Washington: The raid carried out on April 7 on a restaurant at al-Mansour quarters
in Baghdad with the aim of assassinating the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, came
from precise information by a listening operation to a telephone network, via
satellites and the collaboration of intelligent hirelings in the field.
Previous successive US air strikes had resulted in obstructing the telephone network
in Baghdad which pushed the Iraqis to use the United Arab Emirates based "Thuraya"
satellite telephone system. This company owns a telecommunication system that can
geographically specify the location of the telephone call.
Fox News quoted US sources as saying that the telephone call was depicted
through "Thuraya" for a voice similar to that of Saddam Hussein and another voice
for his son Qusai from several telephone calls that talked about a meeting including
between 20- 50 officials of the Iraqi intelligence and the Baath Party which was due
on April 7 evening.
The sources said that when the US intelligence department made sure through
hirelings in the field of the identity of the persons and after several reports
confirmed that the meeting was held and Saddam was taking part in it, the US Air
Force was notified and by its turn sent planes that destroyed the site within 45
minutes.
