alienation news

CIA Bribe Neutralized Baghdad

You may remember a bit of mixed news regarding the taking of Baghdad Airport: the US insisted it was in the process of being taken. Non-embeded journalists said it was all quiet on the day. Perhaps the following explains the inconsistency:
One of Saddam Hussein's cousins, Special Republican Guard chief Maher Sufian Al-Tikriti, betrayed the deposed Iraqi leader by ordering his elite forces not to defend Baghdad after making a deal with the United States, the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche reported yesterday.
Citing an Iraqi source close to Saddam's former regime, the newspaper said that the general, responsible for defending the Iraqi capital, left Baghdad aboard a US military transport plane, bound for a US base outside Iraq.
His departure, along with that of a 20-strong entourage, came on April 8 - the day before US forces swept into Baghdad, and after US Marines announced that the general had been killed, the paper reported.
Sufian does not appear on the US military's list of most wanted Iraqis, which names Barzan Al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid as commander of the Special Republican Guard.
Being cautious, those who accepted the deal only agreed to defect once the American soldiers were in sight. The signal was to be the taking of the airport in Baghdad, the diplomat added.