Free Republic

Since it now seems very imminent, I decided that it was an appropriate time to start this up. Links to information and pictures (if we get them) can be posted here.

(CBS/AP) Saddam Hussein's final moments will be videotaped by the Iraqi government, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. National Security adviser Mouffak al Rubaie says the date of the deposed dictator's execution will not be made public, to avoid possible unrest from Saddam's supporters, but everything from the signing of the final orders by the judge, to the hanging itself will be recorded. Iraqis, members of the coalition, and international representatives will witness the execution. It's not clear whether the videotape will be broadcast on Iraqi television. An Iraqi government official says efforts are under way to carry out the death...

Sun September 21, 2003 11:57 AM ET TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Sunday denied a British media report that Saddam Hussein had offered money and information on weapons of mass destruction in return for safe passage to the ex-Soviet republic of Belarus. The Sunday Mirror newspaper said an aide of the fugitive ex-president had approached U.S. forces in Tikrit and led them to a house in the suburbs. There, they were given a letter, purportedly handwritten by Saddam, proposing talks. It said negotiations had been going on for nine days covering weaponry and bank accounts containing tens...

Ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has reportedly been in secret negotiations with US forces for the past nine days. According to the Sunday Mirror report, Saddam was demanding safe passage to the former Soviet republic of Belarus in exchange for information on weapons of mass destruction and his bank accounts. US President George W Bush was being kept up to date on the talks by his national security adviser Condoleeza Rice who was coordinating negotiations led by US general Ricardo Sanchez, the Sunday Mirror said. Sanchez is the commander of US forces in Iraq. "A representative of Saddam in Western-style...

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq — Senior defense officials confirmed Saturday that former Iraqi Minister of Interior Mahmud al-Ahmad (search), listed as number 29 on the coalition's "Iraqi Top 55" most-wanted list, was in the custody of coalition forces.</p> <p>Al-Ahmad was next in line to succeed Saddam Hussein (search), following deaths of the deposed leader's sons, Uday and Qusay. Officials said Al-Ahmad surrendered in Baghdad on Friday. The capture of the once-elusive henchman brought the number of network operatives now either dead or being held by the U.S. military to 37.</p>

Centcom just released the photos of what they think Saddam could look like..

As news of Uday and Qusay Hussein's most welcome demise was breaking across the globe, Iraqis lit the skies with celebratory fire, financial markets surged, oil prices dipped, and men and women of goodwill exulted in the apparent success, soon confirmed, of American forces who had rid the world of the monstrous brothers long instrumental in maintaining Saddam Hussein's Iraq as a rogue police state of domestic torture and international menace. But what did the Democrats do?There was presidential hopeful Richard Gephardt, giving a gee-whiz-bang foreign policy speech in San Francisco ("the incubator of internationalism," as he put it) about...

There was something wonderfully strained about how various media organisations dealt last week with the news of the deaths of Qusay and Uday Hussein. From the BBC to Reuters, there was palpable — if sternly repressed — dismay. One of the first headlines that the Ba’athist Broadcasting Corporation put out on the news was: “US celebrates ‘good’ Iraq news”. The quotation marks around “good” did not refer to any quote or source in the text. They were pure editorialising on behalf of the BBC, whose campaign to undermine the liberation of Iraq is now in full swing. It was not...

#1 - Tab (Thomas Boldt), The Calgary Sun, Alberta, Canada #2 - Petar Pismestrovic, Kleine Zeitung, Austria #3 - Jean Veenenbos, Austria, Der Standard #4 - "Carlucho" Carlos Villar, El Economista, Mexico City, Mexico #5 - Peter Nicholson, Melbourne, Australia #6 - Bill Leak, Sydney, Australia

There is no doubt that the deaths of his two sons will be a devastating blow to Saddam Hussein, but those who hope that their loss will leave him a broken man are likely to be disappointed. He'll probably release another audiotape in the next few days saying that he has sacrificed his two sons for the struggle and calling on other Iraqis to be prepared to do the same, one veteran of the Iraqi opposition observed. What was already a life-and-death struggle for Saddam is now also a blood feud. Even so, his grief must be extreme. Saddam has...

