Two interesting reports in the Sunday edition of The Telegraph in London.
First, they say the agreement with Libya to eliminate that country's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction was precipitated not just by our anti-terror action in Iraq and elsewhere, but also by the seizure of inarguable physical evidence of Libya's culpability.
Libya's promise to surrender its weapons of mass destruction was forced by Britain and America's seizure of physical evidence of Col Muammar Gaddafi's illegal weapons programme, the Telegraph can reveal.United States officials say that America's hand was strengthened in negotiations with Col Gaddafi after a successful operation, previously undisclosed, to intercept transport suspected of carrying banned weapons.
The operation is said to have been carried out under the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), an international, American-led scheme to halt the spread of WMD by seizing them in transit. The PSI was first mooted by President George W Bush in May but was not officially launched until September.
Last week, a senior official from the US State Department confirmed that the PSI had "netted several seizures", although he refused to give further details.
Second, they report that we now have evidence that Saddam Hussein was in fact directing much of the opposition to Coalition forces in Iraq. That seems consistent with radio reports this morning that hundreds of Iraqi bad guys have been arrested in the last few days since Saddam's ignominious capture.
Saddam Hussein was personally directing the post-war insurgency inside Iraq, playing a far more active role than previously thought, American intelligence officers have concluded since his capture.Posted by Alan at December 21, 2003 09:30 AMDespite the bewildered appearance of the deposed dictator when he was hauled from his hiding-hole last weekend, he is believed to have been issuing regular instructions on targets and tactics through five trusted lieutenants.
Documents found in his briefcase when he was caught indicated that he had been kept informed of the progress of the insurgency but they did not suggest he had overall control of operations by former Ba'ath Party loyalists.
However, since the arrest and interrogation of guerrilla leaders named in the paperwork, US investigators believe that Saddam was at the head of an elaborate network of rebel cells.
They have put together a detailed picture of Saddam's support structure while in hiding. This enabled him to issue commands without the use of satellite phones that could be picked up by monitoring devices.
The Telegraph has also learned that millions of dollars to support the insurgency were recovered in raids on other suspected Saddam safe houses. US officials say he was in regular contact with five "enablers" - veterans of his feared security services drawn from his power base of Tikrit.
Each man had his own responsibility: logistics, financing, planning, operations and as chief of staff. It was the last of these, picked up in a swoop in Baghdad nine days ago, who gave away Saddam's hiding place.