Seraphim
07-30-2003, 06:40 PM
http://www.msnbc.com/news/934483.asp?vts=073020031525
You can listen to a part of the tape on the link.
Small video of the night raid that captured husseins body guard...on the left side, about half way down.
TIKRIT, Iraq, July 30 — Skeptical Iraqis began to show signs on Wednesday that they believed Saddam Hussein’s sons Odai and Qusai were dead after a new audiotape attributed to the fallen dictator said his sons had become martyrs in the fight against American occupation.
DURING A PATROL in Tikrit early Wednesday, U.S. forces came across a black flag strung up in front of a local government building. The writing mourned the passing of Odai and Qusai.
After asking his translator to read the gold and white lettering to him, U.S. Lt. Col. Steve Russell, whose 4th Infantry Division, 1st Battalion is leading the raids in Tikrit, took out his pocket knife and cut it down, crumpling it in his hands before taking it away.
The American military, meanwhile, continued poring over documents and photo albums seized in Saddam’s hometown for clues to the fallen dictator’s whereabouts.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called the former Iraqi leader “a piece of trash waiting to be collected” but declined to say how long it may take U.S. forces to find him.
“The noose is tightening but I can’t speculate on how close one might be to actually capturing Saddam Hussein,” Powell told ******* in an interview on Wednesday.
Watching the broadcast of the purported Saddam audiotape in Baghdad, Fahr Jihuri said the ex-dictator’s announcement removed any existing doubt that Odai and Qusai were dead.
“Saddam just confirmed that his sons are dead. As far as I understand him, he tries to incite people to attack Americans by telling them that his sons and grandson have died for the cause,” Jihuri said.
Another Iraqi dismissed Saddam’s call to arms.
“Saddam is nobody these days. He has no power, no army, no friends, what can he do now?” asked Kahtan Muhhamad.
SADDAM CALLS SONS ‘MARTYRS’
The audiotape — the third attributed to Saddam this month — begins with a verse from the Quran.
“Even if Saddam Hussein has 100 children other than Odai and Qusai, Saddam Hussein would offer them the same way,” said the voice on the tape, first broadcast by the satellite station Al-Arabiya on Tuesday.
“Thank God for what he destined for us and honored us with their martyrdom for his sake,” the speaker said in the broadcast, which was monitored in Cairo, Egypt.
The Hussein brothers — Odai, 39, and Qusai, 37 — were killed July 22 in a gunbattle with U.S. troops who surrounded a villa in the northern city of Mosul, directed there by an Iraqi tipster.
The speaker called Odai’s and Qusai’s deaths “good news that is the hope of every fighter for God’s sake, as another group of noble souls of the martyrs have ascended to their creator.”
The speaker also referred to Mustafa, Qusai’s teenage son, who also was killed in the six-hour gunfight.
The voice said Odai and Qusai died “for the sake of God, the nation, the people.”
U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News that there is a “high likelihood that the voice on the tape is Saddam.”
The audiotape is “not terrific” quality, but there is enough evidence to compare it with that of authentic samples, the intelligence sources told NBC News on Wednesday.
The most recent previous recording, which was broadcast by Al-Arabiya on July 23, included a claim that it was recorded July 20. The other recording said Saddam was speaking July 14 and referred to the new Governing Council of Iraq.
Experts believe the latest tape is bound to deal a psychological blow to Baath Party stalwarts.
“All of this deflates the expectation that the leadership will make a comeback,” Dr. Phebe Marr, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a leading Iraq scholar, said. “However, I think (the resistance) is bigger than that ... What is at stake is a struggle for power.”
SADDAM BODYGUARD CAPTURED
The audiotape was broadcast shortly after U.S. soldiers overpowered and arrested a bodyguard who rarely left Saddam’s side.
As one of Saddam’s lifelong bodyguards, Adnan Abdullah Abid al-Musslit was believed to have detailed knowledge of Saddam’s hiding places.
Documents taken from the home and information obtained from the men would be useful in the hunt for Saddam, according to Lt. Col. Russell, who led the raid.
“Every guy we get tightens the noose,” Russell said. “Every photo and every document connects the dots.”
However, U.S. military and intelligence officials told NBC News that al-Musslit claimed he had not seen Saddam “for months” and had no idea where he was now.
The series of predawn raids in the heart of Tikrit nabbed 12 people altogether, including Daher Ziana, the former head of security in Tikrit, and Rafa Idham Ibrahim al-Hassan, a leader of the Saddam Fedayeen militia.
’PROMISING LEADS’ ON SADDAM
U.S. military and intelligence officials told NBC News on Tuesday that while the military had gathered “new and promising leads” and that optimism had increased that Saddam would be captured, any statements that his capture appeared imminent were “wishful thinking.”
However, other U.S. military officials have indicated that they were catching up with Saddam.
“We’re close to catching Saddam. A lot of people are stepping forward with information. He’s running out of places to hide,” Sgt. Amy Abbott, a military spokeswoman, said Monday.
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official told NBC News that U.S. intelligence does not expect Saddam to surrender if cornered by American troops. Instead, the official said, they expect a shootout similar to what happened when U.S. troops confronted Odai and Qusai Hussein in Mosul — a long, drawn-out battle ending with his death.
The official said he would be surprised if Saddam even had a plan for that eventuality.
The official said Saddam’s death would be the preferable outcome for the United States because it would give a certain finality to the end of Saddam’s reign of terror.
The United States is offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest or proof of death of Saddam.
The 22nd Infantry said it came within 24 hours of catching Saddam’s new security chief — and possibly Saddam himself — at a farm in eastern Tikrit on Sunday. It also assisted Task Force 20, the Special Operations force hunting Saddam, in a raid Thursday that netted as many as 10 of his suspected bodyguards in al-Uja, the Tikrit suburb where he was born.
