[Quilla]

How would that embarrass us? I believe the vast majority think they are both alive. The CIA just recently authenticated bin Laden's voice from an audio tape. Government officials state that Saddam is behind the recent attacks against our troops in Iraq.

[diamondjoe]

Yes, but wasn't that OBL tape made several years back? I mean, I have JFK on tape, but that doesn't mean he's alive.

[oceanview]

well, let's not even talk about the CIAs motives.

why didn't Uday and Qusay make a tape? why bother proving they are alive to us? the best thing from Saddam's point of view would be to continue fostering these attacks in hiding, force the US to withdraw, and then emerge one day and retake the country. I'm not saying that would happen, but that must be their thinking, and they have a long term view. In the US, everything must be done "within X months", these guys are thinking in terms of years.

[WL-law]

The CIA just recently authenticated bin Laden's voice from an audio tape. Government officials state that Saddam is behind the recent attacks against our troops in Iraq.

The CIA has never officially authenticated his voice. Show me a cite that says that. Every article of that trope that I've read cites "CIA sources" or "intelligence sources", which is NOT the CIA speaking -- it's the lib media pulling a "Gilligan".

As for govt officials, they are careful to be unspecific as to whether Saddam is alive, i.e., "if Saddam is behind these attacks", "whether or not Saddam is behind these attacks", etc.

The reason for speaking that way is that they don't have the corpus delecti, i.e., Saddam's body, and so prudence dictates that they err on the side of conservatism, that he 'might' be alive. That's understandable.

But the stready passage of time without Saddam 'proving' he is alive -- to his own supporters -- strengthens the notion that he is dead.