CIA had a fix on Saddam - report
Just hours before the attack on Iraq began, the CIA reportedly told US President George Bush that the spy agency believed it had a fix on Saddam Hussein’s location.
CIA Director George Tenet told Bush he not only knew where the Iraqi leader was, but also believed he knew where he would be for hours to come – consulting with advisers at a known private residence in southern Baghdad, The Washington Post said.
The information presented a “a target of opportunity” that might not come again, one intelligence agent said.
White House aides said Bush listened calmly as Tenet said there was no guarantee that Saddam’s whereabouts would be pinpointed again.
Over the next three hours Bush and his top officials tore up the war plan that had been honed for months by US Central Command, the Post said.
Now the first shots would strike through the roof and walls of an anonymous Baghdad home and deep beneath it in the hope of decapitating the Iraqi government in a single blow.
“If you’re going to take a shot like this, you’re going to take a shot at the top guy,” said one US official. “It was a fairly singular strike.”
