From tomorrow's Christian Science Monitor (we're on the editorial preview list):

"There is a debate," the mayor says. "When you go to the street, people say: 'We are against the Americans.' But sheikhs, imams, and educated people say: 'Don't hurt the Americans, because that hurts us, too.'"

Mayor Hamid even presided over a meeting last Friday during which religious leaders in Fallujah "agreed that it was no longer allowed to shoot Americans in the city, and instead to work with the Americans. All of them agreed."

That shifting attitude reflects the results of a first-ever poll of Iraqis, reported by CBS earlier this month, that nearly two-thirds of Baghdad residents want US forces to stay until Iraq is stable and secure, and that only 17 percent want US troops to go home immediately. Iraqis say that result is accurate, but by default: While they are grateful the US has removed Saddam Hussein, and note that US troops are now critical to reestablishing yearned-for security, they still don't approve of their stay here.

"They are occupiers," says Fallujah truck driver Nouri Khalil, clicking his small wooden prayer beads while waiting for business on a sweltering street corner. "But if they leave, there will be no security. We want the Americans to form an Iraqi government, so they can go."

From the Kansas City Star / AP:

An Iraqi businessman detained during a raid on his home says U.S. interrogators deprived him of sleep, forced him to kneel naked and kept him bound hand and foot with a bag over his head for eight days.

Khraisan al-Abally's story, told to an Associated Press correspondent, comes as an Amnesty International report released Monday harshly criticizes American interrogation techniques.

A U.S. Army officer confirmed receiving a complaint from al-Abally, but coalition officials declined to discuss his account. The activist group Human Rights Watch said it was trying to corroborate his story.

From the Boston Globe:

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Monday dismissed suggestions that U.S. forces in Iraq are in a quagmire, likening the situation to the United States' own lengthy and bloody transition from British rule to constitutional democracy.

Fighting in Iraq will ''go on for some time'' with remnants of the former Baath Party that ruled Iraq for decades under Saddam Hussein, as well as Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary ''death squads,'' he said.

''We are dealing with those remnants in a forceful fashion, just as we have had to deal with the remnants of al-Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan and tribal areas near Pakistan,'' he added.

As the Independence Day approaches, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld compared what the United States went through after the American Revolution to the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That both countries are going through turmoil should be expected, the secretary said. "The transition to democracy is never easy," he said during a Pentagon press briefing today.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Senior politicians from both parties have called on the Bush Administration to enlist other nations to help secure Iraq and bring an international face to the occupation and reconstruction efforts.

It is the most pressure the Administration has faced to alter its insistence that US and British troops are sufficient to put Iraq on the road to democracy and economic independence.

Democratic Senator Joseph Biden said in a television interview on Sunday: "We need somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 other troops . . . I want to see French, German, I want to see Turkish patches on people's arms sitting on the street corners."

The reporter is with NBC; this report is from The Guardian:

Insurgents fired a rocket propelled grenade at a military vehicle in the restive town of Fallujah, injuring an "embedded'' reporter with NBC News, the military said Monday. Three Iraqis were killed when their pickup truck slammed into a vehicle helping evacuate the wounded reporter.

BBC:

An ammunition dump has exploded in Iraq, killing at least 25 people, according to reports.

Many of the dead were said to have been looting the site at the time, looking for artillery casings to sell.

Local residents quoted by Reuters news agency said scores of people were also injured in the blast, which happened in a desert area near the town of Haditha, about 260 kilometres (160 miles) north-east of the capital, Baghdad.

A spokesman for US Central Command in Baghdad said that the dump was Iraqi, not American.

Because of that, he said, US forces in the area were not taking responsibility for caring for the wounded.

Full article...

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

United States military commanders have ordered a halt to local elections and self-rule in provincial cities and towns across Iraq, instead installing their own hand-picked mayors and administrators, many of them former Iraqi military leaders.

The decision to deny Iraqis a direct role in selecting municipal governments is creating anger and resentment among aspiring leaders and ordinary citizens, who say the US-led occupation forces are not keeping their promise to bring greater freedom and democracy to a country dominated for by Saddam Hussein for 30 years.

