Saddam's bodyguard: a CIA spy

He was the ultimate spy who came in from the cold. For months, the CIA and U.S. Special Forces had been working on the extraordinarily difficult and dangerous job of trying to penetrate Saddam Hussein�s inner circle.

According to a knowledgeable intelligence source, Delta Force, the supersecret commando group, had managed to tap Saddam�s underground phone lines in Baghdad. But the real break came when the CIA managed to recruit an asset, a senior Iraqi official in a position to know Saddam�s greatest vulnerability: where he sleeps each night.

Saddam, who had stayed alive and in power for more than three decades by never sleeping in one place for long, had to trust at least a few bodyguards. He made the rare mistake of relying on one henchman who was more afraid of the United States than he was of Saddam Hussein.

SINGING TO THE AMERICANS

The Iraqi official �weighed the balance of fear,� says a senior administration official, who described the highly secret operation to NEWSWEEK. The man measured the risk that Saddam would suspect his betrayal versus the mortal certainty that the American military was coming to wipe out the Iraqi strongman and his closest followers.

The Iraqi turncoat began to sing to the Americans. He told his intelligence handlers that on the night of March 19, Saddam, probably accompanied by his demonic sons Uday and Qusay, was sleeping in a bunker beneath a nondescript house in a residential area of Baghdad. Saddam, according to the CIA�s intelligence, was hiding below ground in a special reinforced bunker, built by German engineers.

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Very interesting story, deep. So we have this Iraqi defector to thank for that info of where Saddam was on the opening night of the war, he was nearby and called him on his cellphone, great stuff! This guy seems to have some very valuable info. This part was great:

"The CIA has collected the online addresses and private phone numbers of Saddam�s top generals. An Iraqi general will pick up his phone at home and hear an anonymous voice say, �Give it up. This is a lost battle. You�ll be saved if you defect.� Or he will get the same message when he checks his e-mail."

I also liked how everything unfolded, the Iraqi "bodyguard" called the CIA director, then he raced over to the Pentagon to tell Rumsfeld, and then they raced to the White House to tell the President, sounds like it came right out of a movie!!!!

Great job DW!!! And right on MSNBC too....

I wonder where this guy is now? Is he still over there providing secrets? Obviously the Iraqi's know about this since the media got a hold of it, but I doubt they know excactly which one of the bodyguards he is. Or maybe he has left Baghdad and providing info to us somewhere else.

I've been wondering that myself. Hopefully the U.S. administration won't desert him like the they did the Kurds in GWI.

I have no idea how we would get him out of Baghdad, but I think he deserves our protection, credit and recompense for his efforts.

More food for thought,
Deep

Thanks for great post deep!!

sounds more like an intox operation .. why would the CIA risk to compromize it's own spies ?

Unless, of course, the spy has already been compromised, and is now in Virginia...