New York Times U.S. Officials See Hussein's Hand in Attacks on Americans in Iraq By DOUGLAS JEHL October 31, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 - Saddam Hussein may be playing a significant role in coordinating and directing attacks by his loyalists against American forces in Iraq, senior American officials said Thursday. The officials cited recent intelligence reports indicating that Mr. Hussein is acting as a catalyst or even a leader in the armed opposition, probably from a base of operations near Tikrit, his hometown and stronghold. A leadership role by Mr. Hussein would go far beyond anything previously acknowledged by the Bush administration, which has sought in its public remarks to portray the former Iraqi leader as being on the run and irrelevant. Officials acknowledged that the reports of a significant role by Mr. Hussein could not be corroborated, and one senior official cautioned that recent intelligence reports contained conflicting assessments. Nonetheless, three senior officials described reports of a larger role by Mr. Hussein as credible, and a Defense Department official said the information had given a fresh sense of urgency to the American-led manhunt for the former Iraqi leader. "There are some accounts that say he is somehow instigating or fomenting some of the resistance," a second American official said of the intelligence reports. Mr. Hussein is believed to have met with Izzat Ibrahim, an Iraqi general who was officially the second highest ranking member of the Iraqi government at the time of the invasion, and who is described by American officials as playing a significant role in the insurgency. General Ibrahim, who is No. 6 on the American most-wanted list, has been described by some Defense Department officials as having recently been in contact with members of Ansar al-Islam, a militant group that had been based in northern Iraq before the American-led invasion and which is linked to the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. Such contacts would be the clearest evidence to date of coordination between forces loyal to Mr. Hussein and members of the extremist group in the campaign against American forces in Iraq. But one senior American official said Thursday that while General Ibrahim was clearly playing a role in coordinating attacks by those loyal to Mr. Hussein, it was much less clear whether he had been in contact with Ansar al-Islam. For more than six months, Bush administration officials have been saying they believe Mr. Hussein is spending nearly all of his time trying to evade detection by the American-led forces. During his time in hiding, Mr. Hussein has issued at least five audio recordings that have served as calls to arms. But American officials have sought to discount the idea that he is playing anything more than a symbolic role in inspiring opposition to the American occupation. But over the last month or two, the senior American officials said, there have been increasing signs that his role may well be more significant. Two officials said there were indications that, in addition to meeting with subordinates to discuss the armed opposition, Mr. Hussein may be playing a role in bringing together different factions of loyalists involved in the attacks. Some of the meetings may have been conducted in moving cars to avoid detection by United States forces, one American official said. "Everyone has always recognized that it's important to get Saddam," the Defense Department official said. "But with these continued reports that Saddam may be behind some of the attacks, or coordinating them or leading them, there's now a military reason as well." Sunni Muslim Iraqis loyal to Mr. Hussein are thought to make up the overwhelming majority of the forces arrayed against the American occupation. In recent weeks the insurgents have attacked United States forces two dozen or more times times a day, whether by direct fire, mortar shells, roadside explosives or other means. More American soldiers have been killed in attacks in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat, than during the six weeks of fighting that followed the invasion. Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, asked Thursday night on "The Charlie Rose Show" whether Mr. Hussein was coordinating attacks in Iraq, said: "It's a little hard to tell. Once in a while there are rumors that he is somehow involved in coordinating attacks. He is spending a lot of time trying to protect himself. I wonder to the degree that he is able to coordinate, given that he is saving his own skin." A senior Congressional official said that the growing Iraqi resentment against the American occupation may be becoming a more important factor than any role played by Mr. Hussein, because "people are not fighting for Saddam; they are fighting against the Americans, and against the occupation." Several hundred American commandos and intelligence officers have been involved in the search for Mr. Hussein and his confederates, mostly focusing on the region near Tikrit. Mr. Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were tracked down and killed this summer in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. From a list of 55 Iraqis most wanted by the United States in the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Mr. Hussein and 11 others remain at large. It was not until June, more than two months after Mr. Hussein was toppled, that Bush administration officials began to acknowledge that he had almost certainly survived the invasion and two American attempts to kill him during that conflict. In early summer, the Central Intelligence Agency confirmed that an audiotape broadcast on Arabic-language television stations almost certainly included the voice of Mr. Hussein, and since then American officials have acknowledged that he is still alive and in Iraq. On July 2, Mr. Bush declared that Mr. Hussein was "no longer a threat to the United States, because we removed him." In more recent remarks, including those at a fund-raising event on Oct. 8, Mr. Bush has been proclaiming that Mr. Hussein is "no more," because he is no longer in power. In Baghdad on Oct. 8, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top American commander in Iraq, said of Mr. Hussein "that he's hiding and running away constantly from the relentless hunt that we are on to find him, capture him, kill him." But in comments little-noticed at the time, General Sanchez went on to say: "Could he be a part of the attacks? He could."
