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| A-1-8 Chapter of the 4th Infantry Division |
Active Unit News
Johnson: Saddam's capture 'might be working out after all'
Hours after the news broke, an informant provides critical info
December 17, 2003
SAMARRA, Iraq - Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman stands over the stack of AK-47 rifles, the miles of rolled detonation cord, the C-4 explosives and the electronic gadgets that make it all work, and still cannot believe his luck.
He stares over the thick coils of razor wire at the nearly 60 men captured in the raid and sucks his teeth. These are the guys he and his men have been chasing for five months now?
The officer sets his hands on his hips, shakes his head and finally smiles.
"Hell," he says, "this Saddam Hussein-capture thing just might be working out after all."
An early morning raid on a farmhouse on the outskirts of this city on Tuesday netted one of the top lieutenants of Saddam Hussein's former regime, a man listed as No. 5 on the 4th Infantry Division's most-wanted list.
Qais Hattam, one of five Baath Party leaders who once controlled Iraq's 18 provinces, is believed by commanders here to have dined with Saddam only two days before the former dictator was pulled from a hole in the ground at a different farmhouse on Saturday.
Infantry soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team from Fort Carson have scoured the countryside around this central Iraq city every day since July for Hattam, who organized and bankrolled the persistent attacks here against American soldiers.
Sassaman, who commands the 1-8 Infantry which conducted the raid, says an informant with close ties to Hattam simply walked up to the Army compound here and told the soldier on duty where Hattam could be found.
The man appeared only three hours after word of Saddam's capture was broadcast.
"This guy walks in from out of nowhere," Sassaman tells us. "Now Hattam is the No. 1 guy on our own target list, and has been pretty much since we got here. This man is the godfather of this area. He has the money and the weapons.
"We almost didn't believe this guy."
Raid catches Iraqis off guard
The men of Company C - "Charlie Rock," as they are known - set out just after midnight on Tuesday. The tip on Hattam was possibly a setup for an ambush, a few commanders initially believed.
The most direct route to the locale of the raid would take the Americans past an Iraqi police station, which some soldiers believe has sent advance word in the past warning targets of other raids.
"So we took a different, over-terrain route," Sassaman says.
If the men inside what commanders called a "very meager" farmhouse complex were waiting for Charlie Rock, the officers decide to make them wait all night.
At 4:30 a.m., the advance on the surrounded complex began. Specialists Kendrick Cooper, 20, and Rick Leach, 21, are stepping gingerly though a muddy ditch in an orchard when they see the first 155 mm mortar round. It is sticking straight out of the ground.
Beneath it, covered in plastic, are several dozen more. Farther up, buried in hay, is C-4 explosive, rolls of detonation cord and blasting caps.
"We found, for example, det cord, blasting caps, keyless car-alarm parts, cell phones - all the stuff you need to make roadside bombs - hidden in chicken coops," Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Bosler says.
Still other rifles, machine guns and explosives are discovered in a hole beneath a kennel where a litter of puppies is being kept.
"We were like, 'Whoa!' - but, you know, in a whisper," Leach says.
Almost all the targeted men are caught off-guard when the soldiers storm the house. Two attempt to flee and are immediately caught. Not a single shot is fired.
"We wanted to catch them while they were sleeping, and we just about did," Sassaman says.
Big win for 3rd Brigade
Soldiers late Tuesday were continuing a search for at least $1.3 million in American currency Hattam is believed to have amassed to fund the attacks.
Soldiers, as many as six at a time, occasionally stopped on a rise to glare at the scores of Arab men sitting cross-legged on the ground behind the razor wire, each with a bottle of water in front them. Some soldiers curse the men on the ground.
Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, are the bane of every soldier's existence here.
The men still speak fondly of a Sgt. Perez, badly wounded by an IED placed on the side of the road that went off as his Humvee passed.
Another sergeant now carries Perez's rifle. He refuses to clean away the dried blood on the stock.
One roll of the detonation cord - and there are dozens of rolls - is enough to make at least four IEDs.
The cord is inserted into the C-4 explosive and rolled across the highway to a ditch, where the triggerman waits. Sometimes, the IEDs are rigged electronically and are set off by remote from car-alarm keys or by cell phone.
"You're looking at a lot of IEDs right here," Sassaman says, sweeping his hand across the cord and explosives. "At least a good couple of months' worth, maybe a hundred or more.
"I'll tell you, Charlie Rock today saved an untold amount of lives by finding this. No doubt about that."
For the men and women of Fort Carson's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, it was a huge win. No doubt about that, either.
Bill Johnson and photographer Todd Heisler are on assignment in Iraq. Listen to Bill Johnson on "The State of Colorado" Friday at 8 a.m. on KNRC-AM (1150).
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