Perhaps someone can refresh my memory here, I seem to recall that 'last time' Saddam appeared on television daily, am I right? If that is the case it is very strange that he has gone silent on us this time if he is not injured or dead.

They do believe he was injured in the initial strike and that emergency medical attention was summoned and that he was taken somewhere by ambulance.
But they really don't know whether he is dead or alive or whether he is still in Iraq.

If he is alive and well, it is probably in his best interests not to resurface right now.

If the Iraqi chain of command and direct communication to the military has really been disrupted, as Secretary Rumsfeld has suggested, it may well be that Saddam is seriously injured or dead.

They still are not sure whether his last "appearance" on Iraqi TV, which was broadcast after the initial strike, was something that had been taped in advance. Other videoclips which have been shown, purportedly to establish that Saddam and his sons are alive, do not show him making any reference to current events or the specific strikes on Baghdad. So they are not proof that he is alive or functioning.

Who knows, if Saddam is alive and uninjured, perhaps he sees a strategic advantage to staying out of sight and keeping everyone guessing.

I think he was on Iraqi television the day after the first video.

Since then, many are willing to agree, although they can't confirm, that the voice on those videos are probably Saddam's.

There are still debates over the images on the videos. Our government was saying that the man on the video was Saddam but that didn't solve anything and Saddam's ex-mistress swears that it wasn't.

Whether it was Saddam or not, most people still question when the tapes were made.

No one can really confirm whether Saddam is dead or alive, injured or well.

A supposed witness said they saw Saddam being taken out of a bunker on a gurney with a gas mask on.

This is from a report in today's New York Times:

"On the crucial issue of Mr. Hussein's standing with Iraqis, the country was in unfamiliar territory, finding itself under at least partial foreign occupation for the first time since British troops withdrew in the 1950's, and with a challenge to its leadership with no obvious precedent since the assassination of King Faisal II in 1958. Furthermore, Mr. Hussein, who is 65 years old, has made no public pronouncement since a brief, faltering television statement three hours after the war started with pre-dawn air attacks on Thursday.

That appearance hardly bolstered public morale, at least among those Iraqis who look to Mr. Hussein to provide a strong hand as an enfeebled Iraq heads deeper into a conflict with the world's greatest military power. In his remarks on Thursday, Mr. Hussein appeared shaken and suddenly aged, perhaps by an American air raid that Washington officials said had hit a house in southern Baghdad where Mr. Hussein had been meeting other top political and military officials. Iraqis were so struck by Mr. Hussein's seemingly disoriented state that they wondered if the man speaking had been a double.

If both elements claimed by American officials were true — that Mr. Hussein was at the meeting and somehow survived a direct air attack — it would not have been the first time he has been the victim of an assassination attempt, nor by any means the first time he has survived, though the numerous previous attempts have mainly been by Iraqis and not by foreign powers. But what has added mystery to the story since Thursday is that Mr. Hussein, normally inclined to issue long, discursive, grandiose philippics at times of crisis, has simply disappeared. All he has left to Iraq's 24 million people at a time of major crisis is Thursday's five-minute, disjointed denunciation of the "criminal little Bush," and his vow to Iraqis that "these days will add to your glorious history."

Today, attempts by reporters to gain some elucidation met with a blank wall. At a news conference, an American reporter asked when Mr. Hussein would be making another address on the war to the Iraqi people.

"Next!" the information minister, Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, said sharply, beckoning to another reporter for a new question.

Moments later, another reporter tried again. Had the minister seen Mr. Hussein in person at any time in the last few days?

"Next! Next!" Mr. Sahhaf replied, still more testily, then demanded: "Please ask something reasonable."
http://nytimes.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, the Iraqi information minister isn't saying anything to suggest that Saddam is alive and well and still able to function as that country's leader. I guess asking such a question is considered "unreasonable".

I think Saddam is probably nowhere near the bombings, and is hiding out in an undisclosed area. That would make sense, since if he kept issuing statements, our government would know basically where he's hiding.

I think Saddam is smarter than what our government gives him credit for. He was probably out of Baghdad before the first bomb hit.

His ex-mistress said something like that also.