This is the second time I've encountered this article and it is part of a developing thesis as to the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the CIA. The larger story is best developed by Sherman Skolnik at http://www.skolnikreport.com. His work goes back before Gulf War I and a Chicago courtroom filing he was matter-of-factly covering when it fell in his lap. The thesis says Saddam was possibly only carrying out covert operation directives of CIA in his actions of last 40+ years, and is doing so even now. This is very wierd and haunting how it is developing, I am myself set aback by it's implications. I will put up more links blog and links so you can better decide the validity of it all. Anyhow, give it a read or note it and feel free to post comment or e-mail: wahkonta@graffiti.net. Blog On
ARTICLE HERE
-Caveat Lector-

Iraqi Comdr. Says He Saw
US Fly Saddam Out Of Baghdad
By Bill Dash
12-15-3

Note - Since the officer could not see the occupants, we cannot know for
certain who was inside. It is possible this was a group of Saddam's top officers
and officials who had made deals - sold out - to the US and were being
extracted as part of that deal. -ed

Film will soon be made public of an Iraqi Army officer describing how he saw
a US Air Force transport fly Saddam Hussein out of Baghdad. The explosive
eyewitness testimony was shot by independent filmmaker Patrick Dillon, who
recently returned from a risky one-man odyssey in Iraq. In the film, the
officer, who
told Dillon that he commanded a special combat unit during the battle for
Baghdad airport and whose identity is temporarily being withheld, explains in
detail how he watched as the Iraqi dictator and members of his inner circle were
evacuated from Iraq's capital by what he emphatically insists were United
States Air Force cargo planes.

Presently, the only copies of the film (which I have not yet seen) are in New
York City. People who have viewed it describe it to me as compelling.

Dillon told me by phone that, prior to the final assault on the capital by
American ground forces, the officer had been entrusted with the near impossible
job of ensuring that one of Baghdad airport's runways would remain operational
no matter what. In civilian life, the officer is reportedly a highly trained
civil engineer specializing in airport operations. He states he was selected
to command this hazardous mission in part because of his expertise in concrete
surface construction. He goes on to report that there was a ferocious battle
at the airport, with losses on both sides far worse than the mainstream news
services acknowledge. He deviates even further from officially sanctioned
accounts, by unequivocally stating that the battle for control of the airport
actually lasted several days longer than commonly believed, dragging on through
April 8th and culminating around dawn on the morning of the 9th. Most news
sources
cite April 4th as the day when the airport fell. But many conventional
accounts also acknowledge, if only in passing, uncertainty as to exactly when
the
airport was fully subdued,frequently offering the 5th and the 6th as other
possibilities. Virtually everyone agrees on April 9th as the day that the battle
for the entire city officially ended.
In any event, the officer adamantly maintains that his combat/construction
brigade, despite heavy casualties, managed to hold off US troops and preserve a
useable length of runway right through the night of April the 8th.

Then early on the morning of April 9th, as the remnants of his unit were
close to being overrun, a general cease-fire was unexpectedly declared for 6 AM.
Shortly after it went into effect, and in broad daylight, the officer claims a
motorcade of 10 Mercedes stretch limos suddenly barreled onto the airfield,
carrying Saddam and his entourage. Almost simultaneously, a flight of what the
officer asserts were four USAF Hercules transports swooped down and landed on
the lone stretch of intact runway. All four C-130s dropped their rear loading
ramps and the limos drove up into the cargo bays of the waiting planes, which
then took off. The officer insists he has no idea where Saddam or any of the
other members of his party may have gone.

Dillon says his film lends major support to what many have believed for
years: that Saddam was little more than an american tool, a stage-managed
"evildoer", just one in a long line of useful villains bought and paid for by
the
United States in order to better manipulate international politics and commerce.
The gutsy New York based filmmaker, who risked his life amid the chaos of
postwar Iraq, says that much of the Iraqi populace believes Saddam is not dead
and
they worry he could still exact revenge from afar. While many Iraqi civilians
initially welcomed American forces, Dillon told me most Iraqis, having now had
a bitter taste of American occupation, feel enraged with the US and its
soldiers. Dillon said living conditions in Iraq are horrible and that little of
significance is being done to relieve the situation.

Based on what he saw during his travels, Dillon told me he's convinced the
war and its sweeping devastation of the Iraqi nation is in reality a mind
boggling charade. Rather than liberating Iraq, its actual purpose is to corral
Iraq's huge oil reserves and to serve as a pretext for channeling tens of
billions
in largesse to favored American corporations like Haliburton and Bechtel. As
an example, Dillon pointed to how US air strikes systematically obliterated
every last Iraqi telecommunications facility from one end of the country to the
other, a measure he maintains vastly exceeded all practical military necessity.
Then, without even the pretense of a competitive bid, Washington gifted
WorldCom, the near bankrupt US telecom giant responsible for the greatest fraud
in
financial history, with a huge multi-billion dollar contract to build Iraq a
new nationwide state-of-the-art telephone system.

END EXCERPT. Go to link for copy verify