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Editor's Note:
Reporting from Iraq is a dangerous business. There are
courageous reporters going undercover to get the real story you
do not see on cable or network television.
Today we have an amazing issue because one reporter went
underground to meet with several resistance fighters in Iraq.
Not content with meeting with rank and file resistance fighters,
Alix de la Grange met with some of the top leaders of the
movement.
The Internet has changed the way we can disseminate information.
This issue is ground-breaking because it gives you information
from the horse's mouth. Of course we cannot authenticate its
source, but it the reporter works for the respected Asia Times.
THE LIBERATION OF BAGHDAD NOT FAR AWAY-by
Alix de la Grange
On the eve of the so-called transfer of sovereignty to the new
Iraqi caretaker government on June 30, former Saddam Hussein
generals turned members of the elite of the Iraqi resistance
movement have abandoned their clandestine positions for a while
to explain their version of events and talk about their plans.
According to these Ba'ath officials, "the big battle" in Iraq is
yet to take place.
"The Americans have prepared the war, we have prepared the
post-war. And the transfer of power on June 30 will not change
anything regarding our objectives. This new provisional
government appointed by the Americans has no legitimacy in our
eyes. They are nothing but puppets."
Why have these former officers waited so long to come out of
their closets?
"Because today we are sure we're going to win."
They are two generals and a colonel of the disbanded Iraqi army,
now on the run for many months, chased by the coalition's
intelligence services.
"We would like to rectify some information now circulating in
the Western media, that's why we took the initiative of meeting
you." Our discussion lasts for more than three hours.
Back to the fall of Baghdad
"We knew that if the United States decided to attack Iraq, we
would have no chance faced with their technological and military
power. The war was lost in advance, so we prepared the post-war.
In other words: the resistance. Contrary to what has been
largely said, we did not desert after American troops entered
the center of Baghdad on April 5, 2003. We fought a few days for
the honor of Iraq - not Saddam Hussein - then we received orders
to disperse."
Baghdad fell on April 9: Saddam and his army where nowhere to be
seen.
"As we have foreseen, strategic zones fell quickly under control
of the Americans and their allies. For our part, it was time to
execute our plan. Opposition movements to the occupation were
already organized. Our strategy was not improvised after the
regime fell."
This plan B, which seems to have totally eluded the Americans,
was carefully organized, according to these officers, for months
if not years before March 20, 2003, the beginning of Operation
Iraqi Freedom.
The objective was "to liberate Iraq and expel the coalition. To
recover our sovereignty and install a secular democracy, but not
the one imposed by the Americans. Iraq has always been a
progressive country, we don't want to go back to the past, we
want to move forward. We have very competent people," say the
three tacticians. There will be of course no names as well as no
precise numbers concerning the clandestine network.
"We have sufficient numbers, one thing we don't lack is
volunteers."
Fallujah
The lethal offensive of the American troops in Fallujah in March
has been the turning point as far as the resistance is
concerned. The indiscriminate pillage by American soldiers
during their search missions (according to many witnesses) and
the sexual humiliation inflicted to prisoners, including Abu
Ghraib in Baghdad, have only served to magnify the anger felt by
most Iraqis. "There's no more trust, it will be hard to regain
it." According to these resistance leaders, "We have reached the
point of no return."
This is exactly the point of view of a Shi'ite woman we had met
two days earlier - a former undercover opposition militant
against Saddam: "The biggest mistake of the occupation forces
was to despise our traditions and our culture. They are not
satisfied with having bombed our infrastructure, they tried to
destroy our social system and our dignity.
And this we cannot allow. The wounds are deep and the healing
will take long. We prefer to live under the terror of one of our
own than under the humiliation of a foreign occupation."
According to Saddam's generals, "more than a year after the
beginning of the war, insecurity and anarchy still dominate the
country. Because of their incapacity to control the situation
and to maintain their promises, the Americans have antagonized
the population as a whole. The resistance is not limited to a
few thousand activists. Seventy-five percent of the population
supports us and helps us, directly and indirectly, volunteering
information, hiding combatants or weapons. And all this despite
the fact that many civilians are caught as collateral damage in
operations against the coalition and collaborators."
Who do they regard as "collaborators"? "Every Iraqi or foreigner
who works with the coalition is a target. Ministries,
mercenaries, translators, businessmen, cooks or maids, it
doesn't matter the degree of collaboration.
To sign a contract with the occupier is to sign your death
certificate.
Iraqi or not, these are traitors. Don't forget that we are at
war."
