Undermining Iraqi Leadership
The U.S. is continuing covert efforts to divide the Iraqi leadership and encourage defections.
The Washington Post Saturday reports U.S. military and intelligence offices have offered "safe havens" (buildings in Baghdad that won't be targeted by U.S. air strikes) to potential defectors.
They are "trying to give the Iraqi commanders options and ways to end the resistance," one senior U.S. official said.
Although U.S. officials still don't know the results of Thursday's "bunker-buster" bombing of what was thought to be Saddam's hideout, the paper reported there are signs that the government and its senior leadership are under unprecedented internal pressure.
"There is not much evidence of central control," a senior administration official said. That may be a sign that both Saddam and his younger son, Qusay, who commands the Republican Guards charged with defending Baghdad, are not in command, at least for now.
The campaign to encourage defections includes telephone calls from relatives living in areas not controlled by Saddam, the Internet, shortwave radio and even hand-carried written messages.
At the Pentagon Friday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Iraqi officials are beginning to see that the end of the regime is near.
"Those close to Saddam Hussein will likely begin searching for a way to save themselves. Those whose obedience is based on fear may well begin to lose their fear of him," he told reporters.
"To commanders and soldiers in the Iraqi forces," Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers said at the same news conference, "I urge you in the strongest possible terms, do the honorable thing, stop fighting, that you may live to enjoy a free Iraq, where you and your children can grow and prosper."
Iraq experts say they believe Saddam, if he has survived, could face assassination from inside his ranks.
"Saddam is obsessed with his own security and spares no expense, including his own time and attention, to ensure his safety," said Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA analyst.
The air strike on the bunker, "even if it did not hurt him, probably did a lot of damage in a psychological sense," he added.
For the U.S. to have found out where he was spending the night, there must either be a spy in his entourage or some new technical means of monitoring him. Saddam is likely to waste time on "a bloody goose chase" looking for the informant, then he "may stop communicating and then only go with couriers," Pollack said.
"The next step will be to start killing people around him who are important in running the government, and this might provoke people to move against him," he said.