"Believe it... or not!"
Posted on 06/28/2003 5:41:15 PM PDT by Pokey78
A SENIOR aide to Saddam Hussein has described the dramatic moment when the dictator warned his sons they must accept defeat and go their separate ways.
“It’s over. It’s over,” he is said to have told Uday and Qusay Hussein as they drove through the streets of Baghdad on April 11, two days after the city was captured by American forces. According to the aide, Saddam’s younger son, Qusay, sobbed and pleaded to be allowed to go into hiding with his father. But Saddam replied: “Splitting up gives us a better chance of survival.”
The graphic description came last week from one of Saddam’s closest companions, Sayf al-Din Fulayyih Hassan Taha al-Rawi, the chief of staff of the Republican Guard.
Hassan is No 12 on America’s list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis. The Sunday Times has established that he was hiding last week in a small town in the desert hundreds of miles from Baghdad after faking his death and holding a mock funeral to throw his pursuers off his track. His story was relayed to us through reliable intermediaries.
As the war ended, Hassan spread a rumour that he had been killed in the attack on Baghdad airport. Only close relatives knew he was alive.
Another passenger in Saddam’s car on April 11 was Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam’s presidential secretary and senior bodyguard — number four on the list. The Americans captured him two weeks ago, a coup they hope will lead them to the Iraqi leader. According to Hassan, Mahmud also became tearful in the car but Saddam remained resolutely calm. Hassan says he has had no contact with any of them since but he believes Saddam has stayed on in Iraq.
He also disclosed that Saddam, Qusay and Uday had a narrow escape when they gathered secretly at Hassan’s house in Mansour, a wealthy residential district of Baghdad on April 7 as the war reached its climax. Ten minutes after the meeting broke up and Saddam left, the Americans dropped four powerful bombs onto a block of neighbours’ houses. They said it was an attempt to kill Saddam following intelligence that he was meeting inside. The bombs made a crater 50ft deep and demolished several houses, killing 14 people. Hassan’s house was undamaged, however.
Interrogation of Mahmud has convinced the Americans that they have so far failed to target Saddam successfully. Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said after a reported airstrike on a bunker containing Saddam on March 20, the opening night of the war: “There’s no question but that the strike on that leadership headquarters was successful. We have photographs of what took place. The question is what was in there?” But Colonel Tim Madere, the American officer in charge of inspecting key sites in Baghdad, has confirmed that no trace of a bunker or bodies has been found.
The Americans blame Saddam loyalists for a growing resistance to their military occupation and believe it will diminish as soon as he is captured or killed. Thousands of special forces have been thrown into the search and there have been several raids on sites where intelligence indicated Saddam might be hiding, but to no avail.
Last week Hassan said: “He has spent his life hiding from his enemies. He is very wily, and look — they haven’t yet been able to catch even me.”
Hassan, why not just paint a bullseye on your chest?
You should have seen his name before they shortened it
Sobbed and pleaded? This is even worse than anything Bahgdad Bob could come up with. Sobbed and pleaded; isn't that what Qusay's victims did before they died?
Like Saddam's father did right before Saddam shot him in the head.
It will be, if we can actually secure the oil production/distribution system--
and if we can establish a de-Baathified police and government.Til then, "it's over" is disinformation.
It ain't over, til it's over.
Splitting up is what I want to see happen to them ..... a little piece here, a little piece there ..... but with enough intact to provide for positive identification.
It's always tough when you have to kick the cubs out of the den.
"Believe it... or not!"
What, you think that when Saddam and Arafat are dead that we're done...over...safe? There will just be another group of trash ready to take their place.
We need to be watching the Paki's. They're watching Afganastan, Iraq and probably Iran all have new forms of goverment or well on their way to changing ala Iran. They're next on the list and they have nukes...lets hope they dont flex their mussle as a way of showing the Americans not to mess with them as well.
Also North Korea will get a little tenser as well.
Doesn't sound like Saddam at all. Luckily, I got this here grain of salt . . .
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