by Robin Moore
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Foreword by Mark Vargas
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Saddam
A Score to Settle
Task Force VIKING
The Screaming Eagles
Task Force DAGGER
Private Contractors
Letters from Tikrit
The Ace in the Hole
Appendix
Bibliography
Glossary
St. Martin’s Paperbacks Titles by Robin Moore
Outstanding Praise for Robin Moore’s Gripping Real-Life Accounts
Copyright
DEDICATION
To SFC Bill Bennett, MSG Kevin Morehead, CSM Jerry Wilson, and all of the hundreds of brave servicemen and -women who have given their lives during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM and the Global War on Terror.
“To those who have fought for it, life has a special flavor that the protected will never know.”
—Motto of the Special Operations Association
Dedicated to those who have fought for freedom in Iraq, and in places far flung and unsung. Too many of you have paid the ultimate price.
This book is also dedicated to those who are still Missing in Action, from “Mad Dog” Jerry Shriver to Scott Speicher, and all the warriors before and after.
You are not forgotten.
FOREWORD BY MARK VARGAS
Just after midnight on an early December morning at Baghdad International Airport, my colleague Peter Lofgren and I were waiting patiently onboard a C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, destined for Kuwait. Without notice, a military chaplain appeared out of the darkness near the ramp of the aircraft, and announced that the plane would be carrying three of our soldiers who had been KIA (Killed in Action). Instantly, there was staunch silence among the fifty or so passengers, the majority in uniform. Following the chaplain’s announcement, a provisional honor guard carried onboard the first fallen comrade and rendered honors. Without direction, we rose in unison and snapped to attention, holding a salute as each casket was loaded onto the aircraft.
Stirring and emotional events like these tend to be far removed from the American public. These were America’s sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters, who placed their lives in jeopardy to uphold the right of freedom.
As a former Special Forces soldier (Command Sergeant Major (D), Ret.), veteran of Operations URGENT FURY, DESERT STORM, and several Special Category Missions, I was honored to be asked to write the foreword to Robin Moore’s Hunting Down Saddam, a book that brings to light the triumphs and tragedies behind Operation IRAQI FREEDOM and the hunt for Saddam Hussein. Moore is a Special Forces brother, an icon, and esteemed expert on the past and present lineage of Special Forces.
Robin Moore’s illustrious career spans four decades as an author and supporter of Special Forces and the U.S. military, and cannot be measured in words or deeds—there are far too many. Moore is the only civilian to have received special permission to attend, and thus pass, the Special Forces Qualification Course and Airborne School. He was subsequently deployed to Vietnam with the 5th SFG (A) to Vietnam in 1964. He used his experiences to bring to the world an inside glimpse into the life of the Green Beret, in his book The Green Berets.
I was fortunate to make Robin Moore’s acquaintance in 1981 while attending the Special Forces Qualification Course in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. As was true of most other soldiers in my position, Robin Moore and The Green Berets meant something to me personally. I remain very proud of Robin’s devotion to our country and countrymen who are fighting and supporting the U.S. Global War on Terror (GWOT).
I was with Robin in Iraq in October and November 2003. I was there in my role as Area Security Manager for KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root), stationed in Tikrit at Camp Speicher/Camp Ironhorse, alongside the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division. Robin was there to write this book. For his most recent bestseller, The Hunt for Bin Laden, Moore had spent nearly a month living next to the men of the 5th Special Forces Group (A) in Afghanistan. For Hunting Down Saddam, Moore did it again. Celebrating his seventy-eighth birthday in Baghdad, and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Moore still had the internal strength and fortitude to obtain firsthand accounts of battlefield experiences of our brave young men and women in uniform. In Hunting Down Saddam, he brings to the page his brilliance, authority, and determination in illustrating and capturing significant battles and the daily challenges of the soldiers and leaders of the 3rd, 5th, and 10th Special Forces Groups Airborne, as well as those of the 101st Airborne Assault Division “Screaming Eagles” and the 4th Infantry Division “Regulars,” culminating with the capture of Saddam.
The content and characters in Hunting Down Saddam are a part of my life. Moore writes of the Green Berets with whom I used to fight, and he writes of the private contractors and reconstruction efforts in Iraq that I am involved with. Moore writes about Major General (MG) Ray Odierno, for whom I served as Force Protection Officer in Operation ALLIED FORCE, in Albania. And he writes of Odierno’s 4th ID, who were behind the raid that captured Saddam, and who initially detained him a few hundred meters from my worksite in the Tikrit Palace compound. Incidentally, Robin Moore had spent time here during his trip to Iraq. He was given a tour of the Palace Compound, none of us knowing that Saddam himself would be brought there as a prisoner just seven weeks later.
In typical Robin Moore style, he unflinchingly examines the daring and emotional accounts of our fellow countrymen who are risking their lives as the U.S. military machine accomplishes its first objective of the war, regime change, and progresses toward the arduous objective: building a secure and free Iraq—free from lawlessness, terrorism, and oppression.
