BREAKING NEWS: BONES FOUND WHERE SADAAM WAS BOMBED?

I'm skeptical. I mean, when you drop bombs in cities of course you're going to find bones. He's alive.

 

60/40 (dead/alive) - I think it's quite possible he is alive, but slightly more likely that he is dead. Right after that particular bombing Baghdad's defenses simply collapsed, all opposition collapsed, and all leadership disappeared. So he either died then or got the f* out of dodge... which is also entirely possible.

Either way, he's not super-relevant anymore. It'd be nice to nab him if he's still alive, and if he is we eventually will, but it is not critical. He is no longer in power, and that is what counts.

 

Taking this opportunity to agree with treeman for the first time ever. 60/40 sounds right to me. The reasoning too. That's all.

 

If he ain't dead . . he might as well be. . .cause i doubt we see that
dude again

Rocket River

 

I hope he isn't dead. I hope he hides out for a couple of years-- flinching at the creak of every floorboard or bloodpressure rising everytime he hears an aircraft over his putred head. Same with Osama.

Then let's get him!

 

Well, 12 hours later and no major news outlet has picked up this story.

 

I think a lot folks have turned off their think caps here.

What if you were a smart and very rich dictator who knew that the end was near? Do you hang around and wait for a MOAB to land on your head? Or do you get the hell out of Dodge?

I would be very surprised if Saddam did not leave for his hidding place when the US started the invasion.

 

He's in South America with Adolf (who would be 114 now)

 

Don't write thread titles in all caps.

 

We can't even be sure if Chemical Ali is dead much less Sadaam.

WASHINGTON (June 5) - U.S. officials had been confident that a coalition airstrike killed one of Iraq's most notorious officials, the man nicknamed ``Chemical Ali.'' Now, they are not so sure.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that interrogations of Iraqi prisoners indicated Ali Hassan al-Majid might be alive.

Myers and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had said on April 7 they believed an airstrike on a house in southern Iraq had killed al-Majid. They showed reporters video of laser-guided bombs obliterating the house where a tipster told coalition forces al-Majid was staying.

``We believe that the reign of terror of Chemical Ali has come to an end. To Iraqis who have suffered at his hand, particularly in the last few weeks in that southern part of the country, he will never again terrorize you or your families,'' Rumsfeld said at the time.

An officer with the British military in Basra, Maj. Andrew Jackson, also said on that day that a body believed to be al-Majid was found in the rubble after the airstrike.

Myers and Rumsfeld, speaking to reporters after briefing members of Congress, did not elaborate on what they called ``speculation'' that al-Majid may have survived.

Al-Majid, a cousin of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, once ran Iraq's armed forces. His opponents called him ``Chemical Ali'' for his role in 1988 chemical weapons attacks that killed thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq.

He also has been linked to the bloody crackdown on Shiites in southern Iraq after their uprising following the 1991 Gulf War. He was governor of Kuwait during Iraq's seven-month occupation of its neighbor in 1990-1991 - an occupation that ended with Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War.

Al-Majid was a warrant officer and motorcycle messenger in the army before Saddam's Baath party led a coup in 1968. He was promoted to general and served as defense minister from 1991-95, as well as a regional party leader.

06/05/03 18:51 EDT
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.

 

My God, I actually agree with No Worries!

I think he went to Syria before the war even started. That jackass walking around the streets of Bagdad wasn't him. That guy looked Asian!

 

The truth is that unless these people (Saddam, his sons, Chemical Ali, etc) actually make a public appearance or start sending tapes to Al Jazeera, we will probably not know their fates for a while. We may never know what happened to them; they might have been vaporized in a direct hit (if a 2,000 lb bomb falls on you, you will be vaporized - no trace left).

The only exception to this would be if we actually find DNA evidence or if a POW talks and tips us off to the whereabouts of a living Saddam...