If this is true, (that the RG is CLAIMING THIS)..then this is big news...this is the validation needed that the Regime has collapsed...

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You mean he might live for us to hang him? That would be a nice bonus.

At this point, I don't believe anything, though.

I was watching this breaking announcement on MSNBC. Also said Saddam and the one injured son are now in Tikrit, seeking medical assistance from Syria.

It's amazing, MSNBC is treating this news as almost a side issue.

Which one, was Uday killed?

Associated Press: A main opposition Kurdish group claimed that Saddam already was hiding in Tikrit.

This is BS. They are just trying to hold on to hope. Mark my words, Saddam is dead.

They said which one was dead, but I didn't catch it.

I know the story is BS; the fact that they're saying it at all tells us a lot about 1) What "power" they have left, and 2) Where the remaining nutbags are regrouping.

whoops...

MSNBC: Republican Guard says Uday "seriously injured," Qusay is Dead

It's amazing, MSNBC is treating this news as almost a side issue.

The status of dead and wounded journalists is a more important story than the status of Saddam and his sons. < /media bias filter >

Republican Guard is trying to get Saddam and son to Syria "for medical treatment."

2 bodies found, but no Saddam

April 9, 2003

BY HAMZA HENDAWI

BAGHDAD, Iraq--A young woman's severed head and torso and a small boy's body were pulled Tuesday from a smoking crater carved into the earth by four U.S. bombs, so powerful they yanked orange trees from their roots. But there was no sign of the man those bombs were aimed at: Saddam Hussein.

For the second time in the war, coalition forces were wondering whether they'd gotten their man. One thing was all too clear, though: Once again, civilians had suffered.

When the broken body of the 20-year-old woman was brought out--torso first, then the head--her mother started crying uncontrollably, then collapsed. She was helped into a car by two male relatives.

Across the street from the crater, which lay amid the ruins of three houses, relatives squatted on the sidewalk and watched as rescue workers and volunteers, using a bulldozer and their bare hands, searched for their loved ones. Some wept; others just buried their faces in their hands.

U.S. officials said they believed their attack in the upscale al-Mansour neighborhood had successfully destroyed the target--but that they didn't know exactly who had been inside.

After the attack, a U.S. source said the target was a restaurant. But officials later said the intended objective was 100 yards from the only restaurant in the neighborhood, and that it was hit.

The site remained in Iraqi hands Tuesday. And while some officials said it would take a lot of digging and forensic work to determine if Saddam had been inside, it wasn't clear when that work could be done.

There was no unusual security around the bomb site Tuesday; not even a single policeman was in sight. Reporters were allowed to visit; by contrast, when U.S.-led forces first attempted to kill Saddam with an opening-salvo air strike in the beginning of the war, reporters were not allowed to visit that suburban compound.

Acting on an intelligence tip, coalition forces attacked around 3 p.m. Monday Iraq time, turning the three houses into a 60-foot-deep crater. At least 20 other houses and nearly two dozen shops were damaged.

Strewn over surrounding streets were doorknobs, ceiling beams, bits of wooden furniture, light fixtures and other debris. Three orange trees that once stood outside the houses had been uprooted; a palm tree in a backyard was charred.

An elderly man's body was found Monday night. On Tuesday, rescuers recovered the small boy's body, and that of the 20-year-old woman. The bodies were placed in blankets and quilts and put on the sidewalk.

''It felt like a strong earthquake,'' recalled neighbor Nahid Abdullah, 26.

''I flew for two meters,'' said greengrocer Hassan Ameen, 35. Others spoke of the sound of air being sucked before the blast was heard.

Neighbors said 14 people, including at least seven children, may have been killed, and scores wounded in the adjacent homes and shops, where debris and shrapnel blew out doors and windows.

Scores of Iraqis have been killed and hundreds injured in the U.S.-led air campaign on Baghdad. Civilian casualties have increased dramatically since U.S. ground forces arrived in the capital last week.