The death of Saddam's sons raises the question -- where is Saddam? Here's my supposition -- I think Saddam is dead. We've already had the evidence-by-absence during the fighting, i.e., total lack of central control after the decapitation strike, not a single piece of signal intelligence capturing his voice or other evidence of his existence, the reports from the ground at the decapitation strike of frantic digging activity.Now we have the death of his sons --what does it tell us?Think about it -- there were no media reports in the post-war period from Arab TV or released tapes proclaiming that...

Both Fox and CNN are reporting that we are possibly hours away from the capture or elimination of Saddam Hussein....Lots of tips coming in, etc. etc. Place your bets on the hour that this remarkable feat will be accomplished . Will it be in prime time... or will perky Katie Couric be forced to give us the grim news first?

Saddam: Bodies too 'shot up' to ID 22/07/2003 21:25 - (SA) Mosul, Iraq - Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai were "very likely" killed on Tuesday when US soldiers stormed a house in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, US military and Bush administration sources told Fox News. Sources at the Pentagon and within the Bush administration told Fox News that at least four "high-level" targets were killed inside the house, a large villa that belonged to one of Saddam's cousins. A senior administration official said the US is "90% to 95% certain" that Saddam's sons were among the dead....

Breaking..

Sadaam's son's are dead!

July 22, 2003 Release Number: 03-07-68 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE STATEMENT REGARDING OPERATION IN MOSUL, IRAQ Statement from US Central Command: On Tuesday, July 22, forces associated with the 101st Airborne Division and Special Operations Forces conducted an operation against suspected regime figures at a residence in Mosul, Iraq. The site is currently being exploited. Four Iraqis were killed in the operation. We have confirmed that two of the dead were Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay.

Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.Baghdad's Shi'is celebrate "rumours" of Saddam's arrest - radio Text of report by Iraqi Shi'i group's Iran-based radio station Voice of the Mujahidin on 18 July Following the spread of rumours that the tyrant Saddam has been arrested, the Shi'i areas of Baghdad, at noon [0900 gmt] today, witnessed an unprecedented and very boisterous shooting in the air from all kinds of weapons in celebration of the news. Iraq has not seen such shooting in the air since 8 August 1988, the day...

Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite television station on Friday broadcast what it said was a taped message from ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein dated June 14. Saddam said "jihad cells made up of Iraqi male and female fighters have been formed on a large scale" throughout Iraq to fight US-led coalition forces occupying the country. The voice urged Iraqis to not aid coalition forces in their attempts to hunt down former Iraqi leaders. "I call upon you to protect these heroic fighters and not give the invaders any information about them or their whereabouts during their operations," the voice said. "There is...

A SENIOR aide to Saddam Hussein has described the dramatic moment when the dictator warned his sons they must accept defeat and go their separate ways. “It’s over. It’s over,” he is said to have told Uday and Qusay Hussein as they drove through the streets of Baghdad on April 11, two days after the city was captured by American forces. According to the aide, Saddam’s younger son, Qusay, sobbed and pleaded to be allowed to go into hiding with his father. But Saddam replied: “Splitting up gives us a better chance of survival.” The graphic description came last week...

A family maid tells her storyTwo weeks into the war in Iraq, the maid realized something was up when her boss, Saddam Hussein's nephew, told her to bone up on a Tikriti accent so that she wouldn't attract attention as a Baghdadi when the family moved north. Two days later, she says, she found herself in a convoy of cars with Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay, headed for a rendezvous in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, with the Iraqi dictator. The 18-year-old woman, who spoke to TIME on condition of anonymity, was a live-in employee of Farhan Ibrahim Migdal al-Dolaymi, who resided...