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U.S.- 'No Conclusions' Saddam Speech Was Authentic
Reuters | 3/20/03

Posted on 03/20/2003 4:27:55 AM PST by kattracks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. official said on Thursday the United States was drawing "no conclusions" as to the authenticity of a defiant speech by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein following the launch of war against Iraq.

"We've reached no conclusions about who that was, or when it was taped or anything like that," the senior administration official told reporters. He declined to confirm reports Saddam was a target in opening strikes on Wednesday of the U.S.-led war to oust the Iraqi leader.



TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
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To: Kaslin
The eye and nose proportions look different. There is a difference in the flare of the nostrils. I held up a ruler to get a comparison between the eye distance and the top of both heads. There is no way that big forehead is under that hat.
41 posted on 03/20/2003 6:08:20 AM PST by myprecious
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To: dawn53; Grig
Where did you get that impression?

We've made crystal clear - we're going
in. Period. We said so even if Hussein
had fled. We must disarm them & oust
all top members of their evil regime,
& help a new gov't plus the civilians
to stabilize that country.

What you called regime change, ISN'T.
42 posted on 03/20/2003 6:09:40 AM PST by txrangerette
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To: diabolicNYC
If I were an Iraqi male, I would shave my cheezy mustache as soon as possible!!
43 posted on 03/20/2003 6:10:08 AM PST by Gopher Broke
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To: Physicist
I think he got them from Hans Blix.

Which he borrowed from Tariq Aziz. Also, the guy's hands were deformed like with arthritis. It looked like a much older guy. And his moustache was white instead of black like Saddam's. Just compare pictures of Saddam from Dan Rather's interview against the guy in the beret and it is obvious that it is two different people.

44 posted on 03/20/2003 6:11:31 AM PST by rabidralph (Brad Pitt + Albert Einstein = Dick Cheney)
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To: Kaslin
Here's another point to consider. Look at the shape of the ears. It's blurry, but it looks like the guy on the tape has ears with a concave outside line and very prominent upper and lower lobes. The photo of Saddam in the suit shows an ear with a straight outside line and a pendent lower lobe.

Although there is often a family resemblance, your ears are as individual as a fingerprint. I photographed my newborn daughter's ears before I let them take her to the nursery.

45 posted on 03/20/2003 6:12:20 AM PST by AnAmericanMother (. . . see yon teuchter, but. . . . .)
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To: myprecious
There is no way that big forehead is under that hat.

By golly you're right. THAT would explain why he is wearing a hat indoors.

Another point: the uniform of the guy on the tape simply doesn't fit. Can you see Saddam, who's supposed to be something of a dandy, wearing a uniform that gaps and sags across the chest?

46 posted on 03/20/2003 6:17:42 AM PST by AnAmericanMother (. . . see yon teuchter, but. . . . .)
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To: AnAmericanMother
The 'REAL' Saddam's moustache grows from directly beneath (touching) his nostrils; the guy on TV last night has a different moustance - doesn't grow so thick and abundantly at the top.
47 posted on 03/20/2003 6:21:12 AM PST by EnnisExile
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To: AnAmericanMother; myprecious
Good catches
48 posted on 03/20/2003 6:21:25 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
I think a lot of you are making very good observations, but if that is a body double, it is a very good one. The picture from last night is too blurry to make detailed comparisons (ears, dimples, etc.) and the angle and distance is different from the comparison pictures, so proportions are deceiving. The turtle neck also makes him look older (skin rolls on the neck) and the fact that he is sitting makes his clothes fit more loosely across the chest than if he were standing. I think the guy on TV last night looks like hell (and what's up with those glasses?), but it may well be SH.

What I do think is that W indeed sent him to see allah last night and this is a recently prerecorded video. From the little I have read about what he said last night (anyone have a link to the transcript?), it was clearly a recording and he never mentioned the attack. He would not have missed the chance to accuse us of killing innicent people.

This is just my opinion, I could be wrong.
49 posted on 03/20/2003 6:35:25 AM PST by txjeep
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To: Grig
"But what is the best position for the US to take? If they present evidence that it isn't, they might get a lot more people to surrender without a fight, or even force anotoher broadcast giving more evidence to work with. At same time, if he is already dead then the US has less justification to enter Iraq now.

