Update on Exclusive Report: "Internet Rumors Fly ... Saddam Was Killed by American First Strike !"

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

[ex-Texan]

Update on our Exclusive Report: "Internet Rumors Fly ... Saddam Was Killed by American First Strike !"

NewsPundit.net "scooped the world" early this morning.

There is no doubt that we were the first news service in the world to break the report about Saddam being dead. We posted our exclusive report at 12:18 AM on our mirror site and on our home page. When I awoke this morning I discovered that the major networks were broadcasting essentially the same information that we had posted almost eight hours earlier. They also mentioned that rumors about Saddam's death were being transmitted on the Internet. Perhaps NewsPundit has some readers who are employed by the major televison networks.

The "Saddam" who appeared by the video taped broadcast did not look much like the real Saddam. There are photographs of the Iraqi leader available for people to compare and contrast at their leisure. Draw your own conclusions.

There were at least three international news reports making the similar pronouncements this morning. I quote briefly from all their reports below:

From the Washington Post we learned that the White House had reached "no immediate conclusions" about whether Saddam had been killed by our first strike:

* * * A senior Bush administration official today questioned the authenticity of a videotape showing Saddam Hussein speaking a few hours after the cruise missile strikes that opened the war in Iraq. "We reach no conclusions about who that was or when it was taped or anything like that," the administration official said. "It does not lend itself to immediate conclusions." * * *

The VOA News Service head line this morning was "White House Unclear About Authenticity of Saddam's Address." A brief excerpt from that report:

* * * The White House says it is drawing no conclusions about the authenticity of a television appearance by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein following the launch of the war. * * *

A senior Bush administration official said intelligence experts are investigating when the television appearance may have been taped or if it was really Saddam Hussein who delivered the remarks. The Iraqi leader is reported to have used doubles in the past. * * *

From the AP World Report this morning the headline was "Bush Assesses Initial Strikes on Iraq:"

* * * President Bush conferred with his national security adviser early Thursday on the initial strikes against Iraq, as officials tried to determine whether the attack aimed at killing Saddam Hussein had succeeded. * * *

`The president is not going to be a play-by-play commentator on it,'' White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. ``The president has a long approach to this.'' * * *

It is apparent that the Ba-Ath Party would quickly lose control of Iraq if they admitted that Saddam Hussein had been killed by a U.S. first strike. There are mass desertions taking place already from the Iraqi army. Conservative estimates put the number of desertions at "20,000 or more." I believe that the "or more" number is already above 30,000. Our military progress should be applauded.

Iraq has been under the domination of one very evil man for a long time. His personal addiction to brutality, death, torture, and murder of entire families in well known. By all accounts both of his sons are addicted to rape and murder in addition to common, ordinary bloodshed and brutality.

The world will be a better place after Saddam and this Ba-Ath party are beaten militarily and stripped of their power. Iraq will most certainly be a better place for the Iraqis. I strongly support the American effort to disarm Iraq and bring an end to this evil regime. What follows is our original report made early this morning.

[Erasmus]

Saddam has entered that netherworld of "maybe dead" that Osama occupies.

Call it the Paradox of Schroeder's Cat.

[LexBaird]

Saddam has entered that netherworld of "maybe dead" that Osama occupies.

Shroedinger's Terrorist. He is both dead AND alive until we look in the bunker.

[the_doc]

Okay, I gather that you are concluding that our weapons were not correctly selected for the job.

Maybe you're right. But I would still point out that you have no really useful evidence that he is alive (grin). And I would again say that he did not look even wounded on the videotape.

(If his wounds were as minor as the videotape would apparently suggest, why would the Iraqis even mention that he was wounded? [Maybe it seemed like a "Purple Heart" honor for him, but I would think it would be more politically useful to scoff at the Americans and pretend that he was completely unscathed in the attack. It would have enhanced his image of the Protected One.])

[the_doc]

Cool idea. I'm waiting for this announcement.

BTW, the idea that Saddam would knock out a videotape to be aired in the event of his death seems a little out of character for a guy who thinks he is the ultimate survivor....

...BUT we had a report just a few days ago which revealed that Saddam definitely was considering the possibility that he was NOT going to survive the U.S. invasion. This is seen in the fact that Saddam was lining up loyalty oaths for his younger son as his successor. Since he evidently wasn't proposing to slip off into exile, he was surely considering the possibility that he might get killed.

