Of cource it's not live!

[Kropotkin]

I more or less promised myself not to start a thread about the war myself but I guess it's the easiest way to get a point through and it'll fade away quickly enough.

For some reason the US/UK tries to make a point about the TV-speeches from Hussein isn't live and in a article from the BBC* that "the British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, in remarks repeated by one of his juniors later, claimed that Saddam Hussein had made a number of pre-recorded broadcasts. These presumably were for use in a number of different eventualities."

So, what? I would find it to be insane to air his speeches live. Considering the technology that the US/UK has when it comes to tracking down broadcasts I would be quite stupid to go to a studio and send a message to the Iraqi people and the world. If it was live they would start sending cruise missiles before he has a good chance of getting out of the TV-buildning.

To imply that this means that he's dead is really lame imho.


*

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2880561.stm

[Dauphin]

Pre-recorded would mean before the start of the conflict.

If he wants to prove he is alive he needs to make specific reference to recent events. The BBC article appears to suggest he has.

[Kropotkin]

Yes I understand that, my point is that that he doesn't air his speeches live is proof of nothing about his health at all.

[TheStinger]

They have time to airbrush the strings moving his hands and lips if they are pre recorded

[Spec]

Saddam is having a Pinna-Collada on a beach somewhere in the Bahamas at this hour.



Spec.

[Gangerolf]

he did mention the fighting at umm qasr in his speech today. I guess that proves he did survive the thursday morning strikes.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
he did mention the fighting at umm qasr in his speech today. I guess that proves he did survive the thursday morning strikes.

Not necessarily. Its an obvious location for the coalition to attack and Saddam could have pre-recorded any number of messages, contemplating different eventualities. The iraquis could have even planned/ordered some units to hit back on a certain day to 'validate" a tape with reference to recent events. With a little mixing of the pre-recorded messages, a message could go out despite Saddam's death. I have not seen sufficient specifics on the speech to assess whether his comments were generic enough to be part of a prepackaged formula.

Personally, I don't think he's dead as I think that type of news would have to leak. But perhaps the Iraqi upper echelons are more cohesive than I thought. We just can't be certain.

I lean toward the tapes being recent but cannot currently discount the possibility that they are taped messages being shown to rally troops while Saddam is in bad health or dead

[Kropotkin]

Ehh yeah, conspiracy theorists unite!

[Dis]

I don't think he's dead. But I do think he's seriously injured. He was seen on a strecher after that initial attack.

He probably ins't in the condition to come on tv like that.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kropotkin
Ehh yeah, conspiracy theorists unite!

hmmm

you don't have to believe in much of a conspiracy to accept that both sides run disinformation campaigns in wartime. Making tapes would be well within Iraqui capabilities without any "conspiracy"

[Kropotkin]

Considering that Hussein has a number of doubles that act as him recording them before hand might seem a bit over the edge. And futher the one that was seen injured could have been one of those.

[Nubclear]

Is it live.......

or is it Memorex?