Hussein's Agents Are Behind Attacks in Iraq, Pentagon Finds

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

By Thom Shanker

New York Times Writer

The intelligence report was first mentioned publicly last week, during testimony before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, in appearances by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The classified study was sent to Capitol Hill for scrutiny by lawmakers, and is being distributed to commanders in Iraq to help focus their planning to quell the insurgency.

WASHINGTON -- NYT
A Pentagon intelligence report has concluded that many bombings against Americans and their allies in Iraq, and the more sophisticated of the guerrilla attacks in Falluja, are organized and often carried out by members of Saddam Hussein's secret service, who planned for the insurgency even before the fall of Baghdad.

The report states that Iraqi officers of the "Special Operations and Antiterrorism Branch," known within Mr. Hussein's government as M-14, are responsible for planning roadway improvised explosive devices and some of the larger car bombs that have killed Iraqis, Americans and other foreigners. The attacks have sown chaos and fear across Iraq.

In addition, suicide bombers have worn explosives-laden vests made before the war under the direction of of M-14 officers, according to the report, prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency. The report also cites evidence that one such suicide attack last April, which killed three Americans, was carried out by a pregnant woman who was an M-14 colonel.

Its findings were based on interrogations with high-ranking M-14 members who are now in American custody, as well as on documents uncovered and translated by the Iraq Survey Group. While the report cites specific evidence, other important assessments of American intelligence on Iraq have been challenged and even proven wrong.

The contents of the report were either quoted directly or summarized by five United States government officials and military officers who had read it. It provides a more detailed portrait of the insurgency. In the past, American officials have typically described the insurgents as a rudderless guerrilla movement of foreign fighters, Islamic jihadists, former Ba’athists, and common criminals. The report does not address the question of how broad-based support for the insurgency is.

The seven-page "Special Analysis" was written under Defense Intelligence Agency guidance by the Joint Intelligence Task Force, which includes officers and analysts from across the civilian and military espionage community. It is not known whether it represents a fully formed consensus, or whether there might be dissenting assessments.

(More: NYTimes.com / Washington)

2003 © The New York Times Company.

Dan