Iraq Missile Attacks Missed Real Targets

March 19 -- The U.S. missile attack that official launched the war on Iraq last March 19 began sooner than the U.S. command had planned. Bush administration officials apparently thought they had Saddam Hussein himself in their sights, and perhaps his two sons as well.

"We had some information from the Central Intelligence Agency that they had an unimpeachable source that Saddam Hussein was going to be in a residence in a bunker in Dura Farms," said Marc Garlasco, who was former chief of high-value targets for the Pentagon's Joint Staff during the war.

Garlasco said his group had absolute confidence in the intelligence it received. "There was no question that Sadddam was not going to be there. There was no question that there was not a bunker there," he said. "We were so certain that we basically tossed the plan for the war out the window and went with something completely new."

Garlasco planned strikes on Saddam Hussein and other top leaders using communications intercepts from the National Security Agency … satellite imagery from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency … and human intelligence from the CIA.

"We were working in the bowels of the Pentagon," Garlasco said. "You've got a lot of people packed in there, there's a lot of excitement, people are bristling with excitement and the thought is, 'We can end the war here on the first night the first shot.' "

That excitement could be heard in statements made by administration officials like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who appeared in the Pentagon briefing room to give updates on the progress of the war. One day after the first missile strikes, he announced, "Coalition forces hit a senior Iraqi leadership compound last evening."

The missiles did hit their marks around the farm. But there was no heavily fortified bunker there … and no Saddam Hussein. It would not be the last time during Garlasco's tenure that the intelligence failed.