- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American
officials said on Thursday it may well have been Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein who appeared on Iraqi television after a U.S. strike against him,
but the speech appeared to have been taped.
-
- A technical analysis of the videotape was still being
conducted by U.S. intelligence officials and no firm conclusions had been
reached.
-
- "There are two issues in play: Is it Saddam Hussein,
or not? We've reached no conclusions. Was it pre-taped, pre-canned? We've
reached no conclusions," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
-
- U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
after preliminary reviews of the tape that it may have been Saddam and
not a so-called "body double," or lookalike.
-
- The Iraqi president is said to have at least one such
double.
-
- Other long-time Saddam watchers said it did appear to
be the Iraqi leader, who read a speech wearing black-rimmed spectacles
and a military uniform with beret.
-
- Since the speech appeared to be taped, and not broadcast
live, it has led to speculation that Saddam may have been killed or wounded
in the strike against him late Wednesday that marked the start of the U.S.-led
war on Iraq.
-
- "It could be, could be not (Saddam)," said
a U.S. official. "It appeared to be on tape because it stopped transmission,
froze and then they started again from the beginning."
-
- "We don't know," the official said about whether
Saddam was now alive or dead. "But if he is alive he has certainly
got to be looking over his shoulder waiting for the next 2,000-pound shoe
to drop."
-
- The CIA had information that senior members of the Iraqi
leadership, possibly including Saddam, would be at the private residence
hit in the first round of U.S. strikes.
-
- "There was information that the senior-most leadership
was there," said a U.S. official said, adding that Saddam's two sons,
Uday and Qusay, may also have been there.
-
- In the televised speech, a grim-faced Saddam did not
directly mention the missile strike against him, saying instead that the
"criminal, reckless" President Bush and his aides "committed
this crime."
-
- Even as U.S. forces attacked Baghdad with cruise missiles,
setting government buildings on fire, Fleischer said it was not too late
for Saddam to seek exile.
-
- "It would be a welcome event if Saddam Hussein were
still to flee," he said. "We continue to hope that Saddam Hussein
will leave Iraq."
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