BAGHDAD,
April 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iraq's former deputy
Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has said he saw Saddam Hussein and his two
sons alive after the two air strikes mounted by coalition forces to kill
him, according to press reports.
Three
weeks following the fall of Baghdad, the Bush administration's public
stance does not change. Saddam will turn up, either alive or dead under
a pile of rubble, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
What
is important is that Saddam no longer runs Iraq. However, administration
officials know their stance is, at best, a brave face on an uncertain
situation, USA Today reported Sunday, April 27.
U.S.
and Iraqi officials believe that if Monday, April 28, - Saddam's 66th
birthday - passes without any attack or statement from Saddam's
loyalists, many Iraqis will be convinced that Saddam has gone forever.
April
28 has long been Iraq's most important public holiday, usually marked by
a huge military show of force.
Word
spread through Baghdad in recent days that Saddam or his loyalists
planned a dramatic action to mark the day. "There are a lot of
rumors about Saddam's birthday. We are on alert for Monday," says
Hussein Ali Aboud, 34, a U.S.-trained Iraqi militia fighter.
Captured
regime officials might withhold what they know about any weapons of mass
destruction as long as they are uncertain of Saddam's fate, claimed USA
Today.
Until
Saddam is found, some of his friends and his foes in Iraq will continue
to operate out of fear that he could make a comeback and settle scores
with anyone who helped the “coalition”.
Exactly
for such reasons, U.S. officials don't know whether they can trust Aziz,
who surrendered to “coalition” forces last week.
Gen.
Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said Sunday, April
27, in Abu Dhabi that he had seen no solid evidence that Saddam was
alive but that Aziz was being "cooperative and talkative"
under interrogation.
"What
we don't know is the veracity of it. It will take time," he said.
Iraqi
opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi said Sunday in a TV interview that he
believes Saddam and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, are alive and on the
run and hiding in separate places.
"We
have a pretty good idea of how they are moving and where they were, and
we've tried to again focus on how we can know where they will be, so
that they will be apprehended," Chalabi said.
Some
U.S. Defense official who said Aziz claimed to have seen Saddam also
said interrogators have concluded Aziz is lying about some other matters
that have come up in questioning.
Some
of the 13 senior regime officials being questioned at an undisclosed
location in the Gulf region may be holding back their best information
in hopes of bartering for lenient treatment, said the senior Defense
official, who receives detailed daily reports on the interrogations.
U.S.
officials in Baghdad say their confidence has grown lately about the
likelihood of new arrests.
Officials
in Baghdad say the flow of intelligence about the missing leaders'
whereabouts has accelerated in recent days, as the capture of a few top
officials has persuaded Iraqis to reveal tips about others.
Hussam
Mohammed Amin, head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate and chief
Iraqi liaison with the United Nations weapons inspectors, was arrested
Sunday. He is number 49 on the U.S. most-wanted list.
"Of
course Saddam is alive," a colonel from Iraq's military
intelligence says. "It's unquestionable that he (prepared) for this
moment, because he prepared for every tiny detail. He might be in a
simple house or even be driving a taxi," said the man, speaking in
west Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood.
Destiny
Of Iraqi Senior Officials
 |
|
Dead
or alive, Saddam is certainly in Iraq, according to U.S. officials
|
U.S.
troops allow armed Iraqi militia to play the role of intelligence
agents. Around 1,000 fighters have been deployed in Baghdad,
compensating for U.S. forces' few Arabic speakers and their lack of
knowledge of the capital's geography.
Trained,
funded and transported by the U.S. military, the Free Iraqi Forces are
attached to the Iraqi National Congress, the group that arrived in
Baghdad about 10 days ago to begin operations after decades in exile,
according to USA Today.
The
Iraqi armed militia appears to have promptly persuaded the relatives of
top officials that the leaders cannot stay on the run without seriously
endangering their families.
Former
vice president Taha Yasin Ramadan, for example, seems to have departed
his two wives and 13 children out of Baghdad once the war erupted March
19.
Yet,
some of his closest relatives remain in Baghdad. They increasingly fear
retaliation attacks by those unable to find Ramadan and others.
"We
are in a state of terror," says his sister, Khadija Ramadan, 49.
"There are people who want revenge against us." She says a
group of uniformed Free Iraqi Forces searched her house last week,
looking for clues to her brother's whereabouts, and poked rifle butts
into her daughters' backs.
