WASHINGTON, 19 September 2005 — Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used a secret mail network to try to stoke a rebellion against US-led forces in the time between his downfall in April 2003 and his capture in December that year, the weekly news magazine Time says.
Often switching locations in an attempt to avoid his enemies, Saddam “fired off frequent letters filled with instructions for his subordinates,” Time says in its issue to appear today, quoting “current and former” intelligence officials. Some letters “were pathetic,” it says.
“In one, he explained guerrilla tradecraft to his inner circle, how to keep in touch with one another, how to establish new contacts, how to remain clandestine.
“Of course, the people doing the actual fighting needed no such advice, and decisions about whom to attack, when and where were made by the (insurgency) cells,” which were supplied with money, arms and logistical support by Saddam’s minions, it says.
On the other hand, Saddam did make a strategic decision that changed the course of the insurgency, which has since widened beyond its original Baathist core to include religious extremists, nationalists and individuals angered by the US occupation.
“In early autumn (of 2003), he sent a letter to associates, ordering them to change the target focus from coalition to Iraqi collaborators, that is, to attack Iraqi police stations,” the report says. Saddam is to go on trial next month before the Iraqi Special Tribunal over a 1982 massacre in a Shiite village north of Baghdad following an attempt on his life there.
The sources interviewed by Time were gloomy about the war and critical of President George W. Bush’s preparations for the aftermath of the conflict.