The go-slow approach to representative government in provincial cities is especially frustrating to younger, middle-class professionals who say they want to help the country emerge from postwar chaos and to let, as one put it, "Iraqis make decisions for Iraq".

From The Guardian:

U.S. forces kicked off a massive sweep Sunday, raiding more than 20 towns across a wide swath of Iraq and netting at least 60 suspects in a show of air and infantry power designed to crush resistance and stem a wave of deadly attacks on American troops.

The raids by the 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse troops came as the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq said American forces must kill or capture Saddam Hussein so he can no longer be a rallying point for anti-coalition attacks.

From WaPo:

U.S. military officials in Iraq are working with "some haste" to return five Syrian border guards wounded 11 days ago by U.S. forces and will transport the soldiers from a medical facility in Baghdad to Syria within the next day or so, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday.

Larry Di Rita, chief of staff and spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said the five remained in U.S. custody since U.S. forces attacked a convoy in western Iraq near the Syrian border June 19, because it took time to treat their injuries and because the Pentagon wanted to make sure it had a clear understanding of their involvement in the incident.

From the Guardian:

U.S. forces launched a massive operation early Sunday to crush insurgents and capture senior figures from the ousted regime in a show of force designed to stem a wave of deadly attacks on U.S. troops.

The operation, dubbed ``Desert Sidewinder,'' is taking place in a huge swath of central Iraq stretching from the Iranian border to the areas north of Baghdad, and is expected to last for several days, military officials said.

[Fox News]

Two U.S. soldiers missing for days from a checkpost north of the capital have been found dead, a senior U.S. army officer said.

The soldiers had been identified as Sgt. 1st Class Gladimir Philippe, 37, of Linden, N.J., and Pfc. Kevin Ott, 27, of Columbus, Ohio.

The soldiers and their Humvee went missing Wednesday from the town of Balad, 25 miles north of Baghdad. The officer, who declined to give his name, said their bodies have been found. He gave no further details.

Full story...

At first glance, I thought this was a story about Philadelphia. From the Boston Globe:

Sabotage against Baghdad's power grids has blacked out much of the city for days on end, forcing residents to sleep on roofs, fan infants and study by candlelight.

The electric outages are also fueling anti-U.S. sentiment at a time occupation forces are seeking to quell a worsening insurgency that has seen a sharp rise in attacks on American troops.

With temperatures reaching 117 degrees, life has been almost unbearable.

''We have been living without electricity completely for the past three days,'' said Siham Ibrahim, a 48-year-old woman who has been sleeping with her family on the roof of their two-story house in Baghdad. ''When the Americans removed Saddam, we expected that we would have a better life, but things are getting worse.''

Much has been posted recently about our unofficial mascot, Comical Ali. While browsing Kevin's Wizbang I came across a link to this wonderful piece of technology, courtesy David Bloom: The Iraqi Information Minister Quote Generator. And remember:

Allah will defile the monkey's in Basra!

[Fox News]

A U.S. soldier was killed in an ambush near the southern town of Najaf, the U.S. military said Friday

The soldier was killed while investigating a car theft Thursday in Najaf, 100 miles southwest of Baghdad, a statement from U.S. Central Command said. The soldier was attached to the 1st U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force.

The soldier died before a medical evacuation team arrived, Centcom said.

Full story...

Reuters

Former Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf appeared on Arab television Thursday saying he had surrendered to U.S. troops only to be freed.

>More »»

BBC:

US forces have launched a search for two soldiers who have gone missing north of Baghdad.

The two servicemen failed to respond to a communications check and were found to have vanished with their vehicle, weapons and gear.

Blood was found at the scene and an unnamed US defence official told the AFP news agency that the two appeared to have been "somehow abducted".

Full article...

BBC:

One of the most remarkable figures of the Iraq war has resurfaced for the first time since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in April.

Former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf - dubbed "Comical Ali" for his deadpan insistence that Iraqi forces were crushing the invading Americans - appeared in brief interviews on Al-Arabiya and Abu Dhabi TV on Thursday.

He said that he had surrendered himself to US forces, who had released him after questioning.

US Central Command would not confirm his claim that he had been interrogated and freed.

