Saddam Hussein Injured - New Political Alignment in IRAQ
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At 13:40hrs, FOX News has reported that Saddam Hussein was seen being carried out on a stretcher from his destroyed residential building on Day 1 of the aerial bombing on March 19. He was transported from the bombing scene to a hospital.
Many bodies were also seen to have been carried out as well, and there is no further news on the whereabout of Saddam's two murderous sons - (who murdered both their sisters' husbands).
Some Iraqi senior civil and military leaders were also reported to have been seen fleeing out of Baghdad towards Damascus, SYRIA.
With the Coalition Forces having liberated the south-western Basra region, and with some Special Forces in the north, the Kurds from the north, and the Shiites from the south are now forming a new alliance to counter Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
The success from the works done by the combined USA and UK Main Force may still prove all the skeptics wrong.
The Muslim world - that is now howling in rage with the bombing of Baghdad - will soon have to swallow hard, and hit themselves even harder, to believe what they will see that the common Iraqi Citizens of Baghdad will be hugging and welcoming the soldiers of USA and UK - as had happened when these troops liberated the Iraqi cities in the south. -
Who can be sure whether he is the real one?
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ya.. he got many look-exactly-alike substitutes...Originally posted by browniebaobao:Who can be sure whether he is the real one? -
Originally posted by browniebaobao:Who can be sure whether he is the real one?
Don't even need substitutes although substitutes are cheap.
If people can come up with Jurassic Park, I think other less powerful effects are just too easy. Iraq technology I don't know..... -
Taken from FOX News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,81847,00.html
U.S. Officials: Saddam Seen on Stretcher After March 19 Strike
Saturday, March 22, 2003
By Bret Baier
WASHINGTON — Saddam Hussein is seen being placed on a stretcher and into an ambulance in photographs in the possession of the U.S. government showing what is described as "panicked digging" at the bunker/command-and-control facility that was struck in the first strike of the war March 19, U.S. officials told Fox News late Friday.
Bodies are seen as they are removed, and these officials are confident that Saddam was seen being placed upon a stretcher.
Additionally, these same officials told Fox News that top security and military personnel have been leaving Baghdad, and more are preparing to leave. "The erosion from Baghdad has begun," one official said.
U.S. intelligence officials said Friday it was almost certainly Saddam, not a look-alike, who appeared in a video recording on Iraqi television a few hours after he was targeted by the American air strike.
It is unclear whether the message was recorded before or after the strike, however. Officials said some reports indicate Saddam pre-recorded several speeches to air during fighting.
The video showed Saddam, in military uniform, reading from a steno pad and exhorting Iraqis to fight American invaders.
Intelligence officials said that an analysis of the speaker's voice, inflections and facial movements led them to believe it was Saddam.
While Saddam read the date -- March 20 -- during his speech, that could have been pre-recorded. He did not speak specifically of the attack on him or other events that would positively confirm the message was recorded after the attacks.
CIA and military analysts were vigorously reviewing this and other clues about the fate of Saddam, his inner circle and his two powerful sons who were also targeted in the attacks. Senior officials cautioned Friday that they do not know whether Saddam or his sons are alive or dead.
U.S. intelligence believes they were inside a residential compound bombarded by American forces. Government officials were examining a request for medical attention that could indicate injuries to the senior Iraqi leaders.
"We have reason to believe he was still in there," one senior U.S. official said.
The officials said they believed medical attention was urgently summoned to the compound in the aftermath of the attack. One senior military official said the manner in which the help was summoned raised the possibility Saddam himself or someone of high-level importance in the Iraqi leadership was injured.
But other officials cautioned there was nothing definitive. "It is not clear exactly on whose behalf the medical attention was summoned," one U.S. official said.
U.S. officials said intelligence indicated Saddam was still in the compound when U.S. bombs and missiles rained down late Wednesday night Washington time, about six hours after U.S. intelligence first detected that Saddam and his leadership might be there.
