CBS: 'Senior Officials' Think Saddam May Not Have Survived

CBS c/o Drudge

[Bigfish_2002]

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."

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

Developing...

[TravisBickle]

I think they guy on Iraqi TV was a member of the Screen Actors Guild. He was referred to Iraq by CBS and dan rather.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Those are the Iraqi army version of our Birth Control Glasses.

[BufordP]

There are only two people willing to perpetrate the hoax that Saddam is still alive if he were dead - his two sons.

[bribriagain]

"Hell, party of 1..."

LOL!!

[DB]

They guy doing the speech yesterday didn't look like Saddam.

[laconic]

I don't know whether they got him or not but it seems to me from the video that Saddam has either: 1) aged an awful lot; or 2) was substituted for by someone's 88-year old aunt wearing a discarded beret from the 1930s.

[two23]

I imagine this scenario:

Saddam: "If I get killed--PLAY this tape.

[EarlyBird]

Saddam survived, but Tariq Aziz was killed, and Saddam's contact lenses were also destroyed. That's why he appeared on TV wearing Tariq's way hip shades.

LOL. I was wondering why he was wearing glasses. I've never seen Saddam wear them before. Also, Saddam seemed to have gained some weight in the last 24 hrs. Obviously a double.

[shattered]

I'm hoping they will be more forthcoming at the press conference this morning.

Even if it is determined to be SH, they are reporting that he made multiple tapes ahead of time in case of electronic failures. Though I will say that whoever it was did look as if he were speaking on the spur of the moment.

[Zebra]

Better still, table for 5.........

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

If he had died in that first attack, the entire regime structure would be imploding right now.

In any gamble, luck is 10%, nerve is 90%.

We will see what we will see in the next 72 hours.

My bet is that our troops will be in Baghdad by Monday.

[DB]

There are others that have committed crimes that doom them if this ends. They extend well beyond Saddam's sons.

[trebb]

If we got him, SUPER. If not - still a good move by the administration because it shows that they are still trying to find ways to minimize the actual hostilities. Must play really bad for the leftists that decry the "bloodlust"...

[chainsaw]

Hell, party of 1...

Party of 2...

[mattdono]

I agree with that and I don't discount that they had good intelligence (and, trust me, I hope that it is true), but this scumbag is a slimely son-of-a-b*tch.

Also, I recognize that our technology is much better, but we tried to get him in 1991 without success. It would be astounding to have the first strike take this scum out...I suppose that is why I said "wishing thinking".

SO, just to clarify, I am wishfully thinking and hoping that this is true, I just have some doubts.

[Blue Collar Christian]

If the butcher was killed, his closest supporters still living could easily put up a puppet long enough to prolong this conflict quite expensively. It shouldn't be hard to immitate the creep with pre-taped blabbering like we saw last night, the selfinflicted sabbatage already in place, and orders to his regiments to act stupid.

[Maelstrom]

More likely:

"We need to prove Saddamn is alive or lose before the sun rises, get the double on 2nd and Franklin over here ASAP! Myopic? So what? Stupid American's don't know the difference."