"We don't have him, and there is no information from our people on the ground to back up these reports," a spokeswoman for Central Command told BBC News Online.

Full article...

AP:

WASHINGTON - A former Iraqi nuclear scientist has provided American authorities parts and documents from Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program that he claims to have buried more than 12 years ago, the White House said Thursday.

The scientist, Mahdi Shukur Obeidi, said he acted on the orders of Saddam's government as "part of a high-level plan to reconstitute the nuclear weapons program once sanctions were ended," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Fleischer, confirming reports by U.S. intelligence officials, told American officials that Obeidi claimed the parts and documents buried in his garden "represented a complete set of what would be needed to rebuild a centrifuge uranium enrichment program."

Full article...

AP:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera on Thursday reported it had received a statement and videotape from an Iraqi resistance group that claimed responsibility for attacks on American forces and threatened more.

It was believed to be the first such claim, and the first time a group said it had organized the increasingly bloody offensive.

Full article...

From the BBC:

A US marine has died and two others were hurt when they rushed to the scene of an ambush on the outskirts of Baghdad.

The marines' light armoured vehicle rolled over on the soft shoulder of the road, according to US Central Command.

A US patrol had come under attack on the road to Baghdad International Airport when an explosive device was detonated on the road.

[Fox News]

The CIA has in its hands the critical parts of a key piece of Iraqi nuclear technology -- parts needed to develop a bomb program -- that were dug up in a back yard in Baghdad, CNN has learned.

The parts were unearthed by Iraqi scientist Mahdi Obeidi who had hidden them in his back yard under a rose bush 12 years ago under orders from Qusay Hussein and Saddam Hussein's then son-in-law, Hussein Kamel.

U.S. officials emphasized this was not evidence Iraq had a nuclear weapon -- but it was evidence the Iraqis concealed plans to reconstitute their nuclear program as soon as the world was no longer looking.

Full story...

From the Guardian:

Media coverage of the attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad that killed two television cameramen was "overblown" because journalists were at the centre of the story, BBC and Sky correspondents in the Iraqi capital have claimed...

"Understandably when the incident happened we focused on it very heavily. The story of the attack on the Palestine Hotel led the bulletin," said [the head of Sky News, Nick Pollard], adding that Sky News ran graphic pictures of the casualties live from Baghdad... However, he added: "I remember very clearly after a couple of hours getting the sense we were getting it wrong. I supported David's view that we should be there but not focusing on it..."

However, although US military commanders accepted responsibility, they have not been forthcoming about why tanks opened fire on a hotel that the Pentagon knew to be the main base for western reporters...

The Guardian's Baghdad correspondent during the war, Suzanne Goldenberg, said the attack on journalists was "indicative of the fact that [the US military] showed little regard over what happened to civilians in that city".

Reuters:

BARWANAH, Iraq (Reuters) - An oil pipeline feeding a key Iraqi refinery was still ablaze on Wednesday after an explosion on Tuesday night, the third pipeline blast in four days, a Reuters eyewitness said.

The explosion and fire at the pipeline northwest of Baghdad came as the top U.S. administrator accused saboteurs of cutting off power to Baghdad amid worsening attacks on occupying U.S. and British troops. "The fire is still burning at the oil pipeline," Reuters cameraman Khudier Majeed said at the scene in Barwanah, 150 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Full article...

[Fox News]

Iraqi townspeople enraged over civilian deaths were allegedly behind Tuesday's attack that killed six British military police officers during a demonstration in southern Iraq, a local policeman said Wednesday.

A municipal official says British forces are giving civilian leaders 48 hours to hand over the gunmen responsible for the attack.

Full story....

LONDON (Reuters) - The Daily Mirror says U.S. troops have arrested Iraq's information minister under Saddam Hussein, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, at a roadblocks in a Baghdad suburb.

There was no immediate reaction from Washington on Wednesday.

The ex-minister, dubbed "Comical Ali" for proclaiming the defeat of U.S. forces even as they moved into Baghdad, had been hiding out at arelative's house watching satellite TV, but was caught on Monday night, the paper said in a report from Baghdad.

