
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 3, 1994                   TAG: 9401030083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BOOK SAYS U.S. PLOTTED TO ASSASSINATE SADDAM

Military intelligence officials plotted to kill Saddam Hussein as he traveled from Baghdad to Kuwait in the months before the Gulf War, according to a book on U.S. Army and Navy commando forces.

The plan called for Army Delta or Navy Seal Team-6 commandos to shoot down Saddam's helicopter with shoulder-fired Stinger missiles after spy satellites determined he had boarded the aircraft, according to "The Commandos: the Inside Story of America's Soldiers," by Newsweek defense correspondent Douglas C. Waller.

Saddam was considered impregnable in Baghdad, but once a month he traveled to Kuwait City, usually by helicopter from Baghdad to Basra, then by motor home to Kuwait, Waller said.

Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney were "intrigued by the idea of some type of American force targeting Saddam," Waller wrote in in the Jan. 10 issue of Newsweek.

But U.S. Central Command Chief Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf thought the "scheme was harebrained," Waller wrote.

- Associated Press

by CNB