From RMNews: If we can believe this story, and that the man in it is really Saddam, then it looks like Saddam is alive. However, even if he is dead, and the man is a look-a-like clone, we need to be worried. Saddam's successor is his son, Uday, who is known to be more ruthless than his father.

If Saddam is dead or disabled from a stroke, then it is Uday who is running the show.

---

From: spiker <spiker@coollink.net>
Date: Sun Jan 7, 2001 9:16am
Subject: Saddam puts army on alert to fight Israel

Source:
The Sunday Times-UK
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/

Saddam puts army on alert to fight Israel

http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/01/07/stifgnmid02001.html

January 7 2001 MIDDLE EAST

SADDAM HUSSEIN showed that his grip on power was as firm as ever
yesterday. He marked Iraq's army day by making a defiant televised address
to the nation and establishing a new command headquarters for a special
military force to support the Palestine revolt against Israel if necessary,
write Uzi Mahnaimi and Jon Swain.

The Hamorabi tank division of the elite Republican Guard has been moved
from its permanent barracks to the new headquarters at Al-Rabtah, west of
Baghdad, where it is on
24-hour standby.

The Iraqi headquarters and Saddam's promise to support the Palestinian
uprising - reaffirmed in yesterday's speech - are being closely monitored
by Israel. It is expected that heavy Iraqi armour would join Syria in any
regional war against Israel. Ehud Barak, the Israeli prime minister,
predicts that such a war will break out if the Palestinian question is not
settled peacefully.

"The Iraqis have done it in the past - in 1973 - and there is no reason why
they would not do it again," said Professor Amtazia Baram, a leading
Israeli expert on Saddam and adviser to Israeli military intelligence.

However, the Israeli military is more concerned about a possible
low-altitude attack by Iraqi warplanes carrying chemical weapons than an
armoured attack. Saddam's televised address, glorifying the Iraqi army,
appeared finally to have put to rest opposition claims that he had suffered
a serious stroke last weekend. The 63-year-old president appeared healthy
and robust in a dark brown suit and tie as he delivered his speech, marking
the 80th anniversary of Iraq's armed forces.

"We are celebrating the army that fought the war against Iran and in the
'mother of all battles'," he said, referring to the 1991 Gulf War, which he
lost 10 years ago.

There have been persistent rumours of Saddam's ill-health for more than a
year, usually citing lymphatic cancer. These rose to a peak last weekend
when opposition sources said that he had fallen ill after presiding over a
military parade in Baghdad.

The reports were dismissed by the Iraqi information ministry, but refused
to die away. In an attempt to dispel them, Saddam was twice shown on
television addressing a cabinet meeting and chatting to an Egyptian group
of entertainers while puffing on a Cuban cigar.

Saddam, who has turned survival into an art form in his 30 years in power,
did undergo a two-hour medical check-up after last Sunday's parade,
informed sources said. However, he is said to have gone to hospital after
complaining of muscular pain.

The Iraqi leader is known to have suffered from severe back pain in the
past. A leading Harley Street specialist frequently travelled to Baghdad
to treat him in the 1980s, when he was supported by the West as a bulwark
against the Islamic revolution in Iran. More recently, French and Austrian
doctors have flown in to treat him.---