"He has some serious talking to do...this time," a "senior coalition source" was quoted as saying. There was no independent confirmation ofthe story and no other sourcing.

Still developing ... this from CNN.com:

Six British soldiers have been killed near Basra in southern Iraq, the UK Ministry of Defence said.

Troops came under fire in two separate incidents near the city of al-Amarah, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) north of Iraq's second city of Basra Tuesday, an Ministry of Defence spokesman told CNN.

In the first attack six soldiers were killed, while in the second a further eight were injured -- one in an initial clash and seven others when an RAF Chinook helicopter came in for an attempted rescue, Number 10 Downing Street was quoted by the UK Press Association as saying.

[KRT Wire]

You can find just about anything at the Baab al Sharjee market in the center of Baghdad. Air conditioners, electric fans, radios, satellite dishes. And short videos that chronicle the torture chambers of Saddam Hussein.

One video - "Saddam's Crimes and His Followers: Mukhabarat Torturing" - shows men lying on the ground as their legs are tied to a stick in the air. They writhe in pain as military officers whip the soles of their bare feet. Another shows a grenade being strapped to the chest of a blindfolded man. A few minutes later, he's blown up.

"Thousands of people have bought them," said Taha Adnan, 16, a vendor in the market.

Full story...

From Newsweek:

Almost every day officials from the FBI and the CIA see new intelligence showing that Al Qaeda and its confederates are determined to attack the U.S. homeland. Earlier this month, NEWSWEEK has learned, U.S. intelligence intercepted chat-room conversations between suspected Qaeda associates about attacks in Texas around the Fourth of July. One of the operatives, known only as “Sakr,” said the attacks had been planned for a long time and that the terror-ists were simply waiting for approval from “the sheik” —a possible reference to Osama bin Laden or another top Qaeda commander. No specific targets were mentioned, but law-enforcement officials tell NEWSWEEK they believe the objective may be to take out oil facilities or pipelines. (Al Qaeda has often talked about attacking the U.S. energy sector as a way to hurt the economy.)

They make it sound like a birthday gift ... "Hey, look! A new army! Just what I wanted!!" From Reuters:

The United States announced new plans to pacify angry former Iraqi soldiers and create a new Iraqi army on Monday as two visiting U.S. senators said American soldiers could stay for more than five years.

American efforts to restore order in Iraq took another blow when an oil export pipeline, not in use since the U.S.-led war began on March 20, exploded near the Syrian border, in the third Iraqi pipeline blast this month.

Two visiting U.S. senators said American troops may need to stay in Iraq for at least five years.

Fox News and others

During the U.S Special Forces attack on the high level Iraqi convoy last week, US troops wounded or killed Syrian border guards. The guards were given medical treatment by U.S. forces.

Saddam and his sons are not believed to have been in the convoy, although forensics experts are on the scene investigating. Other high level members of the former Iraqi government are believed to have been present.

Full story >> >>

BBC

American officials speaking off the record say there was at least a hope that the former Iraqi leader had been in one of the vehicles - though there was no evidence that he was killed.

Dutch Government

The government has replied to 159 questions from members of the House of Representatives on the possibility of Dutch troops taking part in the international stabilisation force in Iraq. It wants to send 1,100 troops to the southern Iraqi province of Al-Muthanna. Dutch troops will initially be posted for six months. A decision will be taken in due course on whether the mission should be extended. The government estimates that the mission will cost €65 million. In all, twenty countries have agreed to provide troops for the stabilisation force.

From the Miami Herald / Knight Ridder:

The delegation from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - Sens. Joseph Biden Jr., D-Del., Charles Hagel, R-Neb. and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., - might have lunch one of the city's better hotels, where the swimming pools are kept a healthy-looking blue.

That Baghdad, though still tattered at the edges, is a city on the mend, albeit slowly. As L. Paul Bremer, the top American administrator, and his fellow CPA officials often point out, the city looks better now than it did in mid-April, when looters were everywhere and the sky was dark with smoke.

If the senators spend time speaking with average Iraqis, however, they will learn that for most of its 5 million or so residents, life in Baghdad is an infuriating, dysfunctional experience, one that in time could turn the population against the American who liberated them from Saddam Hussein.

