A close associate of Saddam Hussein was quoted on Tuesday as saying that the deposed Iraqi president was safe in Iraq preparing to organise resistance to US-led occupation forces.
| Ummm... Wasn't the time to do that before the war started? Or did we miss something? |
Qassem Salam, secretary-general of Yemen's Arab Socialist Baath Party, said he had received a message from the leadership of Saddam's Baath Arab Socialist Party around mid-April assuring him about the fate of fellow party leaders in Iraq.
| "Hi, Qassem! How are you? We're all fine, except for those of who're dead..." |
"(The verbal message) asserted that... all the leadership was well and in safe places. The national (pan-Arab) leadership, including Saddam Hussein, were in safe places, and those who had left Iraq also said they were safe," Salam told the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi in an interview, without giving details.
| Hmmm... Maybe that's why they lost the war, huh? Instead of fighting agains the infidels, they all headed for safe places... |
"The crux of the message was that the resistance to the Americans will be tough and it will be decisive and historic," he added, speaking from Yemen.
| "Yeah. We're gonna get right on it..." |
Salam, a former lover school mate of Saddam in Egypt who had regularly met the Iraqi leader, said he last saw Saddam at an official Baath party leadership meeting on March 8. He said Saddam had himself led a battle against US forces who seized Baghdad airport but was later betrayed by commanders of his Republican Guards who believed the war was already lost.
"The Americans were taken by surprise by the Iraqi tanks and the Fedayeen surrounding them from every corner and not a single American left the airport," he said, adding that it was then that the US military decided to enter Baghdad.
"Herb, we're surrounded on all sides by unexpected Iraqi tanks and heroic fedayeen! We can't withdraw from the airport! What'll we do!"
"I've got it, Marv! Let's go downtown!" |
US troops seized Baghdad International Airport on April 4 and later thrust into the capital from there, leading to the swift fall of Saddam's government. Asked why Baghdad had fallen so easily, Salam said, "The top chain in the Republican Guards started to get frustrated and gave the impression to commanders below them that Saddam was over, the battle was over and that the Americans had won and that they should disappear until resistance could be organised."
| Prob'ly a pretty accurate assessment. Run away to fight another day seems to have been the preferred course... |
"I believe that the resistance has not started yet, and that the battle that Saddam planned for is yet to start... Preparations for this battle are underway and the millions of army personal who withdrew are still there," Salam.
| We saw their shoes where they left them... |
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