Saddam audio recording depicted sons as heroes

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An audiotape recording purportedly from former president Saddam Hussein and broadcast last night on an Arab satellite television station acknowledged that his two sons were killed by U.S. forces last week and suggested that other Iraqis should sacrifice themselves to resist the U.S. occupation.

The tape could aid American efforts to convince skeptical Iraqis that Saddam's sons were indeed killed, which U.S. commanders regard as an important step in stemming resistance attacks.

But it also provided another reminder that the former Iraqi president still remains outside the grasp of U.S. forces, despite a raid near his ancestral home early yesterday morning that military officials said netted one of his top bodyguards and a trove of documents that could help identify possible hiding places.

The audiotape claiming to be from Saddam was aired on the Al-Arabiya satellite channel, which is based in the United Arab Emirates. The station said it received the tape yesterday.

The speaker on the tape lauded Odai and Qusai Hussein as "martyrs who sacrificed themselves for the sake of God" and suggested that Iraqis also should send their sons to fight against U.S. forces.

"Even if Saddam Hussein had 100 sons other than Odai and Qusai, he would sacrifice them in the same way," the speaker said in a measured voice that sounded tired but not distraught.

The speaker, who appeared to be reading from a script because of the sound of pages being turned, acknowledged that Odai and Qusai died, in what he called "a brave battle with the enemy." U.S. military officials said the brothers were killed one week ago during a raid on a house in which they had been hiding in the northern city of Mosul.

"They stood against the enemy, fighting for six hours in Mosul," the speaker said. "The enemy armies, with all their weapons, could not kill them until they used helicopters against the house."

Iraqis familiar with Saddam's voice said the tape appeared to be real, using the same vocabulary and tone as other recordings deemed to be authentic by U.S. intelligence agencies. U.S. officials said the CIA was studying the latest recording to determine if is authentic.

Al-Arabiya and another Arab satellite news channel, Al-Jazeera, have broadcast four tapes purportedly made by Saddam after his government fell in April. The CIA said the first recording, aired by Al-Jazeera on July 4, appeared to be real, providing the most definitive indication that he survived the war and is seeking to rally opposition to the U.S. occupation.

The latest recording could help to convince doubtful Iraqis that U.S. forces did kill Odai and Qusai. Many people here have said they have been unconvinced by the evidence presented by the U.S. military thus far, which have included medical records and graphic photos and videotape.

If authentic, the 10-minute recording could be an effort by Saddam to cast his sons as Arab heroes to gain sympathy and support among Iraqis who believe that he and his family ran away instead of fighting advancing U.S. troops. In the recording, the speaker repeatedly referred to Odai, Qusai and a person named Mustafa — believed to Qusai's 14-year-old son, who also was killed in the raid — as martyrs.

As the search intensifies for Saddam, the country's Governing Council, the 25-member body set up by the U.S.-led occupation authority to serve as an interim Iraqi administration, decided yesterday that its president would rotate among a nine-person leadership committee. The committee, which was elected after intense debate, will be dominated by former exiles and Kurds who lived outside the ambit of Saddam's government.

Only one of the nine, a professor at Baghdad University, stayed in Saddam-controlled Iraq in the decade leading up to the war. Although the occupation authority had initially wanted "insiders" to dominate the council because of concerns that ordinary Iraqis would oppose an exile-led body, a group of seven formerly exiled political leaders, including Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, managed to secure six of the seats on the leadership committee during lengthy negotiations yesterday afternoon.