DEBKAfile - First Defection from Top Rank of Saddam Regime


Assuming this story is true, and he's in our hands, would it matter? There have already been a stream of defectors coming out of Iraq warning us about what's going on. The best you could hope for would be that a guy like this would point directly to where the major contraband stashes are, and that the inspectors would actually go there before it was cleaned up, or go there at all. Even if that were to happen, of course, you know the chant, "See? The inspections are working!"

Adib Shaaban, the right hand of Saddam Hussein’s powerful son Uday, has defected.


DEBKA-Net-Weekly reports exclusively that this key member of Saddam Hussein’s administration, who was charged with his son’s most sensitive missions, traveled to Jeddah at the beginning of this week, saying he needed to put through some gold transactions ahead of the war.


From Jeddah, he flew to Beirut and… disappeared.


US intelligence sources report that Shaaban never really went to Beirut. He made his way under cover to Damascus Monday and was picked up by an unmarked plane for an unknown destination.


As Uday’s closest aide, he also managed a chain of official publications, including the authoritative Babel, and was in on the Saddam regime’s deepest secrets.


Uday commands the secret army known as Saddam’s Fedayeen, the backbone of Baghdad’s defenses and custodian of the weapons of mass destruction that were not smuggled out to Lebanon.


Uday is also the chief of the ruling Baath Party’s covert service.


Shaaban must therefore be a veritable treasury of Saddam Hussein’s secrets. In American hands, Uday’s chef de bureau would be even more valuable than the proverbial smoking gun.