Asian Times June 25, 2004 Our website’s correspondent writes: THIS is an Asian Times exclusive interview with self-proclaimed leaders of the Iraqi resistance, including two of Saddam’s former generals. They claim to have prepared meticulously for the post-invasion war for liberation, rather than it being a largely ad hoc affair. They claim possession of 50 million weapons (perhaps including bullets?).
More plausibly, they claim 75% of the population is behind them, and they have 5,000 volunteers ready as suicide bombers. And they specifically declaim any responsibility for the death of Nick Berg . They also claim not to have been involved in the bombing of either the UN mission or the Red Cross.
Perhaps the hysterical/ conspiratorial claims of “false flag” operations in Iraq are truer than we realize. ‘The liberation of Baghdad is not far away’ By Alix de la Grange Editor’s note: Coordinated attacks and skirmishes in several Iraqi cities on Thursday killed at least 66 people and wounded more than 250. Forty-four people were killed in a series of car bomb blasts in the northern city of Mosul and 216 wounded.
Fighting in al-Anbarprovince, where there were clashes in Fallujah and Ramadi, killed at least nine people and wounded 27, and fighting around Baquba killed 13 and wounded 15. BAGHDAD — On the eve of the so-called transfer of sovereignty to the new Iraqi caretaker government
on June 30, former Saddam Hussein generals turned members of the elite of the Iraqi resistance movement have abandoned their clandestine positions for a while to explain their version of events and talk about their plans. According to these Ba’ath officials, “the big battle” in Iraq is yet to take place. “The Americans have prepared the war, we have prepared the post-war. And the transfer of power on June 30 will not change anything regarding our objectives.
This new provisional government appointed by the Americans has no legitimacy in our eyes. They are nothing but puppets.” Why have these former officers waited so long to come out of their closets? “Because today we are sure we’re going to win.” Secret rendezvous Palestine Hotel, Tuesday, 3pm. One week after a formal request, the prospect of talking with the resistance is getting slimmer.
We reach a series of dead ends — until a man we have never met before discreetly approaches our table. “You still want to meet members of the resistance?” He speaks to my associate, a female Arab journalist who has been to Iraq many times. Talk is brief. “We meet tomorrow morning at the Babel Hotel,” the man says before disappearing. Against all expectations, this contact seems to be more reliable than the ones we have previously tried. Hotel Babel, Wednesday, 9am.
At the entrance of the cybercafe, mobbed by foreign mercenaries, the man we saw the day before lays it down: “Tomorrow, 10 o’clock, al-Saadoun Street, in front of the Palestine. Come without your driver.” We arrive at the meeting place on Thursday morning by taxi. The contact is there. After a brief “Salam Alekum” we get into his car. “Where are we going?” No reply. We drive for more than two hours.
In Baghdad, even when traffic is not totally blocked by military checkpoints, traffic jams are permanent. In one year, more than 300,000 vehicles have been smuggled into the country. Every other car has no license plate and most drivers don’t even know what “driver’s license” means. “We’ll be there soon. Do you know Baghdad?”, asks our man. The answer is clearly no. To get oriented in the sprawling city, one must circulate freely, and on foot.
With criminal behavior spreading like a virus, a wave of kidnappings, the 50 or 60 daily attacks against the occupation forces and the indiscriminate response of the American military, there’s hardly any incentive to do any walking. The car stops in an alley, near a minibus with tinted windows. One of its doors opens. On board, there are three men and a driver carefully scrutinizing all the streets and houses around us.
If we don’t know at all what we are confronted with, our interlocutors seem to know very well who they’re talking to. “Before any discussions, we don’t want any doubts on your part about our identities,” they say, while extracting some papers from inside a dusty plastic bag: identity cards, military IDs and several photos showing them in uniform beside Saddam Hussein .
They are two generals and a colonel of the disbanded Iraqi army, now on the run for many months, chased by the coalition’s intelligence services. “We would like to rectify some information now circulating in the Western media, that’s why we took the initiative of meeting you.” Our discussion lasts for more than three hours.