FINGERS CROSSED:

CBS: 'Senior Officials' Think Saddam May Not Have Survived (Drudge Report, Mar 20 2003)

"I am being told by several senior officials not to take that taped speech Saddam gave last night as proof that he survived the attack," CBS NEWS reporter David Martin said on air.

"They say the evidence that put him in the bunker last night was very reliable, and they are confident that the cruise missiles and bunker-busting bombs that were fired at that bunker last night hit the target. So now, intelligence experts are studying the tape to determine if it is really Saddam, or a body double which he is known to use from time to time. And they are running a computerized voice analysis, comparing that speech with known recordings of Saddam's voice. But that's a process that takes awhile. So we may not have a quick answer."

"There is considerable belief in this government that they may, in fact, have gotten Saddam."

MORE:
Bush Administration Questions Hussein Video: White House Says Tape Offers No 'Immediate Conclusions' (Mike Allen, March 20, 2003, Washington Post)

The White House today questioned the authenticity of a videotape showing Saddam Hussein speaking a few hours after the cruise missile strikes that opened the war in Iraq.

"We have reached no conclusions about that tape or about who's on the tape or when it was taped," press secretary Ari Fleischer said.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 20, 2003 12:24 PM