I think it's best if they create doubt and uncertainty without proving it one way or the other. Best of both worlds, and it seems to be what they are doing with this statement."

You have just described "high-stakes poker" that our President knows how to play well..."Texas-style"

50 posted on 03/20/2003 6:44:12 AM PST by KriegerGeist ("The weapons of our warefare are not carnal, but mighty though God for pulling down of strongholds")
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To: Tunehead54
Thanks for the pictures, from folowing the discussion I was dying to see them.

Two comments: First, there is commercially available software that can tell with certainty if that is the real Saddam, and I am sure NSA knows one way or the other. Although I'm sure we would want the world to know, there are reasons to let the world figure it out on its own....not the least of which, what if Saddam is alive and it is a body double on TV, we delcare so, the real Saddam shows up and we have made him immortal

My gut feeling is that it isn't him based more on inferential reasoning: He is a vain egomaniac who is almost never photgraphed in glasses or even with a hat on. here he is with both. I don't know Iraqi military etiquette and others could comment, but his uniform, it isn't right.
51 posted on 03/20/2003 6:58:27 AM PST by Scarlet_Pimpernil ( HEADLINE: France)
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To: Kaslin
Speaking as someone who has painted portraits for decades I could show you twenty different points of difference. It's not the same guy. The glasses are there to hide differences in the shape of the eyes, the eyebrows and the bags under the eyes. The folds in the neck are different, the shape of the bottom lip is different, the nose is different. The hat is there to hide the hairline difference. It's a good superficial fake, maybe even enhanced at some point with plastic surgery, but it ain't Saddam.
52 posted on 03/20/2003 7:04:38 AM PST by Sabatier
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To: Sabatier
The hat is there to hide the hairline difference.

That was my thought, too. Men's hairlines are like fingerprints -- no two are exactly alike. Any feature is unique, of course, but differences in the hairline are especially easy to spot. I would guess that most of Saddam's doubles are seen wearing a hat of some sort.

The lack of the dimple on the chin (which you did not mention but many others have) seems decisive at first blush, but if he is lit from the front, then the shadow which would normally fill the dimple may not be visible.

I'm still undecided on whether this is a double.

53 posted on 03/20/2003 7:25:44 AM PST by Yardstick
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To: Sabatier
I hope you are right.
54 posted on 03/20/2003 8:15:04 AM PST by txjeep
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To: txjeep
From Drudge:

CBS: 'Senior Officials' Think Saddam May Not Have Survived
Thu Mar 20 2003 10:33:00 ET

"I am being told by several senior officials not to take that taped speech Saddam gave last night as proof that he survived the attack," CBS NEWS reporter David Martin said on air.

"They say the evidence that put him in the bunker last night was very reliable, and they are confident that the cruise missiles and bunker-busting bombs that were fired at that bunker last night hit the target. So now, intelligence experts are studying the tape to determine if it is really Saddam, or a body double which he is known to use from time to time. And they are running a computerized voice analysis, comparing that speech with known recordings of Saddam's voice. But that's a process that takes awhile. So we may not have a quick answer."

"There is considerable belief in this government that they may, in fact, have gotten Saddam."


Developing...

55 posted on 03/20/2003 8:44:37 AM PST by txjeep
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To: dawn53
"Ding, ding, ding!!! You win the prize!"

And the icing on the cake is that the Iraqi leaders that are left have to play it our way and keep the illusion that he is alive going! They've got us right where we want them.
56 posted on 03/20/2003 11:37:00 AM PST by Grig
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To: mystery-ak; diabolicNYC
Just for fun - here's a few more - the dimple always seems noticable - but not on last night's "Saddam".



57 posted on 03/20/2003 11:56:48 AM PST by Tunehead54 (Support Our Troops!)
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To: Tunehead54
White House says it was indeed Saddam on TV last night.
58 posted on 03/20/2003 12:45:39 PM PST by txjeep
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To: Tunehead54
Everyone sing along!

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?
59 posted on 03/20/2003 12:53:52 PM PST by Grig
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To: Grig
"I think it's best if they create doubt and uncertainty without proving it one way or the other."

Good point.

60 posted on 03/21/2003 7:03:10 AM PST by Irene Adler
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