“SIGINT [signals intelligence] revealed that what was left of Saddam Hussein’s regime refused to accept the fact that they had been defeated. As late as April 8 [2003], the day before Baghdad fell, intercepted Iraqi satellite phone messages showed that Hussein’s son Qusay, the Republican Guard commander, continued to believe that Iraq was winning the […]
4/7/2003
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a press briefing on April 7, 2003. “Asked whether he was supporting [Iraqi National Congress leader] Ahmed Chalabi, or endorsing him for any role in a postwar Iraq, Rumsfeld replied, ‘Of course not. I just said that the Iraqi people are going to make these decisions. Clearly, the United […]
4/7/2003
In Iraq, “On April 7 [2003], a B-1B bomber dropped four bombs on the al-Saa restaurant in the tony Mansour district of west Baghdad, where intelligence sources indicated Saddam Hussein and two of his sons were meeting. Inspection of the ruins found eighteen dead bodies, all of them unfortunate customers of the restaurant. But Saddam […]
4/7/2003
“Mohammed al-Sahaf, the [Iraqi] information minister (and former foreign minister), gave regular briefings to the press from the Information Ministry, declaring that the Americans were being defeated. On April 7 [2003], he said famously, ‘Their infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad. Be assured, Baghdad is safe, protected.’ Sahaf left […]
4/7/2003
In the April 7, 2003, edition of The Nation, Russ Baker wrote: ” ‘…Newsweek‘s John Barry revealed that the [Bush] Administration had excised a central component of [Iraqi defector General Hussein] Kamal’s testimony–that he has personal knowledge that Iraq had ‘destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stocks and the missiles to deliver them.’ According […]
4/6/2003
“At an April 6, 2003, press briefing, he [spokesman for Central Command, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks] said that Salman Pak [military facility] was just one of ‘a number of examples we found where there’s [terrorist] training activity happening inside of Iraq.’ Brooks specifically mentioned fighters from Sudan and Egypt, and said that information obtained from […]
4/5/2003
“On April 5, [2003] U.S. forces began an attack on Baghdad. After fierce fighting, they captured one of Saddam’s main palaces and crossed the Tigris River to reach the city center.” – Andrew Langley, Bush, Blair, and Iraq: Days of Decision, Page 33 […]
4/5/2003
“Seven nuclear facilities in Iraq have been damaged or effectively destroyed by the looting that began in the first days of April [2003], when U.S. ground forces thrust into Baghdad, according to U.S. investigators and others with detailed knowledge of their work. The Bush administration fears that technical documents, sensitive equipment and possibly radiation sources […]
4/5/2003
“By the time the vanguard of the US invading force had reached the outskirts of Baghdad [in early April 2003], the armed forces of Iraq had almost disintegrated. The regime tried to use the Arab ‘volunteers’ who had flocked to join the battle against the invaders. Some 4,000 were reportedly in Baghdad, awaiting orders from […]
4/5/2003
In Iraq, “by April 5 [2003] the Army’s Third Infantry Division had rolled into the heart of Baghdad.” – Elisabeth Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice: An American Life, Page 212 […]