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| Axis of Evil |
| Saddam to escape Iraq in event of US strike |
| 2002-09-19 |
| Saddam Hussein is planning to escape Iraq in the event of a United States attack on Baghdad, the French paper Liberation reported. Sounds goofy, but this is probably a possibility. Once he's convinced he could go the way of the dodo, it's a good possibility. Rumors last time had it he was thinking about Algeria... According to the report, the Iraqi President has sent his son, Uday, along with other representatives, to check out various options for receiving asylum in foreign countries. The report said that Uday had visited the Russian capital of Moscow, while Saddamâs cousin visited Algeria. Ahah! Been there, wish we'd done that. Or he could think about Bucharest. It's nice this time of year, the girls are pretty, and you could live a long time on the Iraqi national treasury... According to the newspaper, Saddam has millions of dollars in a Swiss bank account — an amount which will enable him to live his life in dignity in a foreign country. The same kind of dignity Idi Amin has, but he wouldn't be doorknob dead, which he will be if he sticks... Commentators of the French daily estimated, in light of this report, that Saddamâs decision to agree to the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq was meant for the sole purpose of âbuying timeâ, needed for preparing his escape route. Wonder what the world's reaction would be if Bush scared Sammy out of office? Who would he holler "boo!" to next? The ayatollahs? Or Jean Chretien? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #4 Saddam is like a cornered animal, beset on all sides by the US as well as unfriendlies in his own country. It may be wise to give him an "out". I'm not sure which country would even consider granting him asylum. Any of his close neighbours would immediately come under the glare of world attention. But if he does escape, we can render the entire Baathist party impotent (without the head, the snake truly is dead). It would make regime change all the more easier. |
| Posted by: Suman Palit 2002-09-20 11:31:29 |
| #3 I wouldn't get too ecstatic if Saddam popped up in some other country. It would leave him unharmed if his stay-behind jihadis touched off some evil device to do max harm to any occupying Americans, and never mind his dearly beloved civil population who would share it. |
| Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive 2002-09-19 12:17:43 |
| #2 I doubt if Bush will actually scare him out of town. I think Sammy's convinced of his own immortality, regardless of what might happen to the Iraqis around him. If he did leave in the dead of night, think how the Chomsky crowd would be hollering about what a "bully" the U.S. is...! |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-09-19 12:10:05 |
| #1 Actually, if this is true, it's good news. If Saddam thinks he can escape, then he's less likely to do something radical -- like tossing WMDs -- when Iraq is invaded. Such an act on his part would close off too many possible boltholes and would make finding and punishing Saddam a very high priority item for a lot of countries who probably aren't too worried about that at this time. Perhaps we should encourage this line of thinking on his part -- assuming we already aren't. |
| Posted by: Patrick Phillips 2002-09-19 11:05:56 |