asked in the spring of 1992 to gather information on Saddam and propose a time and place for attack. Zeevi said he knew Saddam would be a tough target because he moved often and was known to send doubles to appearances.
"We felt we needed something that was emotionally so important to him that he would attend personally," Zeevi said.
Zeevi said he learned that Saddam's maternal uncle and father-in-law, Khairallah Tulfah, was dying of diabetes, having lost both legs to the disease. Officials hatched a plan to kill Saddam when he attended what Israel believed would be Tulfah's impending funeral.
On Oct. 2, 1992, Zeevi brought the idea to Rabin and senior military officials. Rabin gave the go-ahead to continue intelligence gathering and to practice for an attack, Zeevi said.
The job was given to Sayeret Matkal, an elite commando unit that had carried out other daring operations, including the 1976 raid that freed Israeli hostages from a hijacked plane in Entebbe, Uganda.
The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot said commandos would be flown into Iraq and split into two groups. The advance unit would head to the Saddam family cemetery outside Tikrit, and a second group would deploy eight miles away.
The front unit would watch the funeral from 150 yards away, and signal to the soldiers further back to fire a barrage of missiles on Saddam, Yediot reporter Ronen Bergman said. The custom-made missiles were named "Obelisk," the Maariv daily said.
After the assassination, the commandos were to be flown out of Iraq on an plane that would take off from a temporary airfield.
Zeevi said he had proposed something more modest ââ¬â perhaps remote-controlled bombs that would be detonated as Saddam reached the cemetery.
"The generals, for their own reasons, pushed for more, for something with missiles and bang-bang and helicopters, something more like the Entebbe operation, something with a lot more action," Zeevi said.
On Nov. 5, 1992, the commandos staged a dress rehearsal in the Negev Desert. "It was basically a show for the generals," Zeevi said.
Ehud Barak (news - web sites), then army chief and later prime minister, was present along with other top military brass.
As part of the exercise, commandos were to fire a dummy missile at soldiers playing the roles of Saddam and his bodyguards. A live missile was used by mistake, and five soldiers were killed. Six were wounded. [LOL! Good! -- Angler]
For years, Barak was hounded by allegations ââ¬â later proven false ââ¬â that he fled, leaving behind wounded soldiers.
The plan to kill Saddam was shelved after the accident. Maariv said Saddam attended his uncle's funeral as predicted.
2003-12-17 18:08 | User Profile
Angler,
Israel had plan to kill Saddam in 1992 Charges considered in '91 missile attacks Craig Nelson - For the Journal-Constitution Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Jerusalem --- Just days after U.S. soldiers put Saddam Hussein behind bars, Israeli military censors have lifted a ban on reporting a tightly held government secret: a plan to assassinate the Iraqi leader at his uncle's funeral in 1992.
**Israel, moving quickly to insert itself into the international debate over Saddam's future, also said it was considering whether to press war crimes charges against the deposed Iraqi leader and to seek compensation for Iraq's firing of 41 Scud missiles into Israel during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Alan Baker, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's legal adviser, said the Scud attacks, which killed two people and wounded 208 others, appeared to violate international law because they targeted civilians and population centers.
''We'll be in contact with the United States, with the State Department, with the Justice Department, and once things develop we will decide how we're going to act,'' Baker said.**
Attack at funeral planned
In the 1992 bid to assassinate Saddam in retaliation for the Scud attacks, several schemes were proposed, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday, quoting officials involved in planning the operation.
They included gliders laden with explosives, a television-guided missile launched from a plane, and a disguised bomb sold to a member of Saddam's entourage.
But fears that one of Saddam's legendary doubles would be hit instead of Saddam himself stalled the planning and sent Israeli military and intelligence planners back to the drawing board.
"When you want to locate or abduct or assassinate someone, the basic idea is to find out exactly when he repeats himself, where it is certain that he will go, he and not a double,'' the newspaper quoted the former intelligence officer for the mission, Maj. Nadav Zeevi, as saying.
According to Yedioth Ahronoth, a breakthrough occurred in May 1992, when Israeli spies learned that Saddam's uncle, Tilfah, was terminally ill with diabetes. Israeli intelligence analysts argued that Tilfah's funeral was an event that Saddam's family and tribal ties would not allow him to miss, the paper reported.
Following often bitter internal debate about the value of killing Saddam and the costs of both success and failure, the analysts and planners decided the best chance of eliminating the Iraqi leader was to drop commandos by helicopter near a cemetery close to Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.
From there, they would fire a ''smart'' missile with a camera in its nose, targeting Saddam amid the crowd of government officials and family members attending the funeral, the newspaper said.
A wink from United States?
The operation, code-named ''Bramble Bush,'' was called off after five of the commandos were killed in a training exercise.
The reports also revived questions about Washington's role in condoning assassination plots.
During the Gulf War, the administration of President George Bush persuaded Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to refrain from retaliating against Baghdad. It feared a Middle East conflagration if Israel entered the war against Iraq.
But after Iraq's ouster from Kuwait left Saddam in power, Israel argued in talks with U.S. officials that its failure to act had damaged its ability to deter future attacks from Iraq and elsewhere, Yedioth Ahronoth said.
Washington would not move against Saddam himself due to an executive order banning assassinations of foreign leaders that the current President Bush has since revoked. That left Israel to act on its own, the report said.
''Israel understood from these talks that the Americans would not actually be angry if Israel took on itself the job of killing Saddam,'' it said.
é 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alan Baker, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's legal adviser, said the Scud attacks, which killed two people and wounded 208 others, appeared to violate international law because they targeted civilians and population centers.
Just like a pig forcing his way to the feeding trough. James Baker will love this.
I know this is off topic, but I can't resist this. Do you suppose that the Palestinians could pull the same thing on the Israelis? After all, the Israelis do have a record of firing rockets from helicopters and dropping two thousand pound bombs on residential areas, or do you think the being "god's chosen people" gives them a pass on that!? (sarcasm)
We know this, the Bush Administration would never bring up this blatant hypocrisy.