US declares psychological war on Saddam's top men

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

Senior Iraqi military officers and members of the regime's inner circle have been receiving emails and telephone messages from American "psych-ops" experts, urging them to break with Saddam Hussein.

Selected members of Iraq's economic and political elite have been getting the messages, which claim they do not need to tie their futures to the Iraqi leader, via personal cell phones and private email addresses.

The electronic and cyber assault on the upper echelons of the Iraqi leadership is the latest twist in American and British efforts to undermine Saddam's support before any military strike.

"The goal of the information warfare is to win without ever firing a shot," said James Wilkinson, a spokesman for America's Central Command in Tampa, Florida.

"If action does begin, information warfare is used to make the conflict as short as possible."

The exact wording of the messages is unclear, but officials say the general thrust is: there is no point in resisting.

The same message has been delivered to Iraqi soldiers through the use of more than eight million leaflets that have been dropped from British and American planes.

Many of the leaflets urge Iraqis to tune their radios to special broadcasts being put out on specific frequencies.

Those broadcasts - delivered by American experts - argue that Saddam has insulted the honour of Iraqi soldiers.

"Soldiers of Iraq," says one. "Since the beginning of time there has been no profession more honourable than that of being a soldier ... Saddam has tarnished this legacy.

"Saddam spews forth political rhetoric, along with a false sense of national pride, to deceive these men to serve his own unlawful purposes. Saddam does not want the soldiers of Iraq to have the honour and dignity that their profession warrants.

"Saddam seeks only to exploit these brave men."

The radio broadcasts are prepared and delivered by specialists from the 4th Psychological Operations Group, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and relayed by an EC-130 Commando Solo aircraft.

The planes, operated by the 193rd Special Operations Wing, were flown during the Afghanistan campaign to fill the airwaves with messages designed to persuade Taleban and al Qaeda fighters to lay down their arms and to tell Afghan civilians that America and coalition forces were not the enemy.

One senior US officer told the New York Times: "In Afghanistan the biggest lesson we learned in our tactical information broadcasts was the importance of explaining 'Why we are here?'. The majority of Afghans did not know that September 11 occurred. They did not know of our great tragedy."

He added: "The voila moment came when we saw that the population understood why coalition forces were fighting the Taleban and al Qaeda.

"In Iraq it will be when we see a break with the leadership."

- INDEPENDENT