A half-brother of President Saddam, who is regarded as the dictator's closest adviser, has fled in the past week to Syria. Sab'awi Ibrahim Hasan Al-Tikriti, who is regarded in the United States as a possible war criminal, has sought refuge in Damascus.
"Sammy, I'm your closest advisor. Lemme give you some advice: get the hell out of Dodge. Like me."
His flight from Baghdad suggests "fractures developing within the regime", according to a secret-level intelligence report which The Times has seen. The reports, which are updated at least four times daily and distributed among senior British and US officers paint a picture of the dying hours of Saddam's 30-year iron grip on Iraq as it finally and dramatically falls apart, even before the British and US invasion gets underway. "We are looking at wholesale desertions in some areas," said an intelligence officer. "In the southern area, where there are six Iraqi divisions, fifty per cent of their officers are planning to surrender once the campaign opens."
I'm against counting chickens before they're hatched. On the other hand, some of these little hatchlings are kinda cute, aren't they? Sure hope they keep coming along... |