War is an exercise in the uncontrollable and unpredictable. War is volatile, unattractive, and disconcerting, at the same time explosive and gripping. Moore chronicles the dimensions of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM and the Global War on Terror, redefines the fundamentals of the unconventional warfare (UW) mission of Special Forces, and underscores the modern-day urban battlefield tactics of light and heavy U.S. Army Divisions. This book is a must-read for those seeking to understand the art of unconventional warfare, one of the premier trademarks of past and present-day Special Forces. Employing modern weaponry, tactics, techniques, and procedures, the outnumbered Green Berets overcame the odds on the battlefield, using non-doctrinal strategies to defeat and outwit the enemy. Although the best technology and weaponry are prolifically applied, the Special Forces credo of brotherhood continues to be the underlying strength that forges the cohesiveness of this special breed of men.
Unpredictably, the challenge to Coalition forces was exponentially increased after President Bush declared the cessation of major combat activity. At home, the American public tuned in and began to express euphoria. All the signs were present, the stock market was up and news broke that our men and women would be coming home soon.
Challenged daily with implausible and hearsay intelligence, the light and heavy forces of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Assault Division, led by MG David Petraeus, and the 4th Infantry Division, led by MG Ray Odierno, continued to attack at the heart of the insurgency, initially in a reactionary posture, reacting to the hit-and-run tactics of the Iraqi Fedayeen, Former Regime Loyalists, Al Qaeda, the al-Zarqawi Network as well as Ansar al-Islam, the Syrian Fedayeen
, and other outside terrorist groups. Employing hit-and-run tactics, a strategy of guerrilla warfare, these insurgent forces appeared to be gaining an edge on an irregular and undefined battlefield. Attacks were occurring within minutes of each other within a three-hundred-kilometer area; an Area Network, a criterion of UW was now firmly established. Who was leading it? Saddam? Was and is it his remaining generals? How could the Coalition break the back of the insurgency? What level of involvement do outside forces have? Deaths were mounting and the Coalition needed a monumental event to break the will of the insurgency.
The U.S. war machine began to reinsert and employ hard-hitting and aggressive tactics, fueled and achieved through credible and real-time intelligence, and designed to punish those supporting the insurgency. In July of 2003, a series of informants seeking reward money came forth and began providing indeterminate information on the whereabouts of Saddam’s sons. The U.S. Army intelligence collection efforts capitalized on this information and began linking the pieces of the puzzle. With what proved to be actionable intelligence, a brigade from the “Screaming Eagles” of the 101st Airborne Assault Division, led by Colonel (COL) Joe Anderson, and the ultrasecret Task Force 20, conducted a successful raid “to capture or kill” Uday and Qusay. This event would achieve a major milestone toward cracking the insurgency’s command and control network and span of control in the northern region.
Hunting Down Saddam details the moments prior to, during, and after significant victories such as the raid on Uday and Qusay Hussein, the taking of the city of Kirkuk, and, of course, the capture of Saddam himself. But Moore doesn’t just simply give us his interpretation of the events; he includes firsthand accounts from soldiers themselves, from an embedded reporter, from a general, a commander, and others. Moore spent time interviewing and visiting the Special Forces (3rd, 5th, and 10th Groups), the 101st Airborne, the 82nd Airborne, the 4th Infantry Division, the security arm of Kellogg, Brown & Root, news stations, and embedded reporters. So many of these groups were eager to share their thoughts and insight into the war effort, providing personal recollections, letters to friends and family, diaries, military reports, after-action journals, and more. For example, Dana Lewis, embedded reporter for NBC and later FOX News, supplied Robin Moore with invaluable personal recollections and an ongoing report of the efforts of the 101st, with which he was stationed.
In an equally significant contribution, Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Steve Russell, Commander of the “Regulars,” 4th Infantry Division, shares the good, the bad, and the horrors of war through a series of personal dispatches. His account of the daily rigors of fighting the counterinsurgency war is an emotional roller-coaster ride, filled with motivating moments of victory and solemn moments of grief and loss. On December 13, 2003, at approximately 2030 hours, after eight months of hunting down Saddam, LTC Russell’s cohorts in the 4th ID, led by COL Hickey and working with Task Force 121, finally nab High Value Target #1!
Robin Moore delivers the inside story of the long search for and eventual capture of Saddam Hussein. Transitioning on dangerous supply routes, flying over vulnerable Iraqi airspace, and even experiencing Iraqi insurgency indirect-fire attacks, Moore got the report firsthand, and from our nation’s finest men and women. Moore embraces his devotion to his country and his craft in bringing the true story of patriotism to the people of America and beyond.
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of Liberty.”
—John F. Kennedy
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003, my publisher, St. Martin’s Press, and I agreed that this book had to be published much earlier than originally scheduled. This forced my writing partner and me to work nonstop to meet our new deadlines. Consequently, it is not by lack of deeds or valor that many of the units and soldiers who have fought bravely in Iraq are not mentioned specifically in this book. Others, particularly in certain areas of Special Operations, have remained anonymous by their own choosing. Moreover, some dates and place-names have been changed due to Special Operations Security. Nevertheless, we have tried to convey not the entire picture of the war in Iraq, but the parts of it that related to the search and capture of Saddam Hussein, his sons, the fall of Hussein’s regime, and a personal portrait of the units that participated in these events.
