The main infrastructure of this support system consists of three basic institutions. Each provides specific kinds of control and support. These are: (1) The security support system; (2) The military support system; and (3) The political support system.

1) Security support system : Security and intelligence organisations

Estimated number of members: 100-150,000

This system consists of countless organisations and sub-organisations, some are official or at least publicly known, others are secret. Some have existed for a long time and seem to have a permanent nature, others were created to perform specific tasks. However, the main structure of this system consists of four main organisations, each with an unknown number of sub-organisations under different and changeable names.

A) The President's Personal Protection Unit (PPPU) (Also known as the Presidential Palaces Security Unit Jihaz Al-Hemiya Al-Kasa) (or Amn Al-Kusour)

This department is always under the control of a member of the President's immediate family¹. This provides Saddam with constant physical protection, and supervises communications, transportation, and domestic facilities in his residences. This is the only unit which has armed men in direct and close contact with the President. Thus the main task of this department is to protect the president from assassination. Its agents are also involved in the assassination of senior members of the regime by direct order of the President.

B) The Presidential Intelligence Bureau (Jihaz Mukhabarat Al-Ra'isa, also known as Jihaz Al-Amn Al-Khas)

This department is also always under the control of a member of the President's immediate family. It is the nerve centre of the regime's security network. The main task of this organisation is to co-ordinate the functions of all security and intelligence bodies, allowing the President to impose direct control over all security activities in the state. Apart from the co-ordination task, this organisation has a direct role in meeting the President's intelligence requirements. It is the eyes and ears of the President, as well as the hand to implement, directly or indirectly, the President's security directives. This body is in charge of collecting information about the activities of all high-ranking officials and even information about members of the President's immediate family. This is the highest intelligence organisation and the one in charge of maintaining the President's control over the state.

C) The General Directorate of Intelligence (Al-Mukhabarat Al-A'ma)

This is either headed by a member of the President's immediate family or of his Tikriti clan². It is the main state intelligence body and is predominantly concerned with political and security problems. It consists of two major departments covering internal and external activities respectively. It is the equivalent of the CIA and the FBI rolled into one (or MI5 and MI6). In recent years, and as a direct result of the Gulf War, the external department was reduced to less than half of its pre-1990 size, while the internal department was enlarged to deal with increasing anti-regime activities in Iraq.

D) The General Directorate of Public Security (Al-A'mn Al-A'am)

Headed by a member of the Tikriti clan. This is the main internal security body of the state and the oldest in the country. It usually works in close co-operation with the police force. It makes wide-ranging investigations and protects security interests, watching political, criminal, economic and media activities.

2) Military support system

The Republican Guards (RG) Organisation
(Estimated: 6 divisions (2 armoured, 3 mechanised, 1 infantry) and 16 brigades (four Special RG, 10 commando, 2 Special Forces). Estimated: 240 - 270,000 members.

A) The Republican Guard Special Protection Forces (SPF)

This represents the first circle of protection of the President by the Republican Guard. It is under the command of mainly Tikriti officers who are recruited from other Republican Guard units after their loyalty to the person of the President has been tested beyond doubt. This body is in charge of providing ground and air protection for all presidential sites, including the presidential residences and palaces, and the President's meeting and working places. The task of this unit is performed in partnership with the President's Personal Protection Unit (PPPU), which has the prime responsibility for security inside the sites, while the RG - SPF provide security beyond the outer walls of the site. The main task of this unit is to protect the president from assassination attempts.

However, the RG-SPF’s duties exclude a web of secret presidential hideouts consisting of small houses and villas spread over the country which have a discreet and very low level of protection provided exclusively by the PPPU.

B) Republican Guards (The Capital Protection Forces) (RG-CPF)

The Republican Guard Capital Protection Forces are under the joint command of Tikriti officers. It is the best military unit in the country in terms of armaments, training, and discipline. It represents a multi-task integrated force with its own independent air force and ground support helicopter units lead and staffed by Tikriti officers as well as those from other Arab Sunni tribes and families. The main task of this force is to prevent a military coup, deal with civilian uprisings, and perform the general duties of a rapid intervention force with high degrees of mobility and flexibility. It is the only active unit inside the capital and its periphery that enjoy an immediate access to ammunitions. It is in constant state of alert .

This RG force is under the direct command of the President; all its officers are known personally to Saddam Hussein and have the right to establish direct and private contact with him, usually by telephone. This force has its own security and intelligence unit, the main duties of which are to police the ordinary units of the Iraqi Army, as well as prevent the third layer of the RG (forces stationed outside the capital) from rebellion against the regime.

C) Republican Guards - The Fighting Forces

This organisation is under the joint command of a number of Tikriti and non-Tikriti Arab Sunni army officers. This is an active operational military force and it is the largest - in terms of number of personnel and units - of the RG. It was formed during the Iraq-Iran war in the early 1980s as a rapid deployment and intervention force to prevent the collapse of the Iraqi Army. It went on to play a major part in the invasion of Kuwait, and in crushing the popular uprising inside the country after the war, as well as assisting the forces of the Kurdish Democratic Party in re-establishing control over the city of Arbil in the north of Iraq in 1996.

3) Political support system

The Ba'ath Party organisations
(Estimated 400,000 members, plus 22,000 paramilitaries (popular army and Feda'yeen Saddam forces)

The political support system consists mainly of the civilian organisation of the Ba'ath Party and the party's armed militia, as well as a number of affiliated provisional societies. Since Saddam assumed direct power as President of the Republic in July 1979, the Ba'ath Party organisation has been gradually transformed to a huge intelligence organisation in charge of collecting information on ordinary citizens as well as government officials. Party members even spy on each other. The party has totally lost its very limited degree of autonomy, along with its ideological premises and foundations .

Conclusion

Saddam's support structure is quite impressive and has proved effective in helping the President and his regime to survive any threats generated by internal and external factors. The fruit of all this hard labour was the development of a highly centralised and highly personalised security and support system focused on and controlled by one person: Saddam Hussein.

Thus if a system is created, controlled and managed by one person, one can assume that this system will not survive beyond or after its creator/manager. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that Saddam's disappearance would generate a self-destruction mechanism which immediately or within a short period will result in total collapse of all support systems.

Notes

(1) Saddam Hussein’s immediate family consists of two sons, three sons in-law, one brother in-law, three half-brothers, and six cousins i.e. there are no more than 15 male members of his inner circle.

(2) Around 300-400 members of Saddam’s extended family (the Tikriti clan, or certain sections of it) occupy key positions in the security service organisations and in the command of the Republican Guard.

Design by