Word: saddamism
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...network's technical expert and de facto chief. Trained in Europe for Saddam's weapons program, he specialized in missile warheads and electronics as an Iraqi official. Recently, he says, he has developed methods to launch helicopter missiles from the ground. Following a strict chain of command, cell leaders report to Abu Ali, passing intelligence up the chain and carrying instructions back down. Under his guidance the insurgents weigh information on U.S. troop movements and select targets. When they are ready to strike, they quickly activate men and weaponry. The cells work in their own regions, but from time...
Former officials of Saddam's regime tend to have the technical know-how and the cash to mount operations. The organizers are generally midlevel officials from Saddam's extensive security apparatus. "They're colonels, lieutenant colonels and majors who are really the hard-core loyalists," U.S. Major General Raymond Ordierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, tells TIME. While the deposed dictator is the ideological inspiration for these loyalists, chances seem slim that he is directing attacks himself. "The communication involved," says a Pentagon official in Iraq, "would expose him too much to capture." Instead, U.S. officials believe, strategic direction...
...resources, it turns to a man identified only as "the Emir," a shadowy loyalist leader who summons Abu Ali to meetings at irregular intervals. "We are not rich men," Abu Ali says, "but we have everything." Old Soviet surface-to-air missiles that had been stockpiled by Saddam's regime go for upwards of $1,000 apiece on the black market, yet Abu Ali's organization has them in abundance. It also has access to a pipeline of weapons flowing across Iraq's borders. Another major Baghdad cell leader, Mohammed, happily displays the latest acquisition, a batch of 60mm mortars...
...rank-and-file fighters are die-hard Saddam supporters. Many are thought to be devout Iraqi Muslims who believe that fighting "infidel" occupiers is a Koranic imperative. Tensions exist between former military officers and paid militia, called fedayeen in insurgent circles, and the Muslim fighters who label themselves mujahedin, or holy warriors. The very name indicates that they would like the insurgency to become a sanctioned religious jihad against the U.S. So far, though, the groups have largely set aside their differences to focus on a common goal...
...tend to come from places like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen and Syria, whipped up by enthusiastic imams back home. Once across the border, they head to mosques to link up with local resistance cells. U.S. officials believe that most of them then carry out missions under the orders of Saddam loyalists. "They use the fundamentalists as cannon fodder," especially for lethal attacks on soft targets involving car bombs, say the officials. "Suicide bombers are generally not Iraqis or former regime types...