Posted on 07/04/2003 2:08:41 PM PDT by sarcasm
Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite television station on Friday broadcast what it said was a taped message from ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein dated June 14.
Saddam said "jihad cells made up of Iraqi male and female fighters have been formed on a large scale" throughout Iraq to fight US-led coalition forces occupying the country.
The voice urged Iraqis to not aid coalition forces in their attempts to hunt down former Iraqi leaders.
"I call upon you to protect these heroic fighters and not give the invaders any information about them or their whereabouts during their operations," the voice said.
"There is resistance and I know you are hearing about this. Not a day passes without them [suffering] losses in our great land thanks to our great Mujahedin. The coming days will, God willing, be days of hardship and trouble for the infidel invaders."
"No to surrender and no to cooperation and we thank God for everything," said the tape, which the voice said was recorded on June 14.
The voice purporting to be Saddam's said that he is still in Iraq "among my people" along with a small group of his "companions".
The former leader's whereabouts have been a mystery since the fall of Baghdad on April 9.
"Hence I salute them and salute you [the Iraqi people] and salute the Mujahedin [Islamic fighters] in Baghdad, in the battlefields, and I pay tribute to their steadfastness, jihad and sacrifices," he said.
On Thursday, the United States put up $25-million for information leading to the Saddam's arrest.
Faced with daily attacks on US troops that it says are directed by former members of Saddam's Ba'ath party regime, the US-led coalition has admitted that failing to account for the ousted leader is hindering reconstruction efforts.
The tape's arrival coincides with the July 4 Independence Day -- and comes at a time of increasing attacks on US-led occupation forces.
"We [the regime] fulfilled our obligations to you and sacrificed what we had to, except our values, which are based on our deep faith and honour. We did not stab our people or our nation in the back."
Explaining why the regime fell so fast, the voice said: "We refused to hold onto power if that meant submitting to the American threats."
The voice added that the previous government preferred to give up power than become a puppet state.
"They wanted to occupy us without a fight and destroy our pride," he said.
In a message broadcast to the Iraqi people, top civil administrator Paul Bremer also offered a $15-million reward ofor information leading to the capture of Saddam's two fugitive sons, Uday and Qusay.
Former military intelligence chief Wafiq al-Samarrai told Al-Jazeera the voice on the audiotape was indeed that of Saddam and the expressions used were those of the deposed Iraqi leader.
He said this confirmed his theory that Saddam was alive and living in Iraq, moving around an area between Baghdad and Samarra, around 125km north of the capital.
Al-Jazeera's chief editor Ibrahim Hilal, contacted in Doha, Qatar, said the tape was delivered to Al-Jazeera via telephone on Friday.
"Someone called us and played back the tape for us and we recorded it. It ran for over 20 minutes, but only 10 minutes are newsworthy. We don't know the source, or where the call came from."
"We have no reason to doubt its authenticity," he said.
The tape was the first purported to be from Saddam since one received May 5 by a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald, who received a 14-minute audiotape from two men in Baghdad. In that tape, Saddam also claimed to be speaking from Iraq and called on citizens to oust American occupiers.
The voice on that tape noted some Iraqis had celebrated Saddam's 66th birthday on April 28.
The Arabic-language Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper published a
letter purportedly from Saddam in late April, after the fall of Baghdad. The former dictator urged Iraqis to "rise up" against occupation.
...originally sent to Admiral MacArthur, no doubt.
Yessir, he's found the "religion of peace"!;)))
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I doubt it will help him much
:-)
Tia
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