Mystery over Saddam as battle rages - (Saddam REtargeted?)

MSNBC ^ | 8 April, 2003

[Happy2BMe]

Mystery over Saddam as battle rages

Buildings in the al-Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad lie in ruins Monday after the U.S. airstrike.

It's unclear whether Saddam Hussein was killed when an American bomber dropped four bombs on a site in Baghdad. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reports.

		NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES
		April 8 —   As U.S. officials tried to determine whether Saddam Hussein survived a massive bombing in Baghdad, the battle for control of the Iraqi capital raged Tuesday with American forces blasting government targets and foiling an apparent Iraqi counterattack. A U.S. warplane dropped four bunker-buster bombs and blasted a smoking crater 60 feet deep at a building Monday in the capital where U.S. officials believed the Iraqi president was meeting with at least one of his sons and other members of his inner circle.

[Happy2BMe]

Whew - LORDY!

[Happy2BMe]

Buildings in the al-Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad lie in ruins Monday after the U.S. airstrike.

[smith288]

Watch the Abu-Dhabi film of the target...there is a fat man who is running towards the scene crying and then hugs another man in obvious sadness. Now it could be his 16 yr old pregnant wife was in there but this fat man look astonishingly like the fat man in the Saddam Walk-about. If you see both videos, you will see what I mean.

[alloysteel]

We'll know - when there are no more telephone calls originating from the phones known to be used by Saddam & Company.

[Happy2BMe]

I tried to study the reactions of those uncovering the rubble at the bomb site.

Very, very troubled - almost like they would be facing a lynch mob in the next few minutes or so.

I think you have something here . .

[ConservativeMan55]

Your right!!!! Another point I would like to make is that last night on Fox I heard someone say that if Saddam had really been in there we would have seen "Hurried Digging" and not people standing around.

What if as suggested there were ALL the Baath party members inside??? There wouldn't be anybody left to help dig up Saddam's body would there?

[ConservativeMan55]

This fat man could have been the one that tipped us off Saddam was in the building...he ducks the meeting, and when the blast occurs, he starts sobbing!!

[sharktrager]

April 8 — As U.S. officials tried to determine whether Saddam Hussein survived a massive bombing in Baghdad, the battle for control of the Iraqi capital raged Tuesday with American forces blasting government targets and foiling an apparent Iraqi counterattack. A U.S. warplane dropped four bunker-buster bombs and blasted a smoking crater 60 feet deep at a building Monday in the capital where U.S. officials believed the Iraqi president was meeting with at least one of his sons and other members of his inner circle.

PRESIDENT BUSH said he didn’t know whether Saddam was alive after a thunderous explosion rocked the upscale al-Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad.

“I don’t know whether he survived,” the president said. “The only thing I know is that he’s losing power,” Bush said at a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair after a meeting at Hillsborough Castle outside Belfast.

And despite suspicions at the Pentagon that Saddam may have been killed, there were no signs of any unusual security measures at the site Tuesday. A reporter had no problem examining it, watching the rescue operation or speaking to neighbors.

The daylight airstrike by a single B-1B bomber broke windows and doors up to 300 yards away, ripped orange trees out by the roots, hurled steel beams 100 yards and left a heap of broken concrete, mangled iron rods and shredded furniture and clothes.

Iraqi rescue workers using a bulldozer to search the rubble said that three bodies had been recovered — those of a small boy, a young woman and an elderly man — and that the death toll could be as high as 14.
“At this point in time, I’m not aware of anyone from coalition forces that have walked the site,” said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar.

“When that’s possible, we’ll have more information about what exactly happened there,” Brooks said at a news briefing Tuesday. “Until then, we can only go with things we can gain information on. And we believe the strike was effective in hitting the target, creating the desired effect, but we don’t know all the circumstances of what happened to those who were contained inside.”

Brooks said it will take some time and perhaps detailed forensic work to establish who was killed.

“There’s lots of digging and DNA tests involved,” a U.S. official told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Separately, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that the investigation could be hampered because U.S. officials do not possess Saddam’s DNA.

