American officials said on Thursday it may well have been Iraqi President Saddam Hussein who appeared on Iraqi television after a US strike against him, but the speech appeared to have been taped.
A technical analysis of the videotape was still being conducted by US intelligence officials and no firm conclusions had been reached.
"There are two issues in play: Is it Saddam Hussein, or not? We've reached no conclusions. Was it pre-taped, pre-canned? We've reached no conclusions," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said after preliminary reviews of the tape that it may have been Saddam and not a so-called "body double," or lookalike.
The Iraqi president is said to have at least one such double.
Other long-time Saddam watchers said it did appear to be the Iraqi leader, who read a speech wearing black-rimmed spectacles and a military uniform with beret.
Since the speech appeared to be taped, and not broadcast live, it has led to speculation that Saddam may have been killed or wounded in the strike against him late Wednesday that marked the start of the US-led war on Iraq.
"It could be, could be not [Saddam]," a US official said. "It appeared to be on tape because it stopped transmission, froze and then they started again from the beginning."
"We don't know," the official said about whether Saddam was now alive or dead. "But if he is alive he has certainly got to be looking over his shoulder waiting for the next 2,000-pound shoe to drop."
The CIA had information that senior members of the Iraqi leadership, possibly including Saddam, would be at the private residence hit in the first round of US strikes.
"There was information that the senior-most leadership was there," a US official said, adding that Saddam's two sons, Uday and Qusay, may also have been there.
In the televised speech, a grim-faced Saddam did not directly mention the missile strike against him, saying instead that the "criminal, reckless" President George W. Bush and his aides "committed this crime."
Even as US forces attacked Baghdad with cruise missiles, setting government buildings on fire, Fleischer said it was not too late for Saddam to seek exile.
"It would be a welcome event if Saddam Hussein were still to flee," he said. "We continue to hope that Saddam Hussein will leave Iraq."
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues