Was It A Honeypot?
By Jim E. Reames (03/21/03)
OK. The CIA received "credible information" from a reliable human asset in Baghdad that Saddam Hussein and his top henchmen have just entered a particular residence and it appears they are all still inside. Shortly there after the President is briefed. This appears to be an extraordinary target with timed opportunity, so Cruse missiles are fired and the house is destroyed.
Then a somewhat different than normal looking Saddam Hussein appears on Iraq television and the world population is thrown into a tail-spin asking, "Is this the real Saddam Hussein? Or is he a fake, look-a-like?" The whole thing reminded me of how the news media and the police profilers were---until proven wrong---all so certain the Washington, D. C. area sniper was a white male, driving a white van or small white utility truck.
If the human asset on the ground in Baghdad is as legitimate and as credible as the CIA believes (there is no reason for me to think otherwise): Then it was, in fact, Saddam Hussein who entered that house. And if the cruise missiles are as accurate as everyone says they are: Then the target was hit hard and square. Logic would suggest that everyone inside was killed.
But what if it was a "Honeypot?" You know…a trap! In the world of advanced computer information system security, fake web sites appear valid. However, in reality they are web sites designed and used for the sole purpose of enticing hackers. The intent is to capture and record every keystroke, every method of firewall attack, and every method of intrusion to study the criminal Modus Operandi of an electronic information age burglar.
Who is to say Saddam Hussein made certain he was seen entering the house that had a secret sub-surface tunnel. Immediately leading off to some other building blocks away and that his wearing of the large reading glasses while on television wasn’t a ploy to keep the Pentagon guessing? He may have even been willing to sacrifice top ranked military personnel (or look-a-likes) just to try to draw our military into Baghdad prematurely. The Viet Cong used to do that sort of thing all the time in the jungles of Vietnam. Hence, the absolute necessity for our top military instructors to be battlefield experienced.
The thing that bothers me is that on the radio today, and on television, I could not find a single talk-show host, or a single mainstream news media person, or a single guest interviewer who even mentioned the scenario of a Honeypot.
Come on Ted Kopple, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, Bob Schieffer, Dan Rather, George Stephanopoulos, Bill O’Riley, and all you others who have higher pay grades than me, and one of my co-workers who made me regurgitate the word Honeypot this afternoon. Start doing what the 1970s era IBM assembler language seminar instructors used to write on the whiteboard for us beginner programmers to do. THINK!
Asymmetric war IS NOT Twentieth Century war. Survival demands out of the box thinking.
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