Posted on 04/09/2003 7:23:30 AM PDT by Scoop
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein may be negotiating an eleventh-hour deal that could see him exiled to a safe country.
Speculation has rife as to whether Saddam Hussein is dead, alive, staying with his government or fleeing. In the last few minutes Lebanese television has reported that he is in the safety of the Russian embassy.
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Moscow reported earlier today that the Russian delegation that came under fire from US forces as it left Baghdad on 7 April may have been dealing with senior representatives of the Iraqi government in guaranteeing a safe exit for Saddam Hussein.
A Russian diplomat wounded in Iraq and his colleague arrive at the Russian embassy in Damascus “This explains the lack of resistance by the Republican Guard and Iraqi forces,” a Russian general told Al-Jazeera on condition of anonymity.
Akram Khouzam, Al-Jazeera’s reporter in Moscow, reports that the general's claim may explain the absence of organised resistance in Iraq, even in the capital itself where communications could not have been disrupted completely.
Baghdad had been expected to put up stiff resistance to the US-led invasion but in the event it appears to have capitulated, with the Iraqi military putting up less opposition than in more poorly defended places such as Umm Qasr and Basra.
Russian intelligence has officially denied reports that diplomats who left Baghdad last week took with them Saddam’s secret archive, saying this allegation was being made to justify the US attack on the diplomatic convoy last week.
However, the Russian general speaking by phone to Al-Jazeera said his claims were based on the cooperation of Saddam and a group of his close officials with the United States during the Iran-Iraq war and encouragement for Saddam to invade Kuwait in 1991.
LOL.. maybe. Russia's best deal is to take Saddam's bribe... then turn him over to the US for a piece of the oil pie.
I swear, the only
deal I'd want to see would be
the old Trotsky "deal."
And I'd love to see
Saddam's dying wish flame out
just like Trotsky's did...
"The Old Man [Trotsky], exhausted, wounded to death, eyes almost closed, looked in my direction from the narrow hospital bed, moved his right hand feebly. "Joe, you...have. ..notebook?" How many times he had asked me this same question!--but in vigorous tones, with the subtle innuendo he enjoyed at our expense about "American efficiency." Now his voice was thick, words scarcely distinguishable. He spoke with great effort, fighting against the encroaching darkness. I leaned against the bed. His eyes seemed to have lost all that quick flash of mobile intelligence so characteristic of the Old Man. His eyes were fixed, Is if no longer aware of the outside world, and yet I felt his enormous will power holding away the extinguishing darkness, refusing to concede to his foe until he had accomplished one last task. Slowly, haltingly, he dictated, choosing the words of his last message to the working class painfully in English, a language that was foreign to him. On his death-bed he did not let himself forget that his secretary spoke no Russian !
"I am close to death from the blow of a political assassin...struck me down in my room. I struggled with him...we ...entered...talk about French statistics...he struck me... Please say to our friends...I am sure...of the victory...of the Fourth International...Go forward."
He tried to talk more; but the words were incomprehensible. His voice died away, the tired eyes closed. He never regained consciousness. "
[Joseph Hansen With Trotsky to the End]
No, that lack of resistance is explained by M-16A2's, M203's, Mk-19 grenade lainchers, M-249 squad automatic weapons, M2 HB .50 cal machine guns.......
Walt
It's like Iraqi Bingo.
And: "Monkeys might fly out of Saddam's butt."
However, if we, I dunno, leaked word to the hundreds and thousands of Iraqi citizens dancing in the streets of Baghdad that Saddam was in the embassy, well...who know what might happen to the embassy building?
I can see Gen. Brooks speaking now: "We were unaware of the lynch mob at the Russian embassy until after Hussein had been killed..."
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