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Iraq | |||
Senior Iraq Defector May Not Have Made It | |||
2003-02-26 | |||
All may not be well for Adib Shaaban, senior aide to Saddamâs powerful son Uday and Iraqâs highest-ranking would-be defector. His attempt to flee to the United States, first revealed exclusively in DEBKA-Net-Weekly 97 (February 14), may not have come off. First a recap: Shaaban — charged with Udayâs most sensitive missions — traveled to Jeddah in early February, saying he needed to put through some gold transactions ahead of the war. From Jeddah, he flew to Beirut and disappeared. But he never really went to the Lebanese capital. Instead, he made his way undercover to Damascus Monday and was picked up by an unmarked plane that flew him out of the Middle East. At least, thatâs how Shaaban scripted his plan. But like so many things in the murky world of intelligence, the plan went awry â as is strongly indicated by the fresh information reaching DEBKA-Net-Weekly.
— Shaaban was the senior go-between for Baghdadâs business with Damascus. Saddam and Assad share a stake in keeping this intelligence bomb out of Western hands les he lay bare the full extent of Syriaâs operational support for al Qaeda or the degree to which Assad violated UN sanctions against Iraq. So why did Shaaban take the chance of heading for Damascus? He may have had no choice in the matter. In Jeddah, the Saudis may have decided that this potato was too hot for them to hold and hustled him aboard the first flight out, which was bound for Damascus. Alternatively, the defector may have flown directly to Damascus — a kosher destination given his job as go-between — intending to continue from there in secret to Jeddah to knock at the door of a US consulate or make his way to the West under his own steam.
Interesting, if true. Explains why he hasn't shown up anywhere. Of course, he could be in a sound-proof room in Tel Aviv. | |||
Posted by:Steve |
#3 Choose wiselly Syria,your on the short list. Great book(good movie).Caught that myself,sure you got the Mahdi/Jihad simalarity,too. |
Posted by: raptor 2003-02-27 07:52:26 |
#2 "ever seen dune? It's sort of like the harkonen boys. and I mean that with all the subtle refferances that are involved." Yep, said so myself a few months ago. |
Posted by: Crescend 2003-02-26 22:49:48 |
#1 yeah except he is back in baghdad and although few news outlets mention it, he even made an appearance to refute statements that he had tried to defect. now he is a photography association guy and Udai's flunky, which would make him privy to some interesting stuff, but udai has been out of favor for a while. Qusay saddam's other son is the guy to watch out for. ever seen dune? It's sort of like the harkonen boys. and I mean that with all the subtle refferances that are involved. what we are seeing here is that his dissapearance had so much hype that it was everywhere, his reapearance made some news, but not enough. sounds like debka didn't do all of their research. I'll try and dig up when he made his statement refuting his defection. it was done feb 15th, and although feb 16th was when the majority of newspapers were talking of shaaban's dissapearance, it was alreay a cold trail by then. it's what happens when media all research off eachother. -DS "the horns hold up the halo" |
Posted by: DeviantSaint 2003-02-26 13:58:22 |