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- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has secretly dispatched
troops across the frontier in Jordan in preparation for an attack on Israel,
according to the intelligence sources of DEBKA-Net-Weekly.
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- Iraq military units have been infiltrating neighboring
Jordan for the past 10 days, according to the report. Their mission, say
DEBKA sources, is to reach the Israeli border, cross the Jordan River and
move into the main Palestinian cities of the West Bank - Ramallah, Jenin,
Nablus and Bethlehem - and fight alongside the Palestinians.
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- The invading units are highly trained and well-equipped
commandos able to operate and survive in the field for long periods when
cut off from their headquarters and sources of supply, the report says.
They are still reportedly in the Jordanian desert.
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- The incursion was detected by Israeli reconnaissance
planes and the Ofek 3 and 5 spy satellites.
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- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon immediately dispatched
high-ranking Israeli army intelligence officers to Amman to show King Abdullah
of Jordan the evidence of the Iraqi penetration to his kingdom.
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- The king at once proclaimed a supreme state of alert
in all Jordanian army units. Israel poured troops into the Jordan Valley
region, deploying them along the Jordan River and Jordanian frontier to
block off the West Bank to Iraqi penetration.
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- According to DEBKA-Net-Weeklyís military sources,
the Iraqi forces' first entry point in Jordan was Wadi El Murbah in the
central zone of its eastern border with Iraq. From there, they moved to
Wadi Athner. A second penetration area was Wadi Hawran in southwest Iraq,
not far from the points where the Iraqi, Saudi and Jordanian frontiers
meet. The Iraqi forces advanced through the wadi, bypassing Jabal Unayzah
in Iraq and coming out inside Jordanian territory near the town of Ruwayshid.
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- DEBKA's sources in Amman and Jerusalem report that both
Israel and Jordan view the Iraqi military operation as an act of war against
them. While maintaining official silence, certainly on the Iraqi invasion
of Jordan, both countries consider themselves in a state of war with Iraq.
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- Jordan did attempt in the first days of the incursion
to encircle the Iraqi intruders and capture them. But some days of intensive
effort with airborne support showed the Jordanian Special Forces that they
are no match for 1,000 to 1,500 crack Iraqi commandos. Jordanian fighter
planes sent into action were met by dozens of Iraqi fighters, put up over
the penetration regions, from Al-Baghdadi, the main Iraqi air base in the
central region, south of the town of Arrutba. When SA-6 surface-to-air
missile batteries at two recently reopened Iraqi air bases, H3 in the northwest
and H3 in the northeast, lit up their radar and locked on to the elderly
Jordanian aircraft, lacking electronic counter-measures, they turned tail
without snapping a single reconnaissance photo.
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- The Jordanian monarch then reportedly made his first
approach to the U.S. and Israel for help. Israeli reconnaissance aircraft,
under the umbrella of Israeli fighter planes, flew into Jordanian airspace.
Whenever they appeared, Iraqi planes bugged out and Iraqi missile battery
operators turned off their radar. Jordan also sent desert reconnaissance
patrols and intelligence units into Iraq to bring back information on supply
lines and reinforcements.
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- What they found sounded even louder alarm bells in Amman:
The elite Hummarabi division of the Republican Guard, equipped with T-72
tanks, was now in position between the Jordanian border and the two H bases.
They also learned that the Iraqi army had sent at least four armored infantry
brigades into the area.
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- Equally troubling, at the beginning of the week, the
Iraqi force already in Jordan was sighted moving west, several groups having
reached the sand dunes and wadis known as Abu Haffrah, about 80 kilometers
(50 miles) inside Jordanian territory.
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- King Abdullah decided to take command of the Jordanian
forces still chasing the Iraqis intruders.
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- DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources report that the longer
the king, a career officer before he ascended the throne, spent out in
the field in eastern Jordan, the more anxious he became. He realized that
overcoming the Iraqi force already inside the kingdom would not end his
worries.
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- There was still the next stage of Saddam's plan to face
up to, as indicated in the latest intelligence reports on his desk. Iraq
had a second wave of troops poised ready to cross into Jordan. Furthermore,
Saddam Hussein had secretly appointed his eldest son, Qusay, supreme commander
of what the Iraqi president was now describing as 'the Iraqi-Jordanian-Israeli
front'.
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- At a military ceremony attended by top Iraqi generals,
Saddam, the reports said, had sworn to spare neither effort nor money to
provide Qusay with any reinforcements he might request.
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- Qusay is said to have set up his headquarters at al-Bagdad
air force base, to the rear of the Iraqi forces deployed between the H
bases and the Jordanian border.
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- Jordanian intelligence also reported a large concentration
of Iraqi forces on the main roads leading from Iraq to Damascus and from
Iraq to the Golan Heights.
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- The Jordanian king was forced to realize that he was
not dealing merely with a small-scale invasion of mobile Iraqi forces,
but with preparations by his eastern neighbor for war on a regional scale,
far beyond the scope of the Jordanian army on its own.
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- What the intelligence reports omitted to mention was
whether Saddam Husseinís move had been coordinated with either ñ
or both ñ Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and Syrian
President Bashar Assad.
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- DEBKA-Weekly-Net sources in Jerusalem and Washington
report that at the beginning of the week, King Abdullah put his overseas
connections to the test. He asked President Bush for American intervention
against the Iraqi threat. He also turned to Israeli prime minister Ariel
Sharon to invoke the secret Israeli-Jordanian defense pact signed by the
late King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin that obliges Israel to act against
military or terrorist elements endangering the existence of the Kingdom
of Jordan or the Hashemite throne.
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- Several of DEBKA-Net-Weekly's sources report that Israel
has taken initial steps in fulfillment of its pact with Jordan. Those steps
have reportedly met with some resistance in Washington. When consulted,
the Bush administration indicated that however small, Israelís moves
must be kept utterly secret so as not to upset U.S. plans for Iraq.
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- The coming weekend will be crucial in this regard, according
to the report. The Jordanian-Iraqi clashes, if they continue, could be
the first military step on the road to a Middle East war - without the
world even noticing. ___
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- Comment
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- From Name on file 7-27-1
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- DEBKAfile is considered by many journalists to be a Mossad/Israeli
military proprietary, just as many feel Stratfor.com is a CIA or NSA 'news
service'. This story must be considered possible partial disinformation
and viewed with maximum skepticism until independent sources can confirm
or deny it...if that is even possible.
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- Comment
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- From Richard A. Landkamer ralandka@pdq.net 7-27-1
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- At this point I consider the following allegations from
DEBKAfile, whose web site is at http://www.debka.com/, to be completely
unverifiable. The main problem I've always had with this Israeli web
site is that it divulges nothing about who runs and controls DEBKAfile
other than: "DEBKAfile's editorial team is led by two experienced
foreign correspondents and employs top notch contributors in the world's
hot spots." Uh huh. And who are these "two experienced foreign
correspondents," and what are their backgrounds? Also, who are
the "top notch contributors in the world's hot spots" that are
employed by DEBKAfile, and what are their backgrounds?
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