‘Saddam’ tape urges soldiers to rise up

A NEW audiotape purported to be of toppled dictator Saddam Hussein broadcast by an Arab satellite station yesterday, called on former soldiers to rise up against American occupation.

The speaker said the tape was made on July 20, two days before his sons Oday and Qusay were killed in a fierce attack on a villa belonging to a Saddam cousin in the northern city of Mosul.

The voice on the tape urged all of Saddam’s former soldiers to take up arms against the Americans and not to co-operate with the Iraqi army being rebuilt by US occupation forces.

“Today I speak in particular to ... your military honour and appeal to the promise you made to the nation and to the people,” said the voice, which sounded like Saddam.

There was no way to immediately confirm it was the former dictator.

Commenting on the tape, Saad al-Bazaz editor of al-Zaman newspaper, who was once close to Saddam said to Al-Arabiya that the voice was Saddam’s.

“Undoubtedly the tape carries Saddam’s voice, this is no longer a controversial issue and should not be raised again,” he said.

Mohammed al-Douri, Iraq’s former ambassador to the United Nations said it was Saddam but that he no longer has any significant influence in the country. “It is an attempt on behalf of Saddam Hussein to tell the Iraqi people and the world that he is still there. This is his voice, Saddam is there, but I do not think that he has any effective role over the Iraqi people.”

The voice purported to be Saddam’s urged former soldiers not to lose faith. “On April 11 and 12, we started to reorganise the (Ba’ath) party and people to resist the enemy, and we were in contact with the men of the armed forces,” the voice said. The Americans captured Baghdad on April 9.

said it was Saddam but that he no longer has any significant influence in the country. “It is an attempt on behalf of Saddam Hussein to tell the Iraqi people and the world that he is still there. This is his voice, Saddam is there, but I do not think that he has any effective role over the Iraqi people.”

The voice purported to be Saddam’s urged former soldiers not to lose faith. “On April 11 and 12, we started to reorganise the (Ba’ath) party and people to resist the enemy, and we were in contact with the men of the armed forces,” the voice said. The Americans captured Baghdad on April 9.