Grange: Saddam 'paranoid' about capture
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Retired Brig. Gen. David Grange
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(CNN) -- The U.S. military is trying to identify the remains of those killed in an attack on a convoy of Iraqis linked to Saddam Hussein's regime, a senior Bush administration official said.
The attack occurred Wednesday near Qaim in western Iraq, close to the Syrian border, killing and capturing people with ties to Saddam's toppled government, according to U.S. defense officials.
During the mission, the Iraqi convoy broke into two elements and a person or vehicle began to cross the border into Syria, with U.S. forces in pursuit, a U.S. defense official said. Syrian border guards opened fire, the official said.
CNN anchor Bill Hemmer talked with retired Army Brigadier General David Grange, now a military analyst for CNN, Monday morning.
HEMMER: Is that the effort right now -- to kill Saddam Hussein as opposed to taking him alive?
GRANGE: Well, it depends on the target, Bill. If it's a fleeting target where the only opportunity is to strike it, let's say from the air in the case of a Predator as an example, probably so. I think they would want to capture Saddam or his sons or some of the other key officials that work for Saddam if they could. But if it's a threat to the force that's doing the operation or the means to take him down requires a long-range platform to fire, then they would kill him first, yes.
HEMMER: What do you make of the news [about] the Syrian side of the border? How secure is that border? How much is it sealed off, and if it's not, why not?
GRANGE: Well, the border has never been truly sealed off until the war started, and then the coalition forces continued to increase the effort to seal it. And I think it's being watched very closely by coalition forces with strike elements ready to go on a moment's notice if an indicator appears of a target. And so, these high-value targets, whether it's a signal intercept or from human sources, whatever the case may be, if that comes about, then these strike forces go in right away on that target. But I think it's sealed off much better than it was, you know, prior to the war, but it was porous.
HEMMER: What about Task Force 20? ... It was involved at one time in the rescue of Jessica Lynch. What do you know about this group?
GRANGE: Well, what we can talk about on Task Force 20, it's a special operations force made up of several services that all bring different capabilities to this task force. It could even have coalition members from British forces as an example. It has primary missions are to go after the card deck of 55, the top people, to kill or grab these enemy leaders, hostage rescue, and also sensitive or highly sensitive possible WMD sites. There are other forces that are looking for WMD as well, but very critical sites with key intelligence they would probably go after those as well.
HEMMER: In a few words here in the time we have left, why has it been so hard to track down Saddam Hussein and his two sons? Why has he been able to evade this?
GRANGE: Well, he's had years to practice for -- and prepare, for not only external threats, but also internal threats. And, you know, take a country the size that's obviously not all desert, you look at Baghdad, it's like looking for someone in Chicago in the same population, the infrastructure not quite the same, but a lot of places to hide. He's paranoid about someone coming after him. So it's difficult. It was -- they didn't confirm Hitler's death, I don't think, for six months after World War II. Look at bin Laden, look at some of the other leaders that have been chased around the world. It's a tough mission.
