Aljazeera airs new Saddam tape

Aljazeera satellite channel broadcast an audiotaped address purportedly from deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Friday.

Arab stations have received several tapes purporting to carry the voice of Saddam.

In the audiotape, the speaker called on Iraqis to safeguard the properties of the state and his toppled Baath Party until “things return to normal” and spoke of the need to “salvage” Iraqis, including any who “strayed” from the right path.

The speaker, who also called for resistance to the US occupation, gave 27 July as the date of the recording.

Call to arms

“The losses that befell our people … as a result of foreign aggression are huge,” and it is therefore “incumbent on those in charge of the people to save what can be saved,” the speaker said.

“The losses that befell our people … as a result of foreign aggression are huge.”

-Taped voice of “Saddam”

This particularly applies to “the human being, the most precious thing who must be saved from his enemy and from himself.”

The speaker called for “salvaging our sons and brethren, even those among them who strayed, except those who betrayed the people and nation by collaborating with the criminal occupiers.”

Some of those who “strayed” might be pushed into betrayal out of “a guilt feeling or fear of the future” if they are not helped, the voice warned.

Sixth tape

The new tape is the sixth attributed to Saddam to be aired by Arab satellite TV stations since he was ousted by US-led forces on 9 April. 

It comes just three days after Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel broadcast a tape in which a speaker said to be Saddam mourned his sons Uday and Qusay, killed by US forces on 22 July.

US intelligence has deemed previous tapes to be probably authentic at a time when the former strongman continues to elude US forces who have stepped up raids across Iraq in an attempt to capture him, placing a $25 million bounty on his head.

Source: News Agencies