A very good review of events. It is long so I will not post it but do visit the link.
On a sidenote, does anyone know Pepe Escobar's biography?
Besides him being a journalist, what is his background? i love his writings for the Asia Times, but just curious to learn a bit more about his personal life.
Interesting article.
He’s from Brazil.. thats about all I know, sorry.
I agree he is a good writer :k:
**
It’s alright 
No problem.
i always look forward to his articles from the AT. He has an interesting ‘style’ of writing.
The Deal: Why Baghdad fell without resistance?
Assalamo alaykum,
The Deal: Why Baghdad fell without resistance?
Lebanese newspaper gives a detailed account
QUETTA: A Lebanese newspaper Sawt al-`Urouba has published a detailed report by Walid Rabbah on the secret deals between the top Iraqi generals and the aides of President Saddam Hussein with the United States to allow the US forces an uncontested capture of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq.
Here are some excerpts from the article:
“One day after the start of the war against Iraq American Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on American television screens to say something that the press interpreted as some sort of American propaganda. In reality, though, it was the basis for what was later to take place.
Rumsfeld said that there had been communications between the Americans and leaders in the Republican Guard in Iraq. He said that the details could not be disclosed now, but urged listeners to wait for coming days.
Three days later the American media played an audio tape on which recorded voices could be heard speaking in Arabic guiding American forces to important bombing targets. The voices were translated immediately in the headquarters of the American forces so that orders could be issued accordingly.
In fact, Rumsfeld was not just talking at random. There had been communications that took place in total secrecy between the leaders of the Republican Guard and the Commanders of Saddam’s Fedayeen, unbeknownst to the Iraqi leader and his son who was in charge of a huge military organization that could have made life hell for the American forces had they joined the battle.
The communications grew in intensity after the Republican Guard entered its first battle against the American forces in the environs of Baghdad, and after much of its equipment was destroyed. The Americans could see that they were facing a force with high military preparedness, one that was well trained and could inflict tremendous losses on the American forces whenever they tried to enter Baghdad.
The offer proposed by the American command in Iraq to the Republican Guard and Saddam’s Fedayeen was generous. The offers were run past Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who okayed them immediately. They provided for:
- In return for not opposing American forces and for laying down their weapons, the United States will give the following:
Transportation for the Republican Guards top echelon to secure locations outside of Iraq,
Transportation of the Republican Guards leaders of the second echelon to “liberated” places of which the Anglo-American forces had control inside Iraq,
Granting to the top echelon of the Republican Guards large sums of money, with lesser sums going to the second echelon,
Granting some of the leaders of the top echelon of the Republican Guard, and to those who had not committed “war crimes” official roles in “liberated” Iraq after the end of the war,
Granting American citizenship and residency in the United States to some of the first echelon commanders and their families, depending on their wishes,
Establishing a balance between the Iraqi Opposition that will have a limited role in the administration of Iraq on the one hand, and Republican Guard commanders who did not fight the American forces, on the other.
- As a guarantee of this (which the commanders of the Republican Guard did not completely trust), the United States disclosed some of its agents whom it had planted among the “human shields” who were guiding the American military to positions to be bombed and where President Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi leadership could be found. A brief meeting was held between one of the agents serving as a “human shield” and some members of the Republican Guard during which the latter were handed official written documents addressed to the first echelon of the Republican Guard. These reassured the Republican Guard commanders that the assurances were reliable. The documents provided for:
After the occupation of Saddam International Airport, Republican Guards of the top echelon should arrive at the airport so that they could be transported away. If that proved impossible, a place should be agreed upon where an Apache helicopter or two could land somewhere near Baghdad in order to transport them away.
Some commanders of the second echelon should secure themselves within the Iraqi Republican Palace adjacent to the Airport. American forces would fire some shells at it in order to announce that they had taken it, then American forces would transfer them to the airport.
Orders should be issued to the commanders of the Second Echelon of the Republican Guard not to resist and to lay down their weapons, together with promises of their safety, and that of their families, and they would be transported to secure locations. In turn they were to issue orders to those of lower rank in their commands not to put up resistance. The Republican Guard’s first echelon used a deception to get lower ranks to accept such an order by telling them that the resistance would be carried on secretly in accordance with a plan prepared by the Iraqi leadership to protract the war and catch the American forces in a trap that had been laid for them. This trick was used on the lower ranking commanders of the Republican Guard.
First and Second echelon commanders of the Republican Guard would be given sums of money in dollars as a down payment to guarantee the implementation of the agreement.
**Human Shields **
From the beginning, the heads of the American Central Intelligence Agency followed a plan to use the work of agents posing as “human shields.” The CIA chiefs used peace activists in America carefully and systematically. They sent three groups of peace activists to the region, and in particular into Baghdad on the basis that that would be the place where the decisive battle would be fought.
The deception worked with the Iraqi leaders who placed different groups of human shields in important places such as: factories and manufactories that had great importance for the population. Storehouses of weapons belonging to the Republican Guard were located inside those factories and manufactories, and this fact was openly acknowledged. But inside, hidden under ground, there were huge stockpiles of weapons sufficient for waging a resistance struggle for years. These were ostensibly civilian installations but on the inside were military. These included centers where rockets were gathered for destruction under the UN supervised program, while some of them were stored in underground military storehouses.
The Iraqi measures, whereby they distributed the human shields to vital locations, was in fact a trap set for the Iraqis, for the human shields carried difficult-to-detect delicate communication devices for communicating with the American forces during the bombing. It later became clear that these devices played an outstanding role in pinpointing the positions of Saddam and his leaders, as well as places where weapons were being stored.
Rest can be read @ The Deal: Why Baghdad fell without resistance?
like most fictional stories this one also started with " One day...":-p
His picture at Afghan border.
