Internet Rumors Fly ... Saddam Was Killed by American First Strike !

NewsPundit.net ^ | 3/20/2003 | Douglas Oliver

[ex-Texan]

Internet Rumors Fly ... Saddam Was Killed by American First Strike !

Breaking news in the first hours after the initial strike on Bagdad: The Washington Post reported late tonight the details about a CIA report that it had "a fix a Saddam Hussein" that brought about the cruise missle attack. (March 20, 2003)

About ninety minutes after the attack an Iraqi appeared on televison claiming to be Saddam and read a prepared speech from pages of notes. Rumors are flying that the person reading the written speech was not Saddam Hussein.

Regarding the American first strike, I quote a brief excerpt from the Washington Post report:

* * * Shortly before 4 p.m. yesterday, Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet offered President Bush the prospect -- improbable to the point of fantasy, yet suddenly at hand -- that the war against Iraq might be transformed with its opening shots. The CIA, Tenet said, believed it had a fix on President Saddam Hussein.

Hussein and others in "the most senior levels of the Iraqi leadership," ordinarily among the most elusive of men, had fallen under U.S. surveillance. The intelligence was unforeseen and perishable, presenting what one administration official called "a target of opportunity" that might not come again. Not only did the agency know where Hussein was, Tenet said, but it also believed with "a high probability" that it knew where he would be for hours to come -- cloistered with advisers in a known private residence in southern Baghdad. * * *

When Bush signed the launch order at 6:30 p.m., it had a hastily prepared insert. The first shots would strike through the roof and walls of an anonymous Baghdad home and deep beneath it in hopes of decapitating the Iraqi government in a single blow.

"If you're going to take a shot like this, you're going to take a shot at the top guy," said a government official with knowledge of the sequence of events. "It was a fairly singular strike." * * *

A few hours later it was learned that Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blain had called a top level meeting of his Cabinet to discuss "new developments" in the Iraq war for the early morning of hours of March 20th.

In the meantime, rumors were flying on the Internet that Saddam and his closest military advisors were probably killed in the first strike by U.S. forces.

I find it strange that the reports from Iraq have quieted down after the first strike. There apears to be a total news black out in the media. This independent reporter has no first hand knowledge of the effectiveness of America's first strike on Bagdad. But I hope and pray that the rumors flying on the Internet are true.

[MissAmericanPie]

Fox News reported that this has been determined to be an old file tape.

[eno_]

The voice on the radio was thin, "reedy," nervous. Also, no mention of recent events. No details.

It was fairly obviously a canned speech.

I wonder if the whole "use your swords" thing was a code phrase.

[js1138]

As a moustache wearer, I can tell you that anyone who grooms himself as fastidiously as Saddam would not allow the ends of his moustache to change shape. Saddam's come to a point. This is not a trivial thing.

[savedbygrace]

You might be right, but I've been a video pro for nearly 20 years and I saw definite evidence that the video piece was broadcast from tape. I was looking very closely and though I did see artifacts that result from satelitte transmission, I also saw tape dropouts and tape wrinkles.

That message was not broadcast live, I'm convinced.

[katana]

I agree it was most likely a tape, that it may have been a Saddam double, and I hope the SOB is deader than dead. There are technical means to do photo enhancements and evaluations that could confirm all or most of the above and somehow I think there are a few basement geeks at Langley working on that right now.

[savedbygrace]

As I said, you might be right. I think voice prints are more a more sure measure and I've heard that's what they are working on now.

Four 2K bunker busters and a few missiles targeted the place the CIA said SD was. If he and the others were still there, they are dead.

[savedbygrace]

SD = SH (Saddam Hussein)

Sheesh. Wake up, self.

[myprecious]

When you look at side by side photos of Saddam and last night's imposter, the diffences stand out. Use a ruler to compare the proportion between each man's eyes, then the distance from eye to top of head. There is no way that big forehead is under that hat!

[eno_]

It is an odd set of circumstances:

I believe the freepers who say it is a tape. That makes sense, double or no double, since a live broadcast would be suicidal. Even if doubles are disposable, having the broadcast studio bombed would not look good. A tape could be originated from a variety of locations, and copies of the tape could be run from multiple locations making the broadcast much more bomb-resistant.

The hat and glasses is just too convenient. What is the purpose except to minimize the differences between Saddam and a double?

The script, including the poem, and the repeated use of the phrase "use your swords" sounds like a code phrase or phrases. This indicates, at least, that this was used to signal a change in command and control authority/structure/comms.

Whether or not we got Saddam, his ability to control his forces is degraded to where it was neccessary to issue this broadcast. He is either dead or in a deep hole and can't readily communicate.

It should also be possible to extract a hi-res still image from multiple video frames. Our sigint people MUST know if it is Saddam or not.

[LaineyDee]

The ear on the left and the one on the right definitely look different.

Ears are always a dead giveaway to me. This can't be Saddam.