The Hindu : Tape shows a confused Saddam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 04, 2003

International

International

Tape shows a confused Saddam

BAGHDAD MAY 3. In what is purported to be his last known wartime speech — a video never before televised — the ousted Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, appears exhausted, at times confused and seemingly resigned to defeat, but he tells Iraqis that God, somehow, will help them expel the American-British occupiers.

``The faithful will be victorious over the sinners, regardless of the duration of the struggle and the forms it might take,'' Mr. Hussein says. With patience, the ``ordeal'' can be overcome, he says, and the invaders driven out from Iraq.

The videotape, bearing a presidential stamp, was obtained on Thursday by Associated Press Television News from a former employee of the Iraqi satellite television channel which, under the regime, was responsible for filming and distributing official presidential video.

The employee said it was made on April 9, the day American troops streamed into central Baghdad and pulled down a towering statue of Mr. Hussein.

There was no way to authenticate that the tape was made on that day. Nor could it be immediately proved that the speaker on the tape was Mr. Hussein — though Iraqis who watched and listened to the leader for decades believed it was him.

An audiotape of the address was obtained and aired on April 18 by Abu Dhabi Television, which said it also was told the speech was delivered on April 9. At the same time, Abu Dhabi Television also broadcast a videotape, also said to have been made on April 9, showing Mr. Hussein in the midst of an enthusiastic crowd in the Baghdad district of Azamiyah, a few miles north of the area occupied by U.S. troops that day.

At the time, two senior U.S. officials cast doubt on the authenticity of the tapes.

In the videotaped speech, Mr. Hussein — nearing his 66th birthday, and wearing his familiar open-necked olive drab uniform and black beret — appears deeply fatigued, like someone who had slept little. The bags under his eyes droop more heavily than before. His speech is slow, and he seldom raises his eyes from the text. — AP

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