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| Iraq |
| Saddam ally an insider at hotel hit by rockets |
| 2003-10-27 |
| Having someone inside would definitely make it easier. EFL. A contractor supplying kitchen staff and secretaries for the Al Rasheed Hotel, the scene of yesterday’s rocket attacks, was allied to Saddam Hussein’s security services and might have been providing intelligence to the anti-U.S. resistance, an Iraqi informant said yesterday. Time to vet the contractor list. Again. The hotel is one of the most sensitive sites in Baghdad, serving as office and residence to top coalition officials as well as many members of the Iraqi Governing Council. Resistance fighters fired a barrage of rockets into the hotel yesterday, killing an American colonel and wounding 17 persons. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who was staying at the hotel, was unhurt. The informant, who works with the newly trained Iraqi police, detailed his charges about a fifth column in the hotel kitchen in a letter to U.S. coalition officials almost two months ago but appears to have been ignored. The Washington Times turned over another copy of the letter to a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division yesterday and was told it would be investigated. The informant, who identifies himself fully in his letter but declined to have his name published, focuses his charges on Muslel Muhammed Farhan Al-Dilemi, 53, the manager of the Al-Tamoor Trading Co. which provides services to the hotel. Mr. Al-Dilemi "used to meet with [Saddam®s] heads of security, intelligence and ... most of the Baath Party officials," the Sept. 2 letter says, adding that the walls of his office are decorated with photographs of him posing with top Baathist officials. The letter says Mr. Al-Dilemi placed several people with jobs in the hotel kitchen and staffed the hotel with a number of "beautiful secretaries" for whom he arranged sexual liaisons. That fits with being Baathist. Wonder if he also worked the UN compound in Baghdad?  "His people are the ones who get the hotel kitchen food ... and he gets half of what they get on a daily basis," said the letter, implying that Mr. Al-Dilemi was running a food-smuggling racket. It added: "He already knows which the important floors are — such as floors 8, 9, 10 and 13 — and also that most of the Governing Council people live at the hotel." Mr. Wolfowitz is reported to have been sleeping in a room on the 13th floor when the rockets struck early yesterday. Looking more and more like Wolfie was the intended target. The letter claims that members of the hotel management are in league with Mr. Al-Dilemi. A hotel manager — named in the report — ensured Mr. Al-Dilemi got the best contracts from the hotel during the Saddam era and is still working there, the letter says. "Who knows what information is being passed to the [pro-Saddam resistance] fighters?" the informant said yesterday, suggesting that the most recent attack might have been avoided if he had been taken seriously. "It’s obvious that only an insider could have told the attackers that Mr. Wolfowitz was in the hotel, and that he was on the 13th floor," the informant concluded. That was disputed by Brig. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey of the 1st Armored Division, Baghdad’s effective military commander. He told reporters he believed the attack had been planned for two months and that the rockets had missed their targets because of an inaccurate propulsion system. That doesn’t mean they weren’t trying to hit Wolfie or someone else at the hotel. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #7 Anyone know if the whole staff of this hotel was replaced? It was built/controlled by Saddam to be a showcase hotel for Western journalists--now we're surprised that there was an Iraqi spook in the kitchen!>!? |
| Posted by: NotMikeMoore 2003-10-28 12:03:06 AM |
| #6 I'm not surprised our 'military leadership'outside the actual war-fighting skills is so shaky - I saw this coming ten years ago. Most promotions of senior officers and NCOs is based more on political rather than military behavior. I don't mean the Dem/Rep type of thing, but the bootlicking, yes-man type of politics that gets one a "good" ER, regardless of individual merit. That also includes going to the right 'school's, getting the right tickets punched, and being a go-along/get-along kind of guy. It's also appropos that the best war-fighting general the US Army has fielded in the last hundred years was George W. Patton, who was the exact OPPOSITE of most of that. Leadership is a rare commodity, worth its weight in gold in any organization. I saw thousands of true leaders bail after the first Gulf War, the election of Bill Clinton, and the downsizing of our military by several hundreds of thousands of positions. Too many of the people that were left were the 'greasers', the slick manipulators who work not for the best of the military, but for promotion and their own personal agrandizement. I doubt Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz need a reminder - I'm sure they see it every day. It's hard to get rid of these useless pegs, but that's what needs to be done. They certainly don't need a position where high integrity and innovative thinking are necessary prerequisites. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-10-27 12:31:46 PM |
| #5 Ah, why would they need a inside man? Everybody knows the Al Rasheed Hotel is full of juicy targets. And with the multiple rocket launcher they used, just hitting the hotel would do the trick. Now, if they had precision guided weapons, that would be different. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-27 11:50:37 AM |
| #4 I was really puzzled about the Viet Nam and Somalia experiences. It didn't take long before the US was hiring anybody who walked in the door without worrying about security. It's as if they had a blind spot. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2003-10-27 9:12:18 AM |
| #3 My God! In its own way, this would be as stupid as appointing a traitor and fifth columnist like Ramsey Clark to a cabinet position. Can you imagine anyone being so stupid? Oh, never mind. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2003-10-27 5:17:29 AM |
| #2 Shit. [rant] The "quagmire" is here (and it's domestic equivalent at Homeland Security) - and was the import of Rummy's memo. Not to hurt feelings, but shouldn't Chief Wiggles and his peers get rock-hard serious when something - no make that anything - comes in that smells this bad? I love a good toy drive and I'm not one who thinks military intelligence is an oxymoron (because it saved my ass at least a few times) and I hate the "20/20 hindsight / I told you so" shit, but there is something very wrong with this. And it doesn't matter if it's a fluke, which I don't buy at the moment, cuz flukes kill, too. I would not want to be the one who has to explain to the late Colonel's wife how and why this could happen - that should be enough motivation alone to make some hard decisions and the changes they entail. Sorry, but this is a stupid SNAFU and needs a fucking steamroller applied. The same thorough ass kicking also should be applied to the Sunni Triangle strategy team. Enough is enough. Gloves off internally and externally. OP, I think they need a wakeup call from someone they will understand and take criticism from. Until Rummy's people craft a roadmap of rolling heads and dynamited empires, these people need a helping hand - before they get themselves blown up. Again. [/rant] |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-27 3:29:57 AM |
| #1 Somebody fire the guy who ignored the letter. Over-looking something like this is in-exusable. |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-10-27 2:40:57 AM |