But can he tell us where he is? From the Wichita Eagle:

Saddam Hussein and at least one of his sons are believed to be alive, Jordan's king said Sunday.

King Abdullah II told ABC's "This Week" program that many Iraqis still may fear that their former president "might still be alive and might come back to haunt them."

"I think from day one, until there was critical proof that he was dead, I think we all have to assume that he is (alive)," Abdullah said in an interview conducted on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum being held in Jordan.

"And out of the top three, i.e., Saddam and his two sons (Odai and Qusai), I think that the attitude is by the international community, at least two or three are alive."

From Reuters:

U.S. soldier was killed and another was wounded in a grenade attack on a military convoy south of Baghdad Sunday, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. statement said the two soldiers had been evacuated by road after the attack in Khan Azad, 20 km (12 miles) south of the capital. One was dead on arrival at hospital.

From the Times:

PRESIDENT PUTIN warned Britain and the United States yesterday against “squeezing out” Russian firms from the reconstruction of Iraq.

As he prepared to become the first Russian leader to make a state visit to Britain for almost 130 years, Mr Putin said that he expected contracts signed by Russian companies with the regime of Saddam Hussein to exploit Iraqi oil reserves to be honoured.

[Fox News]

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A fuel pipeline exploded and caught fire west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said, and flames were seen Sunday reaching high into the sky.

The cause of Saturday's explosion near the town of Hit, about 95 miles west of Baghdad, was being investigated, U.S. Military spokeswoman 1st Lt. Mary Pervez said. There were no U.S. casualties, she said.

Full story...

No sooner did I post that last one then I found this story at PakNews.com.

NEW DELHI, India: June 22 (PNS) - India's external-affairs minister Yashwant Sinha during his visit to New York had met UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and discussed possibility of Indian troops' deployment in Iraq, says an Indian Express.

In its report on Thursday's the daily said Kofi Annan gave 'negative' response to the idea. He categorically stated that UN will not 'foot any expenses incurred by India on proposed deployment' in that country.

According to Indian press, even the USA has not yet assured India that expenditure of deployment of Indian troops in Iraq will be reimbursed to India. Kofi Annan's response was unexpected for India.

Read the rest here.

The previous story cited political concerns, but this one makes it look like money is the real issue.

Apparently, the Indian government is considering deploying an infantry division to Iraq.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was yesterday consulting his security cabinet and coalition allies on whether to send troops to Iraq as a report said New Delhi had identified the unit it would deploy for the US-led force.

Vajpayee was to meet his top security cabinet late yesterday followed by separate talks with the two dozen parties in his coalition, a government spokesman said.

However, no date has been set to announce a decision and Vajpayee leaves today on a six-day visit to China.

[...]

A report in The Hindu newspaper yesterday said the Indian army had already identified an infantry division attached to a strike corps as the best option for "peace enforcing" operations in Iraq.

This division of around 17,000 troops, led by a two-star general, includes armoured and artillery brigades, a mix considered suited for Iraq, the daily said.

Read the rest at eTaiwanNews.

DNA tests are being conducted on human remains found after a hellfire missile strike on a convoy in Iraq last week. From The Observer

American specialists were carrying out DNA tests last night on human remains believed by US military sources to be those of Saddam Hussein and one of his sons, The Observer can reveal. The remains were retrieved from a convoy of vehicles struck last week by US forces following 'firm' information that the former Iraqi leader and members of his family were travelling in the Western Desert near Syria.
Military sources told The Observer that the strikes, involving an undisclosed number of Hellfire missiles, were launched against the convoy last Wednesday after the interception of a satellite telephone conversation involving either Saddam or his sons.
The operation, which has not yet been disclosed by the Pentagon, involved the United States air force and ground troops of the Third Armoured Cavalry Regiment based around Ramadi, a major town 70 miles west of Baghdad.
Despite previously unfounded US claims that Saddam had been killed during the bombing of Baghdad before the invasion by America and Britain, the sources indicated that they were cautiously optimistic that they had finally killed the target they described as 'the top man'.
Asked about rumours circulating in senior military circles about the incident, one US officer with knowledge of the raid on the convoy said: 'That is unreleasable information. The Pentagon has to release that information.'