The attack, which involved ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles and bombs dropped from stealth fighters, was aimed at a residential complex where U.S. intelligence believed Saddam, and possibly his sons, were sleeping.
Naval missile strikes in Baghdad also were aimed at the headquarters of the Special Republican Guard, a paramilitary force that was expected to defend Baghdad from any U.S. assault, and other security organizations.
After the attack, intelligence reports indicated Iraq's leaders were not organizing any coordinated response across their country, suggesting the leadership might be in chaos or cut off from communicating with field commanders.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said military planners had good reason to believe top Iraqi leaders may be losing control of their forces.
"We are in communication with still more people who are officials of the military at various levels -- the regular army, the Republican Guard, the Special Republican Guard -- who are increasingly aware that it's going to happen, he's going to be gone," Rumsfeld said.
U.S. intelligence suspected Saddam's sons, Qusai and Odai, might have been with him during the strike. Both hold high-level security positions. Qusai, the younger son, was believed to be Saddam's likely successor.
A second tape of Saddam may have aired later Thursday. Officials had no information on that recording.
If Saddam survived, U.S. officials hoped the surprise attack at least would leave him distrustful of his inner circle and suspecting betrayal by one of his advisers, leaving him less able to command.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. -
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/middleeast/view/35501/1/.html
Iraq TV shows Saddam meeting war advisors
Iraqi television on Saturday night showed President Saddam Hussein chairing three meetings with his top advisors on the war with the United States.
It showed Saddam in military uniform and said his aides "voiced satisfaction at the resistance and heroism displayed by the armed forces, fighters of the Baath Party and tribesmen" against US-led forces.
It did not say where or when the meetings were held.
Iraqi Defence Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed gave Saddam a report "on the situation at the battle fronts of Umm Qasr, the Fao peninsula and at Rumeila," the report said.
The pictures showed Saddam with his son Qussay, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.
It said Qussay attended two of the meetings, and that Salah Abboud, commander of Iraqi border forces, was at the third. -
Saddam shown on Iraqi TV
The Jerusalem Post
23 March 2003
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was shown on state TV meeting with senior political and military officials.
Military Industrialization Minister Abdul Tawab al-Mulla Howeish, the head of Iraq's atomic energy agency Fadhel al-Janabi and Mozahem Saab al-Hassan, head of Iraqi anti-aircraft defences, attended the meeting.
Higher Education Minister Humam Abdul Khaleq, the interim foreign minister, was also on hand.
Saddam has reportedly chaired three meetings with senior officials since US and British forces launched an offensive on Thursday aimed at overthrowing his regime.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/middleeast/view/35537/1/.html
Iraqi TV again shows Saddam meeting military officials
Iraqi television on Sunday showed President Saddam Hussein meeting senior military officials but it did not say when or where the meeting took place.
President Saddam, wearing green military fatigues, smiled and appeared relaxed in the brief clip that showed him at the head of a long table, presiding over a meeting of half a dozen officials.
State television on Saturday night showed President Saddam in a similar meeting and said his aides "voiced satisfaction at the resistance and heroism displayed by the armed forces, fighters of the Baath Party and tribesmen" against US-led forces.
Iraqi Defence Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed gave President Saddam a report "on the situation at the battle fronts of Umm Qasr, the Fao peninsula and at Rumeila," the report said.
The pictures showed President Saddam with his son Qussay, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.
It said Qussay attended two of the meetings, and that Salah Abboud, commander of Iraqi border forces, was at the third.
The television did not say where or when the meetings were held. -
It is Day FOUR of the US invasion into IRAQ.
It is certainly very odd that the IRAQI State TV continue to show Saddam meeting with other Government Leaders, but do not show him making any address to the IRAQI nation concerning the current situation in IRAQ.
Such TV appearances of his continued UN-DATED meetings with the other Government Leaders may pass without critical judgement by the average IRAQI citizens, but for the Intelligence Services of the other countries, it will certainly indicate that the strike on Saddam's private residence in the opening day must have hit home.