Saddam Hussein Dead--Since 1999?
Scott Brady
OPERATION: IRAQI FREEDOM
Saddam's 'double' trouble
Opposition leader claims Hussein died of cancer in '99
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Posted: March 26, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
The Bush administration has concluded the U.S.-led "decapitation"
attack failed to take out Saddam Hussein, but an Iraqi opposition
leader claims a higher authority already got the job done.
Moslem al-Asadi, a doctor living in exile in Iran, said he believes
the real Saddam died in 1999 from cancer.
"The real Saddam died because he had cancer of the lymph nodes, and
since his death in 1999 they're just showing his doubles," he told the
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
In a plot reminiscent of the Hollywood tale of a body double subbing
for an incapacitated American president titled "Dave," al-Asadi claims
Saddam's sons, his first wife and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz run
a scheme to keep the truth under wraps using three doubles. Al-Asadi
alleges Saddam's younger son, Qusay, actually holds presidential
authority.
The absence of live messages by the Iraqi leader since coalition
airstrikes crushed the residential compound, in which he was believed
to be with his sons, has fueled speculation of his demise.
Hours after the initial attack, Saddam appeared on state-run
television, wearing a beret and his reading glasses, and read from a
prepared text urging Iraqis to resist the invaders and draw their
swords.
"The criminal little Bush has committed a crime against humanity,"
Hussein said. "Let the arrogance be debased. Long live Iraq, long live
jihad, long live Palestine."
Days later, Iraqi state television showed footage of him chairing
meetings with top officials.
But U.S. and British intelligence suspected the footage was
prerecorded prior to the attacks.
As WorldNetDaily reported, British intelligence in Cheltenham
intercepted an urgent call Saturday suggesting that Saddam is still
alive in a secret hideaway in Baghdad but required medical
intervention the Iraqis could not provide.
"They said he was not critically injured but demanded urgent treatment
because he had lost blood and could get worse. This regime wouldn't go
to that trouble for anybody else – including members of his family,"
an official told the British daily The Sun.
Yesterday, Saddam again appeared on Iraqi television giving a speech
and meeting with Qusay.
He referred to his "brave and heroic people" and referenced commanders
and their locations, including the port of Umm Qasr, taken by
coalition forces amid stiff Iraqi resistance.
Despite the reference to Umm Qasr, British intelligence thought the
broadcast may have been prerecorded.
"We are well aware that he spent many hours recently tape-recording
various messages. We have to do a little more analysis of what he was
actually saying to see whether or not that in fact was Saddam
Hussein," British Defense Minister Geoff Hoon told reporters.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer echoed the suspicion.
"I think there are some doubts about whether that tape is canned or
whether it's fresh and based on recent events. It would not be a
surprise if Saddam Hussein had some time ago put in the can numerous
statements designed to be released later," he said.
But the Washington Post reported that because Hussein seemed assured
and so much his old self that the CIA decided it didn't have to
analyze the voice to confirm his identity, and senior Bush
administration officials believe the message was taped after
Thursday's attack.
"The voice is easy to simulate and doubles constantly study video and
audio records," argued al-Asadi.
The exile maintains the footage purported to be Saddam Hussein
provides the evidence to support his claim that look-alikes are all
that remains of the dictator.
Specifically, Saddam has big, oval ears but one of the doubles' ears
are flat and lack the special bend in Saddam's. Al-Asadi also said
Saddam has an overbite, but one of the doubles doesn't have such a
defect. While Saddam has wide and strong shoulders, those of two
doubles are narrow and almost sloping. Saddam has big hands, said
al-Asadi, while one of doubles has small hands. Lastly, a second long
finger of one of the doubles doesn't match that of the real thing.
Corriere della Sera reports the testimony of former doubles
corroborates al-Asadi's thesis.
Longtime bodyguard Saddam Michael Ramadan in 1979 wrote in the book
"In Saddam's shadow" that the Iraqi leader was so ill he was dependent
on pain killers, according to the newspaper. Ramadan is reportedly now
under the protection of the CIA.
The paper quotes another former bodyguard, who fled Iraq for Israel
two months ago as declaring, "Saddam whom you now see, was
photographed some years ago."