More and more top US administration officials are coming to the conclusion that Saddam Hussein is dead, killed by the first shots of the war.
A CIA agent in Baghdad saw Saddam enter a compound, saw it struck by bombs and cruise missiles, and saw a man he thought was Saddam loaded into an ambulance either badly injured or already dead, CBS reported.
Hours later, Iraqi television aired a speech showing Saddam reading from notes as if he had hastily prepared remarks that would assure the Iraqi people he was still in command.
But an analysis by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency has determined it was probably a tape of a rehearsal done before the war – which explains why Saddam was wearing glasses and reading from notes as he practiced his lines, the report added.
The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that all the tapes of Saddam released during the war were pre-recorded before the strikes started, some of them in the same room on the same day using different angles and groupings of aides.
A separate analysis by the Pentagon decided Saddam was dead because none of the tactics he was thought to be planning by US planners were ever used. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