I want to be sure that my project coordinator and writing partner be duly recognized as the force behind much of the hard work that goes into creating a finished, accurate, and most importantly, engaging and interesting account, which has become the book you are about to read. Chris Thompson was my coauthor and project coordinator on The Hunt for Bin Laden, and I could not have trusted anyone else to coordinate the mammoth effort in bringing Hunting Down Saddam to fruition.
While I was in Iraq in October and November, visiting bases and interviewing troops, Chris was preparing the material I had previously gathered from earlier in the war. Over the summer I had visited various military posts in the United States, interviewing soldiers returning from Iraq. I was able to get essential material and firsthand accounts from soldiers at Fort Carson, Colorado, home of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne); Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Special Warfare Center; and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne).
From these visits, copious notes, maps, photos, and audiotapes were gathered. Chris had the daunting task of writing, transcribing, and verifying the accounts of the war’s beginning. When I returned from Iraq in November, the final pieces of the book were fitting together. Or so we thought. Less than a month later, Saddam was found cowering in his “spider hole.” The discovery changed our deadline drastically, and the book had its dramatic ending.
But now we had the enormous task of transcribing the new set of interviews that were conducted after the capture of Saddam Hussein. Fortunately, Joyce Thomas took over much of the transcribing, and Chris’s assistant, E. M. Dubois, helped work on last-minute details and the all-important task of stress management during the manuscript’s final days.
I must acknowledge the assistance I received from my good friend Russell Cummings, a former Green Beret himself, who accompanied me to Iraq and was by my side through sandstorms, helicopter trips across enemy territory, insurgent attacks on the compounds we were staying in, and late-night missions. He was able to keep me connected through the computer, no matter if we were staying the night in one of Saddam’s palaces, a converted shipping container, or a makeshift hotel room. Russ was both a medic and a trained sniper in the Special Forces; I couldn’t have asked for a better companion. His talents did not go unnoticed in Iraq, as he was offered a job with KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root). Russ is now back in Iraq, working security for KBR.
I am also indebted to my extraordinarily competent literary agent, Sorche Fairbank. This was our fifth—and best—project together. She is an agent who pays attention to fine detail and has won the confidence of many publishers.
Over forty years ago, in my West Indies hangout, I met a lovely English girl of sixteen. I happened to be thirty-five years old at the time. She was a great companion and a fine water-skier. Her name was Helen Kirkman. Except for a meeting in South Africa, Helen’s life remained a mystery to me until last year, when fate brought us together once again. She arrived in the United States forty-two years after we first met and immediately became a major part of my life and a great friend to my Green Beret friends around the country. Before I toured the nation promoting my last book, The Hunt for Bin Laden, Helen used her contacts in the business world to help find a British publisher (Pan Macmillan) for the book. Helen’s support continued and Saddam became the product of our mutual efforts in the literary field.
“It takes a village” has been used in describing efforts as diverse as raising a child, branding a produ
ct, fighting a fire, and even throwing a tailgate party. I’d like to add producing this book to the mix. The list of people to whom I became indebted for their assistance could not be written in its entirety, for the list is quite extensive. Nevertheless, I will attempt to name some of them.
I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press—especially, Sally Richardson and George Witte for believing in the importance of this book. Diane Higgins, my wonderful editor and guiding hand, deserves much credit and thanks, as does Nichole Argyres, who saw to it that deadlines were met without compromising quality. Thanks, also, to the staff who rallied at St. Martin’s to make this book happen, working long evenings and over holiday weekends. My gratitude to Amelie Littell, David Stanford Burr, Jeffrey Capshew, Karen Gillis, Eric Gladstone, Susan Joseph, John Murphy, Joseph Rinaldi, Heather Saunders, and James Sinclair. This is my third book effort with Diane and crew. The ongoing energy and dedication of the staff of St. Martin’s Press is worthy of much praise and admiration.
Many thanks are due to FOX Television News, whose fourth-floor headquarters at the Sheraton Hotel where I was staying became an oasis for us while in Baghdad. On my seventy-eighth birthday, the people of FOX News threw a party for me, complete with a bottle of scotch, which slipped down my throat like nectar of the gods. Their own Dana Lewis, whose diary of action with the Screaming Eagles forms an intrinsic part of Hunting Down Saddam, deserves great mention for both his contributions and his last-minute, exclusive details regarding Saddam’s capture. Dana rode all the way into Baghdad with the 101st Airborne Division; his candid accounts reflect the many faces of war and the emotions that accompany them.
The eighth floor of the Sheraton was home to KBR, whose assistance was invaluable. KBR hosted me in different areas of Iraq and saw to it that I had safe transport during my various interviews. John Jones, Mark Vargas, and the rest of the KBR crew in Iraq, I cannot thank you enough.