from foxnews.com: Rumor: Russia Harboring Saddam The Web site of Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera said Saddam is holed up inside the Russian Embassy in Baghdad. A Russian military intelligence official told Al-Jazeera that there is or have been efforts by Russia to negotiate a deal that would get Saddam out of the country in order to avoid bloodshed. The Al-Jazeera reporter, however, acknowledged the information may not be credible. The Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow neither confirmed nor denied the report to Fox News. The Russian Embassy in Washington denies that Saddam is in its Baghdad Embassy and said 12 people are still there. State Department sources told Fox News that officials there are "downplaying" the rumor. But apparently the "phone lines are buzzing" between Washington and Moscow for a direct response.
from foxnews.com: Why am I not surprised? Having Saddam in the French Embassy would have been a better "story" though.
Personally, I believe Saddam thinks he's nearly immortal, and that's why we haven't seen any WMD. As long as Saddam thinks he can get out of any situation alive, and there's a chance he'll survive the end of the war, he won't want to jeopardize his standing in the international community (such as it is) by gassing or bugging our troops or his own citizens. He probably thinks that if he can lie low long enough, he'll either be slapped in prison somewhere or exiled to a relatively comfortable place where he can spend the millions he's embezzled out of Iraq. What would happen if Saddam gets cornered where he doesn't think he's going to survive? I'm thinking he's going to pull a "take 'em with me" and launch everything he's got at us and those he views as traitors (i.e. Kurds, etc.). That's why we've been trying to take him out rather than apprehend him. Hopefully if all this is true (Russian embassy, etc.) we've taken out the people Saddam has entrusted with the WMD. We'll see.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the embassy and it's grounds considered sovereign territory of the country whose embassy it is? Would this make it an act of war to deliberately assault it? Of course, that would have made the government sanctioned takeover of our embassy in Tehran during Carter's administration an act of war, would it not? Mango, anyone else know? Just curious.
"One intelligence source was believed to be an eyewitness who watched him go inside. No one would discuss the identity or characterize the credibility of the witness." Can someone buy that person some kind of high-tech gun already instead of a cell phone?