The New York Times has posted an article the provides additional detail on the information coming from the Ace of Diamonds. Of interest: the time Mahmoud and Saddam's sons apparently spent in Syria after the war.

On the basis of those intercepts and other recently obtained evidence, American intelligence agencies have shifted their view, and now say that Mr. Hussein and at least one of his sons, Qusay, probably are still alive and still in Iraq. But Mr. Mahmoud's claim that he and the sons had spent time after the war in Syria before being expelled by Syrian authorities adds a new element to that working theory.

UPDATE: Reader Bob Estes pointed out that I had misread the story, and that Mahmoud, not Saddam, was apparently in Syria with Hussein's sons. Apologies for the error, and thank you Bob.

[Fox News]

U.S. forces hit a possible intelligence gold mine Saturday as they raided an abandoned community hall, finding piles of intelligence equipment and stacks of top secret documents bearing the seal of the former Iraqi secret service — some of which made reference to Iraq's nuclear program.

In the same building troops also found two large rooms stacked with cryptograph machines, secure transmission devices and binders of documents, with more papers strewn across the floor.

Some of the documents made reference to Iraq's nuclear program, including manifests for the delivery of communications equipment to the Iraqi nuclear agency. One letter, dated Feb. 7, 1998, from the National Security Council of Iraq was addressed to the Iraqi Nuclear Organization. with a carbon to the Mukhabarat, the secret intelligence service.

Full story...

CNN:

WASHINGTON -- Saddam Hussein's former personal secretary has told interrogators he saw the deposed Iraqi president alive after both attempts to kill him with U.S. bombs, U.S. officials told CNN.

Those officials said Gen. Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti, who was recently captured by U.S. forces, told interrogators that Saddam had been hiding separately from members of the former ruling family.

Government sources told CNN that Mahmoud said the last time he saw Saddam was in early April, when Saddam and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, split up to avoid capture.

Full article...

CNN:

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has accounted for most of the uranium feared stolen from Iraq's largest nuclear site, Tuwaitha, reports say.

"Nearly all the material that went missing has been recovered," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told Science magazine.

A team from the IAEA visited the facility earlier this month to check nuclear material against the agency's inventories and to secure any nuclear materials lying around.

Their report is yet to be made public.

Full article...

Jerusalem Post:

Attacks against U.S. forces showed no sign of letting up Friday after a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into a power station in Fallujah, injuring two American soldiers and blacking out much of the city a center of anti-American hostility.

At Friday prayers, imams preached anti-American sermons, claiming Jews are buying up real estate in Iraq. Based on groundless rumors, the warnings from pulpits, on leaflets and in Iraqi newspapers reflected Iraqis' fear and anger over the U.S.-led occupation.

AP:

Doubts about the fate of Saddam Hussein have contributed to the rising violence against U.S. forces in Iraq, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Friday.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said the "residual feeling" from Saddam's Baathist Party "is filtering down given the lingering doubt as to whether he is alive or dead, could return and have some reprisal against those who work with the coalition."

Warner's remarks were seconded by Ret. Gen. Jay Garner, the former administrator of the U.S. reconstruction team in Iraq. The two spoke to reporters after Garner appeared at a closed-door hearing of the committee.

Full article...

NY Times:

WASHINGTON, June 19 — American intelligence analysts now believe that Saddam Hussein is much more likely to be alive than dead, a view that has been strengthened in recent weeks by intercepted communications among fugitive members of the Saddam Fedayeen and the Iraqi intelligence service, according to United States government officials.

The officials said the recently obtained intelligence had re-intensified the search for Mr. Hussein along with his sons, Uday and Qusay. The search is being led by Task Force 20, a secret military organization that includes members of the Army's highly specialized Delta Force and of the Navy's elite counterterrorism squads, with support from the Central Intelligence Agency.

The intercepted communications between some of Mr. Hussein's supporters have included credible discussions indicating that the former Iraqi president is alive and must be protected, two Defense Department officials said. Military officials indicated tonight that new operations in the hunt for him were under way.

Full Article...