generalspeaking

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Intelligence Gathering, Decision Making, Jackpot

"Ethawi gave valuable information which helped the Iraqi multi-security agencies team complete the missing pieces of the puzzle of Baghdadi's movements and places he used to hide."
"Ethawi gave us details on five men, including him[self], who were meeting Baghdadi inside Syria and the different locations they used."
Iraqi security official

"They gave us all the locations where they were meeting with Baghdadi inside Syria and we decided to coordinate with the CIA to deploy more sources inside these areas."
"In mid-2019 we managed to locate Idlib as the place where Baghdadi was moving from village to village with his family and three close aides."
"We passed the details to the CIA and they used a satellite and drones to watch the location for the past five months."
Iraqi security official

"The test results gave certain, immediate and totally positive identification. It was him."
"We were in the Situation Room. And the commander of the mission called and said, '100% confidence, Jackpot."
"We're thinking about it [declassifying and releasing part of the Saturday raid video]. We may. We may take certain parts of it and release it."
U.S. President Donald J. Trump

Baghdadi

According to Ismael al-Ethawi, the Islamic State caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi held strategic talks with his commanders within moving minibuses packed with vegetables in an effort to avoid detection. This was the insider who gave information to the Iraqi security forces after being arrested by Turkish authorities and given over to the Iraqis. Earlier, a joint operation with the U.S. Turkish and Iraqi intelligence agents saw senior ISIL leaders captured.

An Iraqi man had been spotted by informants in Syria. He was wearing a checkered headdress while at a marketplace in Idlib. The informants had recognized him from a photograph, according to officials. And this was Ethawi. They followed him to the home where Baghdadi was staying at that time. And this 'humint' intelligence was then conveyed to the CIA. Two days ago Baghdadi vacated that location along with his family, travelling to a nearby village, by minibus.

"There it was his last moment to live", observed the intelligence official. It was not only the U.S., Turkey, Russia, Iraq after the mass murderer, but his ideological opponents as well. As, for example, the group formerly known as the Nusra Front, now named Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, whose jihadist territory Idlib had become. Islamic State and the Nusra Front had had a falling out, then fought against each other. Once al-Qaeda's official affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front broke away in 2016.

Another aide to Baghdadi had fallen into the hands of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham recently. This was Abu Suleiman al-Khalidi, a close confidant of Baghdadi and assumed to be his successor. His capture was considered "the key" according to the Iraqi intelligence commander, in the search for Baghdadi. President Trump also acknowledged "helpful information" from the Kurds on the whereabouts of Baghdadi, beginning a month earlier, enabling U.S. intelligence to "scope out" the exact location of the terrorist caliph two weeks ago.

U.S. military personnel and military dogs lifted off in eight helicopters from a base about an hour and a half distant from their target, flying over airspace secured by Turkey, Iraq and Russia whom they had earlier alerted in broad terms without divulging the nature of the mission. The Delta Force special unit focused on counterterrorism represented the onboard personnel. As they approached the compound holding Baghdadi the helicopters came under fire from the ground, responding swiftly to neutralize the source.

The soldiers rappelled down to surround the compound, sidestepping the main booby-trapped front gate, and blowing holes in the side of the building to storm through just as Baghdadi fled into a tunnel, pulling three of his young children along with him. Confronted by a dead end, hearing the dogs in full chase and the special agents right behind, Baghdadi detonated his suicide vest, bringing the tunnel down on himself and his three children. His mutilated body, dug out of the rubble, underwent an immediate DNA test to verify his identity.

"The disposal of his [Baghdadi's] remains has been done and is complete and was handled appropriately."
Army General Mike Milley, chairman, U.S. Joint chiefs of Staff