- LONDON (Reuters) - With Saddam
Hussein not seen in public since the start of the war on Iraq, speculation
is rife about his fate. Some say he is dead, others that he is so badly
wounded he had to receive a blood transfusion.
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- They laugh that sort of thing off in Baghdad and nothing
in the Iraqi capital suggests the president is not still in charge.
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- But not since U.S.-led forces tried to kill the al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001, has there been such rampant
speculation in the international media on the whereabouts of one man.
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- One report talked of the Iraqi leader being stretchered
into an ambulance after Thursday's surprise dawn cruise missile strike
on his Baghdad bunker. Another described him lying on a hospital trolley
with an oxygen mask.
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- Within three hours of the attack, Saddam popped up on
television apparently to confirm he had survived. But U.S. officials said
the tape could have been pre-recorded.
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- Bin Laden also produced videotapes after reports he had
been killed in U.S. bombing.
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- Thursday's attack on Saddam's bunker was intended to
kill him, and so end the war almost before it had begun.
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- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told CNN on Sunday
he was sure there were Iraqi leaders in the compound when it was hit. But
asked if he believed Saddam was still alive Rumsfeld replied: "We
have to assume he is."
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- One British paper said intelligence chiefs had told Britain's
war cabinet that Saddam was so badly injured he needed a blood transfusion
after the strike, which they said may have killed his son, Uday.
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- British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office dismissed
the Sunday Telegraph report, but a Foreign Office minister later said British
intelligence suggested Saddam had been wounded and left the area in an
ambulance.
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- Fox News said the U.S. government had photographs showing
panicked digging at the site of the strike and of Saddam being placed on
a stretcher and into an ambulance.
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- "We are sure it was someone of great importance
because of the intense security and care he was getting," Britain's
Mail on Sunday quoted a CIA source as saying.
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- It also said U.S. officials had intercepted calls summoning
Saddam's doctors to the bunker, immediately after the attack.
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- Another British tabloid said Saddam was spotted lying
on a hospital trolley with an oxygen mask covering his face.
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- It said the CIA had a sample of Saddam's DNA so they
could confirm whether it was the Iraqi leader or one of his doubles if
a body was found.
-
- Not long after the attack a tired-looking Saddam appeared
on television, in a military uniform, urging his people to fight.
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- Although the Iraqi leader has a handful of lookalikes
who might have made a speech, voice experts say it was Saddam. But the
CIA says it could have been pre-recorded -- even though he referred in
the address to the start of the raid at dawn.
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- Several British papers reported that Saddam had pre-recorded
hours of video messages to be broadcast during the war to convince everyone
he was alive.
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- However, Con Coughlin, author of "Saddam: The Secret
Life," suggested the tape was authentic. He said the Iraqi leader
was notoriously vain and would not allow himself to appear on television
looking so rough, except to show he was still alive.
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- Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, making his
first public appearance on Sunday, told a news conference that Saddam would
address the Iraqi people from time to time.
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- Iraqi television has also shown footage of the president
holding several meetings with top aides, including his younger son Qusay,
widely tipped to be his successor.
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- Pictures broadcast on Sunday showed a smiling Saddam
presiding over a meeting with military officials. There was nothing to
pinpoint when any of this footage was filmed but there is also nothing
in Baghdad to suggest it is not genuine.
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- One U.S. intelligence official was quoted as saying the
chances Saddam had been killed in his bunker were 50:50, but the problem
was getting independent corroboration.
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- That corroboration will be difficult until U.S. troops
can inspect the site themselves -- and that seems unlikely for some time.
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