Seraphim
08-01-2003, 05:10 AM
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030801/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_saddam_tape&cid=540&ncid=716
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20030730/capt.1059576677.iraq_xms106.jpg
local Rabiah tribal leaders shout anti U.S. slogans as Prince Rabiah Muhammed al-Habib, center, one of the country's most influential tribal leaders, greets supporters and Rabiah tribal leaders shouting anti U.S. slogans during a demonstration in protest against the U.S. soldiers raid on his house on July 27, in Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites) Wednesday July 30, 2003. The raid was in search for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). More than 200 Iraqi tribal leaders joined the demonstration. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a new audiotape purporting to carry the voice of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), the speaker urged his supporters to continue the uprising against American occupation forces and to retain control of former state property to use in the rebellion. The voice said the tape was made Sunday.
The message purporting to come from Saddam, who has been on the run for 3 1/2 months since the Americans captured Baghdad, was a rambling discourse, apparently intended to encourage and instruct his supporters in the continuing guerrilla war against the U.S. occupation.
"The feeling of defeat and bitterness might lead some people to commit treason ... instead of being a gun pointed at the enemy," said the voice, which sounded like Saddam and was broadcast Friday by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television station.
"I ask people to keep the properties of the country and the party until the situation changes or to donate their value to the glorious resistance," the voice on the tape said.
The last message purportly from Saddam was broadcast Tuesday by al-Arabiya, another Arab satellite broadcaster. That tape acknowledge the death of his two sons, Odai and Qusai, who were gunned down in firefight with American forces in Mosul. The CIA (news - web sites) said that tape most likely was authentic.
In it, Saddam said he was glad of his sons' deaths because they had become martyrs.
But in the Friday tape, which was impossible to authenticate immediately, the voice had clearly moved beyond mourning for the once-feared and brutal sons, and issued a call to battle.
"Our faith is great that God will support us, and that one day the occupation army will falter and that victory is possible at any moment. We must not let things slip away and our situation become desperate," the voice said.
"The balance has shifted, after the military confrontations (with insurgents) and this has not changed. They (Americans) will not be able to stop this."
U.S. officials have reported in the past several days that American forces were twice close to capturing Saddam, once in the raid in which his sons were killed, and again in a raid on a farm house near Tikrit where the military was seeking Saddam's new chief of security.
But on Thursday. the American military in Baghdad seemed to back away from optimistic reports that Saddam's capture was imminent, saying instead that it was inevitable.
It was the fourth recording from Saddam to be broadcast over the Arab satellite channels since July 14.
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20030730/capt.1059576677.iraq_xms106.jpg
local Rabiah tribal leaders shout anti U.S. slogans as Prince Rabiah Muhammed al-Habib, center, one of the country's most influential tribal leaders, greets supporters and Rabiah tribal leaders shouting anti U.S. slogans during a demonstration in protest against the U.S. soldiers raid on his house on July 27, in Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites) Wednesday July 30, 2003. The raid was in search for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). More than 200 Iraqi tribal leaders joined the demonstration. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a new audiotape purporting to carry the voice of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), the speaker urged his supporters to continue the uprising against American occupation forces and to retain control of former state property to use in the rebellion. The voice said the tape was made Sunday.
The message purporting to come from Saddam, who has been on the run for 3 1/2 months since the Americans captured Baghdad, was a rambling discourse, apparently intended to encourage and instruct his supporters in the continuing guerrilla war against the U.S. occupation.
"The feeling of defeat and bitterness might lead some people to commit treason ... instead of being a gun pointed at the enemy," said the voice, which sounded like Saddam and was broadcast Friday by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television station.
"I ask people to keep the properties of the country and the party until the situation changes or to donate their value to the glorious resistance," the voice on the tape said.
The last message purportly from Saddam was broadcast Tuesday by al-Arabiya, another Arab satellite broadcaster. That tape acknowledge the death of his two sons, Odai and Qusai, who were gunned down in firefight with American forces in Mosul. The CIA (news - web sites) said that tape most likely was authentic.
In it, Saddam said he was glad of his sons' deaths because they had become martyrs.
But in the Friday tape, which was impossible to authenticate immediately, the voice had clearly moved beyond mourning for the once-feared and brutal sons, and issued a call to battle.
"Our faith is great that God will support us, and that one day the occupation army will falter and that victory is possible at any moment. We must not let things slip away and our situation become desperate," the voice said.
"The balance has shifted, after the military confrontations (with insurgents) and this has not changed. They (Americans) will not be able to stop this."
U.S. officials have reported in the past several days that American forces were twice close to capturing Saddam, once in the raid in which his sons were killed, and again in a raid on a farm house near Tikrit where the military was seeking Saddam's new chief of security.
But on Thursday. the American military in Baghdad seemed to back away from optimistic reports that Saddam's capture was imminent, saying instead that it was inevitable.
It was the fourth recording from Saddam to be broadcast over the Arab satellite channels since July 14.