Pentagon secret unit helped find Saddam (rummy's SS)

[leftchick]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1152&slug=Pentagon%20Spy%20Teams

WASHINGTON -- When U.S. troops pulled Saddam Hussein from a hole in the ground a year ago, the capture was described afterward as the work of a team of conventional and special operations troops.

Nothing was said about an assist from an intelligence unit that the Pentagon created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to expand the military's ability to collect human intelligence - information from spies as opposed to listening devices or satellites.

The unit's existence was revealed by The Washington Post on Sunday.

Pentagon officials said Monday that the unit, called the Strategic Support Branch, had a hidden hand in interrogations and other aspects of the clue-sifting work inside Iraq that narrowed the search for Saddam and led eventually to the cramped underground chamber where he was hiding


... The plot thickens. Interrogation?? Abu Ghraib perhaps? We will never know.

[hector459]

1. Saddam was held by Iraqis. Now that the secret unit has been outed

the Pentagon is just trying to justify its existence. The truth be known, Saddam was turned in by folks close to him who collected a windfall of money. Go back to the original tapes of his "capture" and you will see that he had been drugged and held until the US forces came to collect him. This news story is just a cover to try to legimize the existence of these secret organizations that operate outside of government. If Rummy can have a secret organization, then any number of high level intelligence folks can have their own secret organizations. The American people just don't realize how much of hidden secret government is controlling their lives.

Folks, we are dealing with renegade government that even Bush can't control.

[underpants]

Is this the same unit that didn't exist this morning?

and I thought the Kurds captured Saddam and turned him in for the reward. :shrug:

[rockedthevoteinMA]

6. Exactly.

it existed yesterday am, didn't exist this am, and now, it's responsible for finding Saddam? :wtf:

[underpants]

9. I stole that from you off the other thread

hey at least I am honest about it.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

14. That's cool...

:hi:

[Guns Aximbo]

2. B.S.

As the story was originally reported. It was like a 3 stooges short - you know the one where the stooges are coming out of the manhole between a gangster's legs or a cops legs.

It was the same thing. A soldier just happened to be standing there when Saddam stuck his head out.

[underpants]

3. LOL Frist doesn't know enough about it to know if there should be hearings

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he did not know enough yet about the matter to judge whether Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had exceeded his authority. "I'm not sure whether it's going to require hearings or not," he said.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Or is it possible the Rumster is trying to justify their existence

by claiming they found Saddam Hussein? We can be reminded that his office announced a long time ago it could be expected to publish lies to confound and amaze the "enemy." Then they claimed they wouldn't, after all.

I'm starting to think the "enemy" (in their eyes) is actually 'lil ol' us, the U.S. public.

[AuntiBush]

8. Aw, Jeez!

You'd think with all the Milions this guy and his buds are worth, he'd at least get his teeth cleaned! J*&*K-A-S!

[underpants]

10. I thought that too- this diverts attention away from their existence

and the RW'ers will hail them as manly MAN-GODS

All Hail the manly MAN-GODS and those who hail them are manly MAN-GODS as well !!!!

:eyes:

[leftchick]

12. That is exactly what I was thinking Judi Lynn!

They are scrambling fast to find a way to justify rummy's secret death squad.

[daleo]

5. Special Rummy torture unit?

"the unit, called the Strategic Support Branch, had a hidden hand in interrogations..."

Herr Rumsfurher's private SS? or Gestapo?

[AuntiBush]

7. And they couldn't find B-Ladin because...

??? Of course, the bounty waa higher, and Saddam was at a all new low (intrenched, that is).

[alcuno]

11. Really? Last year they credited Iraqi forces. Has someone been

making up stuff?

[leftchick]

13. In OPERATION since Oct. 2001!! yahoo link...

Was this in the original WP story? If it was I missed it...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=716&e=6&u=/ap/20050124/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pentagon_spy_teams

Pentagon Tries to Explain Secret Group


~snip~

Another official, who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal details, said the unit's origins can be traced to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, when commanders of special operations forces found they lacked the interrogation experts they needed.


This official, who has direct knowledge about the unit, said it is not a standing force but rather a "task-organized" group that is put together to meet a battlefield commander's special needs.


William Arkin, a former Army intelligence officer and author of a new book, "Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operations in the 9-11 World," said in a telephone interview Monday that the DIA unit may be a permutation of a secret intelligence unit known informally as Gray Fox, which reportedly has played a role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).

Arkin said he was concerned that the Pentagon's expanding use of such secret intelligence units is blurring the lines between combatants and noncombatants, since some in these units don't operate in military uniforms but appear on the battlefield.