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The decision to target Saddam directly in the war's first hours reflected the White House's determination to seize the offensive after weeks of humbling diplomatic rebuffs. The early strike "did not change the original plan at all," says a senior Administration official. "It was an addition." Waiting for the diplomatic clock to run out wore at Bush. Aides say the President's mood shifted early last week after the U.S. and Britain decided to withdraw a second U.N. Security Council resolution that essentially would have authorized force against Iraq. That move made war almost certain. "It's a totally different mind-set when you go from a diplomatic process to a military operation; you have more control of the terms," says a senior White House official. "It's no mystery this President likes clarity."
At the White House last Tuesday, Bush held a lengthy meeting with Rice, Rumsfeld and a handful of high-ranking Pentagon officials to go over the final preparations for the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The next morning, hours before the deadline for Saddam's departure ran out, Bush held a videoconference in the White House Situation Room with members of his war council, as well as U.S. Central Command Chief Army General Tommy Franks and the top commanders in the region.
Bush opened the meeting by greeting Franks, who had traveled to the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia to meet with the war's top air commander, Air Force Lieut. General T. Michael Moseley. Bush teased Franks for the general's clumsiness with the videoconferencing technology; when Franks apologized, Bush said, "Don't worry, Tommy, I haven't lost faith in you." The room broke into laughter, but Bush quickly grew serious. "Do you have everything you need to win?" he asked each of the commanders. "Are you comfortable and pleased with the strategy?" After receiving assurances from all the participants, Bush asked Franks whether the general had anything left to say. "This force is ready to go," Franks said. Bush gave the order to "execute Operation Iraqi Freedom." The war would begin on Friday. "God bless the troops," Bush said, as he saluted Franks and walked out of the situation room.
Sooner than anyone expected, Bush was back. On Wednesday afternoon CIA Director George Tenet received an astonishing report, transmitted over the CIA's classified communications network: U.S. intelligence sources had pinpointed the whereabouts of Saddam and his top military leaders in Baghdad; Administration officials told TIME that the intelligence was gleaned from multiple sources, including electronic eavesdropping and reports from a single Iraqi official who had recently turned on Saddam. A senior Jordanian official says tips were also passed to the U.S. by a Jordanian diplomat and Egyptian intelligence agents, who claimed they had identified Saddam's exact location. For days, a senior White House aide says, the CIA had been conducting an all-sources operation to try to track Saddam's movements. On Wednesday they hit pay dirt. According to the aide, at least one CIA source gave the agency what it thought was "a positive ID" for Saddam. "It was very specific: This is where he is, this is where he's going, this is the possible location." If the U.S. military acted fast enough, it could kill Saddam while he slept.