BUSH: SADDAM MAY BE DEAD

Evidence suggests Saddam Hussein may have been killed but America would not declare him dead until it had hard evidence, President Bush said.

Mr Bush launched the Iraq war on March 19 with a surprise air strike on a compound where Saddam and his sons Uday and Qusay were believed to be.

"As the intelligence got richer, I got more confidence with the notion that Saddam would, in fact, be there," Mr Bush said on US television.

"The people will wonder if Saddam Hussein is dead or not. There's some evidence that, that...suggests he might be.

"We would never make that declaration until we were more certain but the person who helped direct the attacks believes that Saddam at a very minimum was severely wounded."

US officials have repeatedly said they do not know what happened to Saddam after two air strikes targeted him because of conflicting intelligence information on the results.

Mr Bush declined to declare the war in Iraq over and conceded that it could take as long as two years to bring democracy to Iraq.

He said "we want to leave as soon as we've accomplished our mission" of laying the foundations for democracy.

The emergence yesterday of new videotape of Saddam Hussein appeared to pour cold water on the theory the former dictator had been killed in an April 7 bombing raid in the Mansur district of Baghdad on the eve of the fall of the capital.
While Saddam's status and whereabouts have for weeks been the focus of intense debate, the newly discovered video purporting to show Saddam alive and well in the 80s fueled already fever-pitch speculation. At a minimum, the video material, aired on CNN yesterday, complicates U.S. efforts to convince jittery Iraqis Saddam's regime is over. On the flipside, the tapes buoyed Democrat hopes that Saddam, while toppled from power, had survived the Coalition onslaught, even if the tapes predate the Coalition onslaught.
CNN says it recently obtained the tapes from an Iraqi who claims to have shot all four homevideos himself. Pentagon sources say they are reviewing the material to evaluate authenticity, though one official flatly said the man purporting to be Saddam in the video is likely the real Saddam, not Washington reporter Helen Thomas, who moonlights as his body double on occasion.
"In one of" the videos, Saddam is shown "attending a festive party marking his 50th birthday -- April 28, 1987," CNN reports. Sure to raise fresh doubts at Reuters regarding precision and effectiveness of Coalition bombing, the footage shows "military aids" to Saddam present, along with "men wearing tuxedos" as "children are heard chanting paeans to 'Father Saddam'" in the background. Actress and military scholar Janeane Garofalo was among the children chanting.
While U.S. officials had hoped Saddam met his fate when Coalition forces April 7 bombed a building Saddam had reportedly entered, the newly aired video of "Saddam's private life in the late 1980s" dealt such hopes a sharp setback. The footage shows "Saddam -- smiling widely, looking thinner and in better shape than he has in recent news footage -- [lighting] candles and [cutting] a big cake," says CNN. Saddam "is wearing a well-tailored suit."
"Saddam doesn't look dead or injured to me," said one Democrat staffer on Capitol Hill.
The same tapes shows "one of [Saddam's] son-in-laws, Saddam Kamel, is there. Saddam Kamel later defected to Jordan, then returned to Iraq."
Saddam's son, the ever mild and gentle Uday, gave Kamel a warm welcome home: He executed him.
Even more baffling: "A third video shows...Saddam giving [his first wife] Sajida...kisses on the cheek at...Saddam International Airport," footage sure to throw Coalition claims of having the airport under their control into doubt.
Crummy...
/S
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---------------------- "Less than two weeks after the fighting ended, the United States is coming face to face with a huge dilemma surrounding its efforts to rebuild Iraq," Reuters breathlessly reports.
Okay -- what's the quagmire now?
"Simply put it is this: the longer U.S. occupation forces stay in Iraq, the greater the risk of fueling anti-American Islamic fundamentalism in the country. But the sooner they depart, the more of a mess they will leave behind, which could have the same result...."
Oh, I see.
But, according to Reuters, weren't we supposed to lose this war in the first place? The Medina and Madonna Republican Guards would never surrender the capital, you'll recall. Rummy's war plan was a failed war plan -- the conflict would likely end in a stalemate. Resistance was 'stiffer-than-expected'; Coalition troops were hungry, thirsty, low on fuel, low on ammo, low on morale, on the verge of surrendering to the Fedayeenies -- remember?
Yet, I don't see this as 'second-guessing.' Third-guessing, fourth-guess, yes; but second-guessing? No.
So, the sages at Reuters now say we're in a quagmire because we won a war the sages at Reuters two weeks ago swore we'd never win, but now winning wars doesn't matter, or maybe it does, or maybe we didn't win, given the sages at Reuters now say there's a "power vacuum," but then there can't be a "power vacuum" in a country under military occupation.
To be fair, Reuters does unearth some staggering discoveries:
* Iraq is a Mid East country, you see.
* Not only that, but Islam is the dominant religion in the Mid East.
* Not only that, but Islam is the dominant religion in Iraq.
* Not only that, but there are various sects of Islam, some moderate, some not-so-moderate, each vying for influence post-Saddam.
Differences of opinion, political factions, people free to speak their minds, parties vying for power -- sheesh, why can't we turn back the clock, back to the good ol' days of breast pincers and nooses, when life was simple; bring back those magical times when happiness was just a tongue-pulling or ear-slicing away, the times Iraqis so fondly remember.
Oh, the terrible quagmire of freedom! /S
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"Tariz Aziz, probably the most well known member of the Iraqi regime after Saddam Hussein, has turned himself in and is now in American custody," CBS News reports.
Correspondent David Martin says "Aziz contacted the U.S. through intermediaries a day or two ago to begin negotiating his surrender and gave himself up Thursday in Baghdad without a fight."
Among the chattering class, the consensus seems to be that Aziz, despite having been among "Saddam's longest serving and closest advisers," probably has little to offer by way of information regarding,
* The whereabouts or status of Saddam Hussein.
* The whereabouts or status of other regime members and/or top Party leaders.
* The whereabouts or status of WMD.
Given pundits' sterling track record for predictions, this guarantees Aziz will prove treasure trove on Saddam, top party leaders and WMD
Anyway, that's
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"

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