[TexasGunLover]

Saddam refers to farmer who shot down helicopter...

[thoughtomator]

could easily have been pre-prepared before the war

[rintense]

You mean Saddam's double? Col. Hunt a few nights ago said his highly placed source at the Pentagon told him they have intell that Saddam is on life support.

Personally, I think Saddam is dead. This is just another one of his doubles.

[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?

[steve-b]

Saddam refers to farmer who shot down helicopter

A story which originated in Iraqi propaganda in the first place. The propaganda could have easily been framed to fit the tape.

If Saddam mentiones a current event that was 1)not easily predictable before the decapitation strike and 2)outside Iraqi power to cause or fabricate, that will be evidence that he's alive. The "farmer shoots down helicopter" yarn fails the latter test.

[Chuzzlewit]

I can just hear the democrat talking points... Why havn't we killed Sadam ? We were mislead.. I'm concerned that Sadam is still alive. etc..

[A_Niceguy_in_CA]

Another mostly generic tape. Sure he mentions that a farmer had shot down an Apache. When our 1st Apache fell, the Iraqi Information Minister immediateley claimed the helicpoter was shoot down by a farmer with small arms.

If Saddam is still alive and making a fresh tape to broadcast to his people, he would mention IMPORTANT recent events which were at least somewhat unpredicable, not mentioning some event which could have been planned to be announced on IraqiTv after the 1st coalition helicopter fell.

[Publius6961]

Saddam refers to farmer who shot down helicopter...

Total BS!

No one witnessed the farmer shoot down anything...
Make a bunch of tapes with different scenarios (farmer, glorious soldier, women with rocks).
Wait until a helicopter goes down.
Announce a farmer did it.
Play the tape.
These guys are masters of disinformation and hyperbole.

What I noticed most was "generic" references:
Resistance in all our "other cities". It would have been more inspirational and effective to name the cities! (He doesn't know the names?)

Pure BS!

[Paleo Conservative]

Saddam refers to farmer who shot down helicopter...

By name? What kind of helicopter? Where? Did he reference the exact date? This souds like a very generic story to me. It could easily be Memorex.

[AmericanVictory]

Have these tapes been analyzed against those made and broadcast during the 1991 war? The claim about a farmer shooting down a helicopter sounds familiar.