The Guardian: Israel planned raid to kill Saddam

[Sirotnikov]

Israel planned raid to kill Saddam

Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem
Wednesday December 17, 2003
The Guardian

Israeli commandos planned to assassinate Saddam Hussein with "smart" missiles that would hit him as he stood in a crowd at a relative's funeral in his home town of Tikrit, it emerged yesterday.

The extraordinary proposal involved soldiers flying deep into Iraq and using the customised missiles.

The top-secret assassination plot, which was codenamed Bramble Bush and was closely monitored by Yitzhak Rabin, the then Israeli prime minister, was abandoned when a trial run went wrong and five Israeli soldiers were killed.

The plan was devised in revenge for Saddam's missile attacks on Israel during the first Gulf war. The Israeli military censor decided to lift a ban revealing details of the 1992 operation after the arrest of the former Iraqi leader on Sunday.

Sensitivity about the plan was so acute that when the Guardian reported details of the accident involving the soldiers in 1992, the paper's then Middle East correspondent, Ian Black had his press credentials withdrawn by the Israeli government.

Using information from sources in Iraq and the Iraqi media, Nadav Zeevi, who was in charge of gathering intelligence for the operation, had to work out a pattern of Saddam's movements.

At the time, the Iraqi leader was using body doubles and was constantly changing his routine. "After the war he felt much more wanted and hunted, as if he smelled that we were on his trail, and simply vanished," Mr Zeevi told the Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth.

Mr Zeevi and his team struggled to work out where they expected the real Saddam Hussein to go. They had thought that he would visit his mistresses, but it transpired that sometimes his body doubles would go instead.

A breakthrough seemed to come when Saddam's uncle, Tilfah fell ill. Tilfah had raised Saddam as a boy and held a senior position in the government. It was obvious that Saddam would visit him in person and would certainly go to his funeral at the family cemetery in Tikrit.

The Israelis were right - when the funeral did take place Saddam did go in person. But by that stage the operation had been aborted.

Various assassination proposals had been considered by the Sayerat Matkal (General Staff Reconnaisance Unit), Israel's SAS. The leadership of the army wanted a glamorous commando raid rather than an air strike.

Ephraim Sneh, a member of the Knesset's foreign affairs and defence committee in 1992, confirmed the army was preparing to kill Saddam and said Mr Rabin had ordered the operation. "The credit should be given to the prime minister because it was his courage to approve this operation. Like in Entebbe and other daring operations, it was Rabin who took this decision," he said, referring to an Israeli commando raid to free hostages in 1976.

[GePap]

Interesting, yet pointless.

[Cyclotron]

Did they really think that, if it had succeeded, it would have been worth the intense negative press of shooting missiles into a crowd of funeral mourners?

I mean, killing Saddam from afar doesn't seem like it would affect a big change in the regime, you'd just see one of his sons take the job instead.

[GePap]

Do you really need to ask if the IDF would take into account possible civilians casualties when thinking of taking out a high value target like Saddam?

[Cyclotron]

I know very well what they probably would do; that's obvious. I'm just questioning the usefulness of it.

It seems like the assassination of a terrorist leader at least is something that might, in some sense, help with security; they are nuts if they think that killing the leader of an Arab state would help them with anything. Too much revenge and too little sense.

[Sirotnikov]

Did they really think that, if it had succeeded, it would have been worth the intense negative press of shooting missiles into a crowd of funeral mourners?

Ah, but would have only killed Saddam, I hope.

Would you justify an attack on a clear evil person (such as hitler) if he was in the middle of a crowd (assumingly, his evil relatives)?

Btw, when talking about Saddam, IIRC this Tilfah taught him everything evil he needed to know, when he grew him up as a kid. He was a bastard. (I think i saw this on the history channel)

[Sirotnikov]

Do you really need to ask if the IDF would take into account possible civilians casualties when thinking of taking out a high value target like Saddam?

Hey, don't confuse us with Americans.

We didn't intend to just drop a huge bomb on the entire place.

It was a 'smart' small missile, that was supposed to find saddam, and saddam only, and kill him. now obviously it would have hurt some of his body guards, but not much more.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
Would you justify an attack on a clear evil person (such as hitler) if he was in the middle of a crowd (assumingly, his evil relatives)?

No. But of course, the question is so vague and irrespective of reality that I won't take the time to give a full answer.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov

Do you really need to ask if the IDF would take into account possible civilians casualties when thinking of taking out a high value target like Saddam?

Hey, don't confuse us with Americans.

We didn't intend to just drop a huge bomb on the entire place.

It was a 'smart' small missile, that was supposed to find saddam, and saddam only, and kill him. now obviously it would have hurt some of his body guards, but not much more.

The only missile 'smart' enough to do so would be an aimed bullet. I have never heard of any smart missiles with tiny, tiny warheads.

[Sirotnikov]

ok.

If you know that you have a small and percise missile that can take out saddam, and probably only a few of his body guards, and you consider him a serious threat on your small country, would you have used it?

remember that in 1992, everyone still remembered and knew for sure that saddam had a nuclear program, and chemical weapons.

[Sirotnikov]

he only missile 'smart' enough to do so would be an aimed bullet. I have never heard of any smart missiles with tiny, tiny warheads.

This is the Israeli Sayeret Matkal you are talking about.
They build unqiue weapons for themselves when the job requires. This weapon was very unique, and had been built especially for the assignment. I think it was based on an anti-tank type missile, but with a unique guidance system and a unique charge.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov

It was a 'smart' small missile, that was supposed to find saddam, and saddam only, and kill him. now obviously it would have hurt some of his body guards, but not much more.

and just how, exactly, does the missle track a particular person?

[Cyclotron]

Siro, with Hitler you had kind of a monolithic evil, if you will. Nobody but the Germans and Italians would have mourned his death.

With Saddam, not only would he probably be quickly replaced by his equally depraved sons, but Israel would have reaped the considerable rage of all the other Arab nations who would probably see in Saddam's death their own at the hand of the Sayerat Matkal. Israel has done a lot of things to make people angry before, sometimes very angry, but if you actually assassinated a head of state you would be in deeper worldwide **** than ever before.

[Edan]

The commandos would set up a few miles from the cemetery and fire two specially designed missiles that would home in on Saddam, who wore a lighter-colored military uniform than other soldiers. The custom-made missiles were named "Obelisk," the paper said.

link

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov

Did they really think that, if it had succeeded, it would have been worth the intense negative press of shooting missiles into a crowd of funeral mourners?

Ah, but would have only killed Saddam, I hope.

Like those bombs Israel uses in the Territories?

Seriously, it's too bad they didn't follow through. It woulda saved a lot of lives.