Washington, Mar 21: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein -- and not a body double -- appears to have given a speech carried by Iraqi television after the first US air strike in a war to remove him, US officials have said. The officials said the speech may have been taped before the strike, so there was still no conclusive proof that Saddam was alive.
But they discounted the possibility that a Saddam look-alike sat in for the Iraqi leader, saying his voice, speech inflections and the movements of his mouth would not suggest a double.
Asked about it earlier, US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "there's debate about that."
Saddam and several members of his inner circle were believed to be in a residential compound in Baghdad that was struck by F-117 stealth fighters and sea-launched tomahawk cruise missiles in the gambit of the war.
The White House yesterday said it had reached "no conclusions" about the authenticity of the speech.
Another senior administration official, who declined to be named, said the first US raids specifically targeted Saddam, his two sons and the senior leaders of the Baath Party and Iraqi revolutionary command council. Bureau Report