Taleb Saadi, a doctor at Baghdad's al-Kindi hospital, said 30 to 35 bodies arrived at the hospital Tuesday and as many as 300 wounded were treated at its emergency ward.

A U.S. official said the Pentagon was confident that Saddam and his sons were at the targeted site before it was bombed. ''Our intelligence was solid,'' the official said. He did not elaborate on the source of the intelligence.

On April 4, when Iraqi state television showed lengthy footage of Saddam--or at least a man who looked like him--on a walkabout of several Baghdad districts, one of those areas was the al-Mansour neighborhood.

Those close to Saddam have said the Iraqi leader is so obsessed with security that very few people would know about his movements. He maintains dozens of residences and uses doubles to keep people guessing.

On the opening day of the war March 20, President Bush authorized a strike on a suburban Baghdad compound where Saddam and his sons were thought to be staying. U.S. intelligence officials suspect that he survived that attack.

AP

I'm waiting for Baghdad Bob to say that Saddam and his sons have died.

Wednesday, April 9, 2003
British believe Saddam escaped attack

By AP

LONDON -- British intelligence sources believe Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein escaped a coalition attack on a building in Baghdad on Monday, news reports said today.

The sources were quoted as saying it was believed Saddam had been in the building in the upscale al-Mansour neighbourhood but had left before it was bombed.

"He was probably not in the building when it was bombed," an unidentified intelligence source was quoted as saying by the Guardian newspaper.

The Times newspaper quoted a source, also unidentified, who said: "We think he left the same way he arrived in the area, either by a tunnel system or by car, we're not sure."

An American bomber dropped four bombs, including two bunker-busters designed to penetrate underground tunnels, on what the coalition called a "leadership target," where senior Iraqi officials, possibly including Saddam and his sons, Odai and Qusai, were believed to be meeting.

Three houses were destroyed.

It was unclear who was inside and whether anybody survived.

An elderly man's body was found Monday night. Yesterday, rescuers recovered a small boy's body and that of a 20-year-old woman.

U.S. officials said the houses had not been targeted.

After the attack, a U.S. source said the target was the al-Saa'a restaurant.

But U.S. officials later said the intended site was 100 metres from the only restaurant in the neighbourhood and that it was hit.

U.S. officials have said American intelligence learned of a high-level meeting Monday morning.

On April 4, state Iraqi television showed lengthy footage of Saddam, or at least a man who looked like him, on a walkabout of several Baghdad districts, including al-Mansour, when al-Saa'a appeared in the background.

Those close to Saddam say the Iraqi leader is so obsessed with security that very few people know about his movements.

He maintains dozens of residences and uses doubles to keep people guessing.

Coalition military commanders in Baghdad say it will be at least several days before they reach the bombing site, which is in a neighbourhood that has not been cleared of fighters loyal to the Iraqi dictator.

Once at the site, U.S. intelligence and military operatives will look for human remains and begin testing any that are found. Intelligence sources say that could involve obtaining Saddam's dental records and comparing them with teeth found at the scene or using biometrics, in which analysts would compare features of Saddam in earlier photos with those on recovered body parts.

DNA testing could be more difficult.

U.S. intelligence sources indicated American analysts do not have a sample of Saddam's DNA, the cell acid that contains an individual's unique genetic code. Such a "reference sample" would be needed to compare with DNA drawn from remains thought to be Saddam's

I'm waiting for Baghdad Bob to say that Saddam and his sons have died.

I haven't seen those pigs flying yet WG....(and I LOVE your tag line!!!)

US spy satellites focus on preventing Saddam's escape

Shyam Bhatia in Basra exclusively for rediff.com | April 09, 2003 14:37 IST

As American forces consolidate their grip on Baghdad, two satellites named Micron and Trumpet circling the globe at 14,000mph are at the frontline of the effort to block Iraq President Saddam Hussein's hopes of escaping.

United States special forces operating in tandem with more conventional military units hope these two advanced spy satellites will ultimately lead them to their most cherished prize.

Controlled from a bunker far below the US military's central command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, Micron and Trumpet have been in the forefront of the war on Iraq for 12 months.

