Saddam is alive, Aziz tells US interrogators
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:21 am
April 28 2003 at 01:36PM
(Reuters)
Washington - Iraq's former deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, has told United States interrogators that President Saddam Hussein survived two airstrikes launched to kill the ousted Iraqi president, USA Today reported on Monday.
Aziz, who is being questioned at an undisclosed location, said he saw Saddam alive after the March 19 and April 7 airstrikes on Baghdad targeting the former Iraqi leaders and his two sons, the newspaper reported, citing a senior defence official.
But USA Today quoted the official as also saying that interrogators had concluded that Aziz was lying about other matters that had come up in questioning.
Aziz, the most recognisable of the 13 former Iraqi officials known to be in US custody, surrendered to US forces last Thursday.
US officials have said the fate of the toppled Iraqi president remains unknown amid mixed reports about whether he was dead or alive.
US war commander General Tommy Franks said on Sunday that Aziz was providing a lot of information to US intelligence interrogators. He did not elaborate.
"What we don't know is the veracity of it. It will take time," Franks was quoted as saying.
(Reuters)
Washington - Iraq's former deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, has told United States interrogators that President Saddam Hussein survived two airstrikes launched to kill the ousted Iraqi president, USA Today reported on Monday.
Aziz, who is being questioned at an undisclosed location, said he saw Saddam alive after the March 19 and April 7 airstrikes on Baghdad targeting the former Iraqi leaders and his two sons, the newspaper reported, citing a senior defence official.
But USA Today quoted the official as also saying that interrogators had concluded that Aziz was lying about other matters that had come up in questioning.
Aziz, the most recognisable of the 13 former Iraqi officials known to be in US custody, surrendered to US forces last Thursday.
US officials have said the fate of the toppled Iraqi president remains unknown amid mixed reports about whether he was dead or alive.
US war commander General Tommy Franks said on Sunday that Aziz was providing a lot of information to US intelligence interrogators. He did not elaborate.
"What we don't know is the veracity of it. It will take time," Franks was quoted as saying.
I guess it would come down to what would he gain from telling us that he's still alive? I wouldn't be able to venture a guess myself, but I think it is possible that he is alive and had escaped.
