Speech indicates Saddam survived initial air strike: US intelligence

Yahoo ^ | AFP

[Smogger]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US intelligence believes that a speech by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) broadcast over Iraqi television, while not conclusive, indicates that he survived a March 20 air strike, a US official said.

Saddam Hussein's reference in the speech to the downing of an Apache helicopter appeared to be of a March 24 incident, the official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"What aired today is not conclusive" but suggests that it was done after the air strikes, because of the reference to a helicopter being down, the official said.

Saddam's fate has been a subject of intense speculation since the United States opened its war against Iraq (news - web sites) on March 19 with a "decapitation" strike on a compound in Baghdad where the Iraqi leader was believed to be gathered with other seniors members of the regime.

US officials have said that all Saddam's previous appearances on Iraqi television were videotapes that could have been made before the war.

But this was the first time one of his speeches contained an apparent reference to a specific event that occurred after the start of the war.

[Shermy]

I read he does need glasses to read, but doesn't like to be seen in them as he thinks it shows weakness. Also he limps, so they don't show him walking...I haven't seen the crowd video today.

[MindBender26]

Where is the voice print? Answer to the Saddam or double question in about 2 minutes.

[bvw]

"US intelligence believes ... a US official said ...the official ... speaking on condition of anonymity"

"Bucket Of Warm Spit" journalism!

[Dominic Harr]

In that speach video today, I believe the fella was clearly reading from his notes -- without glasses.

I can't find the vid. I'd like to look again.

Any idea where?

[Dominic Harr]

Can anyone else remember?

Was the fella in that speach today reading his notes without glasses, or is that just my imagination?

[bvw]

There are just too many ROFLMAO captions for that picture!

[Aquinasfan]

I used to hope he was dead. Now I hope he is alive.

Me too.

[Dominic Harr]

CNN has it on their site.

That fella reads with out glasses. The whole speach. He looks at the page every few seconds.

That's not Saddam.

[sonofatpatcher2]

"Captain, both of them posed naked?"
"Yes Chekov, it was the first use of Weapons of Ass Destruction."

Want a break from war news? Go to the Stark Trek Freeper Post or the New Stark Trek Website for a laugh or two. Then come back refreshed and loaded for bear!

[choosetheright]

I agree except that the translations available so far indicate that "Saddam" referred to a peasant shooting down an Apache, not just shooting down something. But it's still not hard to imagine that this was filmed pre-war and then the Iraqis made up the farmer story when the first Apache went down so that they could use this tape later. The media is incredibly gullible to report that these tapes "prove" anything one way or the other. (Like the writers who claimed the earlier "Saddam" tape proved he was alive just because it referred to Umm Qasr.) Considering that there are an infinite number of unambiguously contemporaneous things that Saddam could say, I don't think today's tape proves anything, although it certainly fuels the mystery.

[vin-one]

dead or alive as far as out military is concerned it is the same thing.........

[cork]

I said the exact same thing to a friend of mine at lunch. When I here him say: Pirates sweep 3 from Reds I believe he is alive.

Beat Bucs

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

Been reading over all of this and thought it strange that no one states the obvious. Saddam's voice is at a low volume and we don't understand the language and instead we are really listening to a translator, right? So its pretty easy to dub someones voice to an earlier tape of one of his speech's! Even if we were to concentrate on his voice we do't understand the language enough to pick out bad lip synch very well.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

They played the clip on Fox. The double was glad-handing along the street like X42 himself. I heard no one touches Saddam. He wasn't limping, either.

[Allan]

It would be interesting to know if the tape was spliced.

Saddam easily could have pre-recorded
references to a downed helicopter
a downed jet
prisoners captured
tanks destroyed
etc
and then they could have inserted
whatever was appropriate.

[cake_crumb]

Show of hands...who else saw that blurry, badly lit, static-y (and obviously recorded) video of someone claiming to be Saddam?

[justa-hairyape]

Hard to tell in that dark video if it was a Saddam look alike or the real thing. I do remember in the previous Gulf War however, that there was a helicopter shot down that was believed to be shot down by peasent gun fire. At any rate, for Saddam to show his face now is stupid. His country is run over and he only controls a handful of cities. The 4 ID is on its way. Saddams control of the country is toast. So now is the time for him to truelly hide and at least pretend he is dead. All of Baghdad is within mortar range and within a quick Special Ops strike.

[Orbiter]

This guy looks like a double scoop of beret-wearing eyeballs atop a jowl cone, more than subtly different from the bespeckled Mr. Peepers whistled out of the pool of Saddam look-alikes earlier in the campaign.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

He looked like Saddam but younger, did you notice that? Could this have been a video from GWI then doctored to make him look older, then digitalized to hide the alterations?