[BamaFan]

There are millions of explations for why he would not have visible wounds. The simplest is that he was nowhere near the bombs. Given the time it takes to plan, coordinate and execute the TLAMs and F117s (at a minimum - what other platforms were in the strike package?), a simple explanation for why he wasn't near the aim points - he left the area before we struck it.

[the_doc]

But the Iraqi media quickly came out with the announcement that Saddam's military aides were killed in the attack and that Saddam was wounded.

[BamaFan]

Where is the Iraqi source for this information?

[Freedom4US]

I wondered about that watching the video feed last night. I thought "Is that really him" because intelligence services claim he has at least 3 doubles. It also occurred to me that the possibility remains that maybe it really was him, the image most of us associate as Saddam is actually a double?? The guy looked different, slightly even I could tell that. Maybe somebody should ask Dan Rather, since he met him last month, heh.

[the_doc]

I heard it on NBC (and, I believe, on the BBC feed on PBS) last night between the time of the attack and the televised speech. The reporters were quoting Iraq's State Radio.

The Iraqis said that our strike killed "the military aides" and that Saddam was "wounded." The announcement did not even say that his wounds were minor or that he was in stable condition--which is what one would expect them to say if Saddam's wounds were minor.

It sounded a little bit like a generic lie fashioned by those who hadn't given sufficient thought to what they wanted to reveal (or not reveal) to the press. And the very fact that the report had not indicated that his wounds were minor made me even more suspicious when he soon showed up in a speech--without appearing wounded at all.

[SoCal Pubbie]

If you remember when Saddat(sp?) was assassinated in Egypt, the first reports were that he was only wounded, even though they surely knew he was dead. They just didn't want it reported right away.

[8mmMauser]

I find your take pretty much on the same track I see. What impressed me when the news was breaking, it looked like those who targeted him must have psyched him out. It looks like after a tense night of fear, he could see relief coming with the morning light, figuring we would never target him once the false security of dawn breaks.

I think he either let down his guard, or in his arrogance underestimated us once again. His last expression might have been one of self satisfied smirk.

"Up there, is that the moon we see? Can't be, looks like the sun to me......"

My bet is he and sons are taking the dirt nap.

[El Gato]

"He has joined the celestial choir....

Celstial? I doubt it, and I don't think they have a choir where he is or soon will be. It is hot though, so he should feel right at home. Of course he'll have to suffer being gassed, raped and mutilated, over and over for all eternity. Seems only fitting, don't you think?

[the_doc]

Thanks, I had forgotten that. (Maybe it's "Sadat." I don't remember.)

[the_doc]

Fox News just announced that intelligence operatives have reported that Saddam made several videotapes in the last 48 hours before the "get out of town" deadline.

So, we really don't have any evidence that he is alive--which has been my main point all along.

That being the case, I frankly assume that our munitions were properly selected for the target--and that he's dead. (Maybe I'm wrong, but.....)

[leslie_is_cooking]

I kept watching that absurd piece of of videotape because I also just can't quite decide if it was really SH. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but those ridiculously huge glasses would be just what the doctor ordered to obscure a double's face, he seemed "puffy" or bloated, and he spoke more slowly and hesitatingly than SH has in the past. Of course, outright fear for your life can do strange things to your appearance and ability to articulate ideas.

I'd love to know what the results for the voice print comparisons we were going to run were.

[Cuttnhorse]

Even if he did survive he's got to be terrified...he now knows that someone very close gave up information on where and when his military leadership was meeting.

[razorback-bert]

Saddam and Osama are bit*hing about the lack of virgins.

Saddam has to convince his people, not us that he is alive or he loses his control.

[the_doc]

Ditto that. And the fact that we are issuing clear air announcements about our back-channel surrender negotiations (with even the Republican Guards) is surely freaking out the highest echelons.

[redheadtoo]

Does he reference the date or anything to suggest it was done after the decapitation strike?

I have heard that there was a time stamp on the video but that is not proof that it was not recorded earlier. Time stamps can be tampered with.

[BamaFan]

Based on your source (third hand - Iraq radio (perhaps, perhaps someone fooling w/ the minds of the Iraq radio listeners) - interpreter - reporter), I'd keep my money on the simpler explanation - he survived.