Israel believes Saddam spoke live in morning TV broadcast

Jerusalem Post ^ | Mar. 20, 2003 | HERB KEINON

[Allan]

As a side comment to my last post
I have heard from fairly reliable sources
that the location of any telephone
used in conversations in Middle Eastern countries
can be determined instantaneously
from within the USA.

[AaronInCarolina]

Saw the clip, it looked like one of his doubles. Maybe Saddam is off visiting Osama. We can hope.

I agree MrBambaLaMamba. I think that the glasses and the beret were conspicuous attempts to limit the amount of facial, eye and hair details. Also, nothing was said that would suggest that it was in response to a direct attack on him. It was more of a canned response to a traditional wide-scale bombing attack.

[steveegg]

That was just a date, first given on the Gregorian calendar, then on the Islamic calendar..."Twentieth of March, 2003 corresponding to Seventeenth of the Muharram of 1422 Hejira."

[VRWCTexan]

I agree - my guess is that it was a very scared "double" forced to go on camera.

[NautiNurse]

Right--and one of the pundits noted there was a wavy feature to the broadcast, indicating it was a tape.

[madison46]

Yes, saw it...tape seemed to be, well, a tape. Also, never a mention of the strikes that had just occured. Something the tape did would not have occured if live according to one of Shep Smith's last reports last night.

[shattered]

Have they said any more than that? I hope they are right!

[Kevin Curry]

If any television or radio stations are still operating in Iraq, it is because we choose to allow them to operate. Why would we do that? To entice a rat out of its hole. If we leave the rat a little soapbox to climb up on to squeek to the world, we have a better chance of drawing a bead on him.

[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!

[Mr.Clark]

Also, notice "Saddam" did not mention the missle attacks. If it was live or very recent, he probably would have mocked them or something. Instead, he just criticized attacks in general.

[shattered]

If it was a double, why are so many people reporting that it was the real SH? Why the confusion..

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I don't believe it was him.

The mustache was lighter, the face with thinner, the shoulders not as broad. Also, Saddam as a cleft chin and 'corn teeth'.

[savedbygrace]

Live braodcasts don't have tape dropouts and tape wrinkles. This was from tape, without doubt.

I am not qualified to tell if it was SH or a double, but I am convinced it was from tape.

[myprecious]

If we announce that we did get the guy the first night, then the UN whinners would demand we stop since we accomplished regime change.

On the other side, it would make it difficult to motivate their troops to keep on fighting if the threat of Saddam's revenge is removed.

Both sides have too much to loose by announcing that the snake's head is severed.

We can only hope it was accomplished.

[GWfan]

I don't think it was him either, but he apparently has so many doubles that I don't know if I could tell the difference. I am sure that Israeli intel knows, however, and so would the pentagon.

[rstevens]

Even a double would have reason to be scared to assume the identyy of Saddam. Whether or not it really was Sadamm or his double, they equally have reason to fear for their life.

[Petronski]

I thought it was fairly easy for our techs to examine the broadcast and determine that it was videotape.

Live or tape, real or fake, it's all just a shell game. Unless 'Saddam' appeared on screen with a new edition of a newspaper, or describing very recent events beyond his control, the address proves nothing.

[Thebaddog]

Betcha we got him but not the kids. Aziz is probably toast as well as the other major players. The kids both look like not ready for prime time players and will fold soon. Putting one of the doubles up there like a confused uncle would fit their mo in my opinion.

[Krodg]

Did any of yall hear what sounded like a gun shot during this speech?

I did. Wondered who was being assasinated.

[Anomaly in Illinois]

FR threads on Saddam speech:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/869554/posts

http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/869575/posts