2ND ATTEMPT
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, speaking to reporters Tuesday, made no mention of Saddam’s fate, and rejected any suggestion that Iraq would surrender to American forces drawing a noose around the regime. “They will be burnt. We are going to tackle them,” he said.

U.S. intelligence sources told NBC that the Pentagon was confident that Saddam and his sons were in the building before it was bombed. The information was considered so reliable that it justified a massive attack in a residential area despite the administration’s emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties, they said.

A U.S. official told the Associated Press that Saddam was known to frequent the building, apparently because he thought coalition forces would not target him so close to a civilian center.

Those close to Saddam have said the Iraqi leader is so obsessed with security that very few people would know about his movements. He maintains dozens of residences and uses doubles to keep people guessing.

Coalition strikes have aimed at top Iraqi leaders from the very start of the war.

On March 20, the opening night of the war, President Bush authorized a strike on a suburban Baghdad compound where Saddam and his sons were thought to be staying. But U.S. intelligence officials suspect he survived.

URBAN WARFARE
Tuesday, U.S. forces set up a base in Baghdad as they stepped up their efforts to stamp out Iraqi resistance and extend American control of the city of 5 million people.

Some Iraqi forces staged a counterattack after dawn, sending fighters to overrun U.S. forces holding a strategic intersection. U.S. troops strafed the Iraqis from planes overhead and with mortar and artillery fire.

Within an hour, U.S. tanks retook the intersection. At least 50 Iraqi fighters were killed, and two U.S. soldiers were reported wounded, one seriously, by snipers on rooftops, military officials said.

Col. David Perkins of the 3rd Infantry Division said about 500 Iraqi forces took part in the counterattack. They were a combination of special Republican Guard, Fedayeen and Baath Party loyalists — “a lot of civilian-dressed fighters,” he said.

[js1138]

"Hurried Digging"

Only if it was generally known who might be under the rubble, and if there was some reason to believe anyone could be alive, and if the diggers really cared.

[Happy2BMe]

". . he ducks the meeting, and when the blast occurs, he starts sobbing!!"

Sob - sob, the SOB is gone - HEHE! Sob - sob, the SOB is gone - HEHE! Sob - sob, the SOB is gone - HEHE! Sob - sob, the SOB is gone - HEHE! Sob - sob, the SOB is gone - HEHE! Sob - sob, the SOB is gone - HEHE! Sob - sob, the SOB is gone - HEHE!

[ConservativeMan55]

Uday is believed to have been killed on the first night. Saddam and Qusay were supposedly in the meeting last night. Hope they enjoyed their JDAM SANDWICH!!!!

[Happy2BMe]

"Separately, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that the investigation could be hampered because U.S. officials do not possess Saddam’s DNA."

Do FIRST COUSINS count? (Chemical Ali)

[ErnBatavia]

We'll know - when there are no more telephone calls originating from the phones known to be used by Saddam & Company.

Why Rita Cosby, in her "I got me a scoop!" exuberance of yesterday, leaked this stuff is beyond me.

[ConservativeMan55]

We do possess his DNA...we have his mistress!!!!

[Coop]

We'll know - when there are no more telephone calls originating from the phones known to be used by Saddam & Company.

Not necessarily. Unfortunately last night Rita Cosby spelled out in detail the comms system used by Hussein that we had been monitoring. So if he is alive the murderous thugs will undoubtedly never use that system again.

However, the fact that they allowed that tidbit to be reported tells me they feel 97% certain they got him.

[Happy2BMe]

After looking at thirty feet of concrete, rebar, and dirt piled up over the bodies, who would be in a big hurry to get them out?

[ConservativeMan55]

Brett Bauer was reporting about the secret Jaguar phone that we used. I'm sure that if the Pentagon was leaking this kind of information, they are SURE they got him.

[ErnBatavia]

Do FIRST COUSINS count? (Chemical Ali)

I'd bet that Iraq is like Hawaii - Everybody is a cousin...

[Happy2BMe]

"We do possess his DNA...we have his mistress!!!"

Let's hope they all saw the Clinton trials -

[Happy2BMe]

Jaguar as in "Jag" - British automobile?