They have intercepted calls and walkie-talkie transmissions from Iraqi military sites, pinpointed the position of Hussein's motorcade, and even photographed movement within his palaces.

As the war enters its final stages, satellite technology still offers special forces the best chance of tracking down Hussein and members of his inner circle.

During the first Gulf war in 1991, Hussein moved daily to avoid more than 250 allied air strikes on 'leadership targets'. This time American officials hope that monitoring his use of satellite and mobile phones will provide clues to his whereabouts.

"Tracking a tyrant as concerned about his personal security as Saddam is challenging, to say the least," according to one US expert who did not want to be named. "One either has to have an intelligence break on his movement that is actionable or maintain continuous surveillance on him, which is very unlikely."

It is no secret that the US has undertaken a vigorous military and intelligence effort to track Hussein and his aides. Starting from last September it is understood that nearly 250 US and British special forces personnel and more than 60 Central Intelligence Agency operatives conducted reconnaissance missions in Iraq's deserts and outside its major cities.

At 35,000ft above Iraq, a converted Boeing 707 has also been flying upto 10 hours a day every day, recording the conversations of top Iraqi officials and pinpointing the location of those calls to within a mile.

According to Wafiq al-Sammarai, former chief of Iraq's military intelligence who defected to the West in 1994, Hussein will be more than aware of the special forces teams assigned to track him down.

"Saddam knows American special forces are drawing in on him," Sammarai said, "but he has been living with the threat of assassination attempts for decades. His contingency plans will make it very difficult for him to be captured. It is well known that he uses doubles who often travel in motorcades. In many ways, he rules from the shadows and doesn't even use his presidential palaces with any regularity.

"He is one of the most paranoid, but also one of the best-defended, leaders in the world. He will make it hard, maybe even impossible, for America to get him."

According to military experts, Hussein's expected response, assuming that he survives, is also becoming discernible. Although he has well-equipped underground bunkers in Baghdad, he is expected to use his most loyal forces to defend him in his home town Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad, where most of his remaining power is concentrated.

According to Sammarai, "In the hunt for Saddam the Americans know that even the Republican Guard may not be loyal. So the apparent movement of his core protection units towards Tikrit is particularly significant.

"Saddam's last stand could take place in his family's ancestral home, since that would make him a legend in the Arab world. Tikrit also has the advantage of being in the Sunni Arab heartland, far from the Kurds in the north and the Shias in the south."

He added, "Saddam's closest allies, including relatives, tribal loyalists and others, face jail or death should the dictator be toppled. They will fight to the death. The people in the Special Republican Guard have been drawn from Saddam's own village. The people have ties to him by tribe and clan and a lot to lose if he is overthrown."

What happens if coalition forces do capture the president of Iraq alive is still unclear. Last year the US launched a campaign to indict him for war crimes, lobbying for the creation of an international court that would put Hussein, his two sons, and at least nine members of his inner circle on trial.

Washington is believed to have set aside £100 million for a special court and has given £2 million of that to US war crimes investigators who are gathering testimony from prominent Iraqi exiles.

Fortunately for investigators, the ruling Ba'ath party is obsessive in its documentation. Some 5.5 million pages of documents captured in Kurdistan and stored at the University of Colorado in Boulder make chilling reading.

Among them is a document signed by Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed aka 'Chemical' Ali, authorising the Anfal operation that killed tens of thousands of Kurds. Ali is believed to have been killed during the recent attack on Basra by British forces.

Recently, the US also declassified satellite photographs giving an aerial view of Iraq's historic marshes north of Basra, which the government in Baghdad systematically drained to eliminate cover for anti-government activists. One US official said, "The elimination of a people's way of life and livelihood is a war crime and our primary objective is to see Saddam Hussein and the leadership of the Iraqi regime indicted and prosecuted by an international criminal tribunal."

rediff.com Senior Editor Shyam Bhatia is the co-author of Saddam's Bomb, on Iraq's search for nuclear weapons.