The resistance's means of dissuasion led to an ever-shrinking
list of candidates to key government posts proposed by the
coalition, and this in a country ravaged by 13 years of embargo
and two wars where unemployment has been a crucial problem. The
ambient chaos is not the only reason preventing people from
resuming professional activity. If the Americans, quickly
overwhelmed by the whole situation, had to take the decision to
reinstate former Ba'athists (policemen, secret service agents,
military, officials at the oil ministry), this does not apply to
everybody. The majority of victims of administrator L Paul
Bremer's decree of May 16, 2003 applying the de-Ba'athification
of Iraq is still clandestine.
The network
Essentially composed by Ba'athists (Sunni and Shi'ite), the
resistance currently regroups "all movements of national
struggle against the occupation, without confessional, ethnic or
political distinction.
Contrary to what you imagine in the West, there is no fratricide
war in Iraq. We have a united front against the enemy.
From Fallujah to Ramadi, and including Najaf, Karbala and the
Shi'ite suburbs of Baghdad, combatants speak with a single
voice. As to the young Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, he is,
like ourselves, in favor of the unity of the Iraqi people,
multiconfessional and Arab. We support him from a tactical and
logistical perspective."
Every Iraqi region has its own combatants and each faction is
free to choose its targets and its modus operandi. But as time
goes by, their actions are increasingly coordinated. Saddam's
generals insist there is no rivalry among these different
organizations, except on one point:
which one will eliminate the largest number of Americans.
Weapons of choice
"The attacks are meticulously prepared. They must not last
longer than 20 minutes and we operate preferably at night or
very early in the morning to limit the risks of hitting Iraqi
civilians." They anticipate our next question:
"No, we don't have weapons of mass destruction. On the other
hand, we have more than 50 million conventional weapons." By the
initiative of Saddam, a real arsenal was concealed all over Iraq
way before the beginning of the war. No heavy artillery, no
tanks, no helicopters, but Katyushas, mortars (which the Iraqis
call haoun), anti-tank mines, rocket-propelled grenade launchers
and other Russian-made rocket launchers, missiles, AK 47s and
substantial reserves of all sorts of ammunition. And the list is
far from being extensive.
But the most efficient weapon remains the Kamikazes. A special
unit, composed of 90% Iraqis and 10% foreign fighters, with more
than 5,000 solidly-trained men and women, they need no more than
a verbal order to drive a vehicle loaded with explosives.
What if the weapons' reserves dwindle?
"No worries, for some time we have been making our own weapons."
That's all they are willing to disclose.
Claiming responsibility
"Yes, we have executed the four American mercenaries in Fallujah
last March. On the other hand, the Americans soldiers waited for
four hours before removing the bodies, while they usually do it
in less than 20 minutes. Two days earlier, a young married woman
had been arbitrarily arrested. For the population of Fallujah,
this was the last straw, so they expressed their full rage
against the four cadavers. The Americans, they did much worse to
living Iraqi prisoners."
The suicide attack which provoked the death of Akila al-Hashimi,
a diplomat and member of the Iraqi Governing Council on
September 22, 2003, was also perpetrated by the resistance, as
well as the car bomb which killed the president of the Iraqi
executive body Ezzedin Salim in May 17 this year at the entrance
of the Green Zone (which Iraqis call the Red Zone, due to the
number of resistance offensives).
They are also responsible for the kidnapping of foreigners.
"We are aware that the kidnapping of foreign nationals blemishes
our image, but try to understand the situation. We are forced to
control the identity of people circulating in our territory. If
we have proof that they are humanitarians or journalists we
release them. If they are spies, mercenaries or collaborators we
execute them. On this matter, let's be clear, we are not
responsible for the death of Nick Berg, the American who was
beheaded."
As to the attack against the UN headquarters in Baghdad on
August 20,
2003:
"We have never issued an order to attack the UN and we had a lot
of esteem towards the Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello [special
UN representative who died in the attack], but it's not
impossible that the authors of this suicide attack come from
another resistance group. As we have explained, we don't control
everything. And we must not forget that the UN is responsible
for the 13 years of embargo we have endured."
What about the October 27, 2003 attack against the Red Cross in
Baghdad?
"This had nothing to do with us, we always had a lot of respect
for this organization and the people who work for them. What
would be our interest to attack one of the few institutions
which has been helping the Iraq population for years? We know
that people from Fallujah have claimed this attack, but we can
assure you they are not part of the resistance. And we also add:
for political and economic reasons, there are many who have an
interest in discrediting us."
After the hand over of power:
"What American troops cannot do today, NATO troops won't be able
to do later on. Everyone must know: Western troops will be
regarded by Iraqis as occupiers. This is something that George W
Bush and his faithful ally Tony Blair will do well to think
about. If they have won a battle, they have not won the war yet.
The great battle is still to begin. The liberation of Baghdad is
not far away."
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