Posted on 03/20/2003 10:50:58 AM PST by ex-Texan
Update on our Exclusive Report: "Internet Rumors Fly ... Saddam Was Killed by American First Strike !"
NewsPundit.net "scooped the world" early this morning.
There is no doubt that we were the first news service in the world to break the report about Saddam being dead. We posted our exclusive report at 12:18 AM on our mirror site and on our home page. When I awoke this morning I discovered that the major networks were broadcasting essentially the same information that we had posted almost eight hours earlier. They also mentioned that rumors about Saddam's death were being transmitted on the Internet. Perhaps NewsPundit has some readers who are employed by the major televison networks.
The "Saddam" who appeared by the video taped broadcast did not look much like the real Saddam. There are photographs of the Iraqi leader available for people to compare and contrast at their leisure. Draw your own conclusions.
There were at least three international news reports making the similar pronouncements this morning. I quote briefly from all their reports below:
From the Washington Post we learned that the White House had reached "no immediate conclusions" about whether Saddam had been killed by our first strike:
* * * A senior Bush administration official today questioned the authenticity of a videotape showing Saddam Hussein speaking a few hours after the cruise missile strikes that opened the war in Iraq. "We reach no conclusions about who that was or when it was taped or anything like that," the administration official said. "It does not lend itself to immediate conclusions." * * *
The VOA News Service head line this morning was "White House Unclear About Authenticity of Saddam's Address." A brief excerpt from that report:
* * * The White House says it is drawing no conclusions about the authenticity of a television appearance by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein following the launch of the war. * * *
A senior Bush administration official said intelligence experts are investigating when the television appearance may have been taped or if it was really Saddam Hussein who delivered the remarks. The Iraqi leader is reported to have used doubles in the past. * * *
From the AP World Report this morning the headline was "Bush Assesses Initial Strikes on Iraq:"
* * * President Bush conferred with his national security adviser early Thursday on the initial strikes against Iraq, as officials tried to determine whether the attack aimed at killing Saddam Hussein had succeeded. * * *
`The president is not going to be a play-by-play commentator on it,'' White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. ``The president has a long approach to this.'' * * *
It is apparent that the Ba-Ath Party would quickly lose control of Iraq if they admitted that Saddam Hussein had been killed by a U.S. first strike. There are mass desertions taking place already from the Iraqi army. Conservative estimates put the number of desertions at "20,000 or more." I believe that the "or more" number is already above 30,000. Our military progress should be applauded.
Iraq has been under the domination of one very evil man for a long time. His personal addiction to brutality, death, torture, and murder of entire families in well known. By all accounts both of his sons are addicted to rape and murder in addition to common, ordinary bloodshed and brutality.
The world will be a better place after Saddam and this Ba-Ath party are beaten militarily and stripped of their power. Iraq will most certainly be a better place for the Iraqis. I strongly support the American effort to disarm Iraq and bring an end to this evil regime. What follows is our original report made early this morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at newspundit.net ...
That would be the best news possible, in these early stages of the military campaign.
This is because
1) The Iraqis are conceding that some of the aides were killed. (If they were killed, the surviving Iraqis would have to admit this, because the Iraqi military would need an explanation for the chain-of-command failures which would soon be very obvious to the military anyway.)2) The Iraqi fanatics, who would be determined to continue the fight, would not admit that Saddam is dead.
3) HOWEVER, if the aides were killed and Saddam was hit, then the Iraqis are evidently being forced by the circumstances to admit that WE HIT THE RIGHT BUNKER.
4) MOST IMPORTANT, it is almost inconceivable that Saddam would SURVIVE such a direct hit on his own bunker.
In short, it is highly suspicious that it is now being claimed that we hit the bunker with deadly force but that Saddam magically survived.
And I think the videotape tirade is suspicious in more ways than one, as follows:
5) If Saddam was wounded in an ernormous series of viciously violent explosions, he sure didn't look like it. (Even if he wasn't hit by shrapnel, he should have shown scrapes and/or bruises on his face.)6) So, if Saddam was wounded, it's much more likely that it was a pre-taped video designed specifically for scenarios in which Saddam would find it rather inconvenient to appear live (for example, if he were dead)--even if it were politically important for him to appear live.
7) Besides, there are other features of the videotape which independently argue that it was either using a "body-double" or it was a pre-recorded video.
8) Finally, the videotape was weirdly generic. The script did not contain any of Saddam's expected defiance (e.g., "You just tried to kill me, but you missed!"). It also did not make any completely reasonable allusions to the details of our attack (e.g., "The wicked Americans have attacked our capital and this was their biggest mistake!").
In any case, the evidence is pretty danged strong that the videotape is just part of a propaganda deception.
Ah, but that reinforces my argument from Points 1 through 4.
(Besides, Peter "Milk Factory" Arnett thinks Saddam is alive.)
Reason: Awaiting surrender and Republican Guard commanders to come forward to prevent loss of innocent lives.
(Ain't that a weird finding in the light of all the discouragement which FReepers have expressed at seeing the videotape?)
Congressman Billybob
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