Military's Iraqi 'cards' lose value in conflict

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Thirteen fugitives remain from the original "deck of cards" of top Saddam Hussein regime members, but U.S. forces are increasingly focusing on new lists of individuals thought to be taking a more active role in the anti-U.S. insurgency, military intelligence sources say.

To create these lists, U.S. military units and their coalition allies have developed computer databases, which they have updated with information on every bomb blast, firefight, suspect detained and tip provided by a local resident.

The deck of cards, prepared by U.S. intelligence before the March invasion, contains images of the 55 figures that the U.S. military was particularly interested in capturing, beginning with Saddam himself as the ace of spades.

The U.S. troops who entered Iraq also carried a so-called black list of hundreds of second-tier leaders targeted for arrest as well as an even larger gray list, which contains "persons of interest" -- Iraqis wanted for questioning.

Those lists are not updated and have grown less relevant to the current insurgency, a senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

"There are clearly some who remain on the black list that we're very interested in even in today's insurgency," said the official, based in Baghdad. The official said there are others on the black list who are "less threatening" and of "marginal or of less importance."

In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown north of Baghdad, the Army's 4th Infantry Division has found its own informants and databases more useful than the CIA's lists of former regime loyalists, said the division's Lt. Col. Steven Russell.

"If you're asking whether our operations are being driven topdown, my view, and it's a narrow view from Tikrit, is that our information has been driven bottom-up in cooperation with special operations forces locally," Russell said.

The old CIA lists "were the starting point" for rounding up the top officials in Saddam's Baath Party, especially those believed to have committed or ordered atrocities or who had knowledge of unconventional weapons, said Lt. Col. Ken Devan, the top intelligence officer of the Army's 1st Armored Division, which controls Baghdad.

Since many of those fugitives have already been captured, their interrogations have provided fodder for further fugitive lists and arrests, Devan said.

"It's kind of like pulling on a string. You just keep on pulling and you don't really know what's on the other end," Devan said.

The Army's 82nd Airborne Division, which occupies the restive Sunni Muslim areas west of Baghdad, has its own database of insurgent suspects who lead 15 guerrilla cells operating in the al-Anbar province, which contains the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

"We have a prioritized list of approximately 45 individuals which we consider our highest priority targets," an intelligence analyst at the division's headquarters in Ramadi told AP on condition of anonymity.

Those on the top 55 list who are still at large include Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, his son Ahmed and Hani Abd al-Latif Tilfah al-Tikriti, all of whom are thought to be involved in the guerrilla war against the U.S.-led occupation, U.S. officials said.

The elder al-Douri -- No. 6 on the list -- and Tilfah -- No. 7 -- had senior roles in Saddam's security apparatus before the war.

Interrogated prisoners have suggested both al-Douris are playing organizing roles but that the father may be sick, officials said. Some analysts dispute the contention that he is involved in the insurgency, saying he is too busy trying to elude his pursuers.

Another growing intelligence list has proven especially relevant: the Army divisions' so-called "white lists" of informers and other human intelligence sources.

"White listers" have provided tips that fill fugitive databases and the intelligence used in raids and arrests. Devan said he was reluctant to discuss the 1st Armored's white list because the "good guys" on it could be endangered.

As fugitives get captured or killed, the old centralized lists seem to be fading away. The military hasn't added new Iraqis to them, and instead seems to be shifting to more dynamic databases.

"We don't update the black list or the gray list ... or the deck of cards," the senior military official said. "It would just get us confused if we started talking about new people on the black list. So we keep another set of target lists."