Don't say anything.. Got It?

[Junkdrawer]

(Repost of message from kcwayne)

After the soldiers that captured Saddam loaded him on a helicoptor and it took off, their commander sternly warned them to keep quiet, and not say anything to anyone.

Wouldn't you love to see the standing orders this commander had, and see what rationale drove this decision to supress this major story?

Will the freedom of information act cover getting access to this decision?

Certainly Rummy and Bush should be asked why they wanted it kept secret. Of course they will say that they wanted to get Saddam out of Iraq before the Iraqis tried to rescue him or something, but I would take that as total <edit>.

[onebigbadwulf]

1. Duh?

So they could pull out of their bag of tricks when they get caught with one of their lies... IE halliburton stealing 65 million from us

[kcwayne]

2. Certainly

holding on to him until it is most advantageous politically to spring the news is why they did it. But what I would be interested in seeing is whether the generals willingly bought into the Pentagon's request for secrecy for purely partisan reasons. After all, they are killing Democrats over there, it is not just Republican prayer meeting on the streets of Baghdad.

The general is unlikely to say "Captain, if we capture Saddam, the President wants it kept top secret until just before the election", and the captain says "Yes sir, anything for the commander in chief, sir".

The general is more likely to say, "This operation must be kept top secret until cleared through channels.", and no questions are asked or permitted.

When BS orders roll downhill like this, the guys at the bottom know its FUBAR.

[Nederland]

3. Gee

Do you think that maybe those orders were designed to keep the capture a secret until Saddam was in a secure location? Do you think maybe it would be a good idea to make it difficult for Saddam supporters to stage an attack on any vehicles transporting Saddam?

Do you think that just maybe, the US military knows what its doing and not everything is a giant conspiracy? Just maybe?

[kcwayne]

4. That's part of it

But the lieutenant's tone was threatening and severe, with no qualification for how long this group of 30 or so soldiers were expected to remain quiet. If I were that soldier taking that order, my interpretation would have been that I was to remain silent indefinitely. And I would wonder why the command did not want to break the biggest story of the war.

If the lieutenant's orders had been, "Our mission is to get the prisoner to a secure location. You are not to say anything about this to anyone until you are specifically cleared", I would have no curiosity.

Maybe that's exactly what the lieutenant's orders were, but he was not inclined to think an explanation was necessary to 30 guys sitting on top of a huge story that they would be dying to bust out. Certainly the military is not a democracy, and many officers operate with the expectation that orders need no explanation.

The military conducted this capture excellently. I speculated that they would kill him, which I would not grieve over, but I think Saddam is much more useful alive than dead if we are serious about understanding what constitutes terrorist threats.