[dogbyte12]

It is bizarre though isn't it? In two weeks since the thing started, the only mention Saddam makes of a verifiable current event is the farmer incident, and the only people who verified that the farmer shot down the helicopter is the Iraqi TV people who interviewed the farmer.

I would not put it past Saddam to have taped a congrats to a "peasant" shooting down a helicopter, then when one went down,... one is found to claim credit for the deed.

Why isn't Saddam mentioning things going on in the world, such as arab council meetings, UN deliberations, whatever?

[nicmarlo]

Were there any copters shot down in Desert Storm? Couldn't footage even be that old?

[hispanarepublicana]

Why isn't Saddam mentioning things going on in the world, such as arab council meetings, UN deliberations, whatever?

Yeah...you'd think he'd have joined Algore in praising the Dixie Chicks by now.

[A_Niceguy_in_CA]

My thoughts exactly.

[Alamo-Girl]

I didn't watch it, but Saddam - who was a student of the film Blackhawk Down - might have "canned" a message with the presumption that a farmer would somewhere/somehow shoot down a helicopter like in Somalia, with small arms fire. Making such an untimely claim is highly suspicious to me.

[sweetliberty]

"Why isn't Saddam mentioning things going on in the world, such as arab council meetings, UN deliberations, whatever?"

Because he's dead. The bigger question is that if it is a double, how poorly informed is the double to not make specific references to current events either?

[Smogger]

I would not put it past Saddam to have taped a congrats to a "peasant" shooting down a helicopter, then when one went down,... one is found to claim credit for the deed.

ROTFLMFAO!

[arasina]

Exactly! This peasant-helicopter-shoot-down was a total photo op that was SET UP in advance. Sneaky little boogers, aren't they?

Last week there was a thread here with photos of Iraqis waiting for hours at a graveyard for Saddam's minions to come with video equipment. They were told to cry and wail about the loss of their loved ones when the cameras were on. (No, Michael Moore didn't get credit for the production but evidently he likes their style.)

[ElephantMan]

"I would not put it past Saddam to have taped a congrats to a "peasant" shooting down a helicopter, then when one went down,... one is found to claim credit for the deed."

That's exactly right.

Let me get this straight, the Iraqi propagandists purport that a "peasant shot down an apache," then Saddam mentions it and everyone (the media particularly) thinks it's proof that he's alive? Saddam knows what aircraft we have--all he had to do was record a few different tapes, i.e., "peasant shot down a plane," "peasant shot down a drone," etc.

More importantly, most of the other references in the tape were extremely generic--and didn't quite fit the current situation.

Note to Simon Marks on FOXNews: Calm down. You are way too excited to learn that Saddam is "definitely" alive. This is far from concrete evidence.

Saddam may very well be alive, but this tape is no proof.