You can listen to a part of the tape on the link.
Small video of the night raid that captured husseins body guard...on the left side, about half way down.
TIKRIT, Iraq, July 30 — Skeptical Iraqis began to show signs on Wednesday that they believed Saddam Hussein’s sons Odai and Qusai were dead after a new audiotape attributed to the fallen dictator said his sons had become martyrs in the fight against American occupation.
DURING A PATROL in Tikrit early Wednesday, U.S. forces came across a black flag strung up in front of a local government building. The writing mourned the passing of Odai and Qusai.
After asking his translator to read the gold and white lettering to him, U.S. Lt. Col. Steve Russell, whose 4th Infantry Division, 1st Battalion is leading the raids in Tikrit, took out his pocket knife and cut it down, crumpling it in his hands before taking it away.
The American military, meanwhile, continued poring over documents and photo albums seized in Saddam’s hometown for clues to the fallen dictator’s whereabouts.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called the former Iraqi leader “a piece of trash waiting to be collected” but declined to say how long it may take U.S. forces to find him.
“The noose is tightening but I can’t speculate on how close one might be to actually capturing Saddam Hussein,” Powell told ******* in an interview on Wednesday.
Watching the broadcast of the purported Saddam audiotape in Baghdad, Fahr Jihuri said the ex-dictator’s announcement removed any existing doubt that Odai and Qusai were dead.
“Saddam just confirmed that his sons are dead. As far as I understand him, he tries to incite people to attack Americans by telling them that his sons and grandson have died for the cause,” Jihuri said.
Another Iraqi dismissed Saddam’s call to arms.
“Saddam is nobody these days. He has no power, no army, no friends, what can he do now?” asked Kahtan Muhhamad.
SADDAM CALLS SONS ‘MARTYRS’
The audiotape — the third attributed to Saddam this month — begins with a verse from the Quran.
“Even if Saddam Hussein has 100 children other than Odai and Qusai, Saddam Hussein would offer them the same way,” said the voice on the tape, first broadcast by the satellite station Al-Arabiya on Tuesday.
“Thank God for what he destined for us and honored us with their martyrdom for his sake,” the speaker said in the broadcast, which was monitored in Cairo, Egypt.
The Hussein brothers — Odai, 39, and Qusai, 37 — were killed July 22 in a gunbattle with U.S. troops who surrounded a villa in the northern city of Mosul, directed there by an Iraqi tipster.
The speaker called Odai’s and Qusai’s deaths “good news that is the hope of every fighter for God’s sake, as another group of noble souls of the martyrs have ascended to their creator.”
The speaker also referred to Mustafa, Qusai’s teenage son, who also was killed in the six-hour gunfight.
The voice said Odai and Qusai died “for the sake of God, the nation, the people.”
U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News that there is a “high likelihood that the voice on the tape is Saddam.”
The audiotape is “not terrific” quality, but there is enough evidence to compare it with that of authentic samples, the intelligence sources told NBC News on Wednesday.
The most recent previous recording, which was broadcast by Al-Arabiya on July 23, included a claim that it was recorded July 20. The other recording said Saddam was speaking July 14 and referred to the new Governing Council of Iraq.
Experts believe the latest tape is bound to deal a psychological blow to Baath Party stalwarts.
“All of this deflates the expectation that the leadership will make a comeback,” Dr. Phebe Marr, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a leading Iraq scholar, said. “However, I think (the resistance) is bigger than that ... What is at stake is a struggle for power.”
SADDAM BODYGUARD CAPTURED
The audiotape was broadcast shortly after U.S. soldiers overpowered and arrested a bodyguard who rarely left Saddam’s side.
As one of Saddam’s lifelong bodyguards, Adnan Abdullah Abid al-Musslit was believed to have detailed knowledge of Saddam’s hiding places.
Documents taken from the home and information obtained from the men would be useful in the hunt for Saddam, according to Lt. Col. Russell, who led the raid.
“Every guy we get tightens the noose,” Russell said. “Every photo and every document connects the dots.”
However, U.S. military and intelligence officials told NBC News that al-Musslit claimed he had not seen Saddam “for months” and had no idea where he was now.
The series of predawn raids in the heart of Tikrit nabbed 12 people altogether, including Daher Ziana, the former head of security in Tikrit, and Rafa Idham Ibrahim al-Hassan, a leader of the Saddam Fedayeen militia.
’PROMISING LEADS’ ON SADDAM
U.S. military and intelligence officials told NBC News on Tuesday that while the military had gathered “new and promising leads” and that optimism had increased that Saddam would be captured, any statements that his capture appeared imminent were “wishful thinking.”
However, other U.S. military officials have indicated that they were catching up with Saddam.
“We’re close to catching Saddam. A lot of people are stepping forward with information. He’s running out of places to hide,” Sgt. Amy Abbott, a military spokeswoman, said Monday.
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official told NBC News that U.S. intelligence does not expect Saddam to surrender if cornered by American troops. Instead, the official said, they expect a shootout similar to what happened when U.S. troops confronted Odai and Qusai Hussein in Mosul — a long, drawn-out battle ending with his death.
The official said he would be surprised if Saddam even had a plan for that eventuality.
The official said Saddam’s death would be the preferable outcome for the United States because it would give a certain finality to the end of Saddam’s reign of terror.
The United States is offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest or proof of death of Saddam.
The 22nd Infantry said it came within 24 hours of catching Saddam’s new security chief — and possibly Saddam himself — at a farm in eastern Tikrit on Sunday. It also assisted Task Force 20, the Special Operations force hunting Saddam, in a raid Thursday that netted as many as 10 of his suspected bodyguards in al-Uja, the Tikrit suburb where he was born.