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The Saddam tapes

   

A number of messages attributed to Saddam Hussein were issued after his overthrow. The earliest took the form of faxed letters; one was handwritten. The first audio tape came to light on 7 May 2003, though there were no video tapes. 


30 April 2003: Faxed letter, purportedly from Saddam Hussein, published by the London-based newspaper, al-Quds al-Arabi. It was dated April 28 - Saddam's birthday. This was one of several written communications that the paper apparently received from the deposed Iraqi leader. 
Full text.

7 May 2003: Sydney Morning Herald published a tape acquired by its reporter in Baghdad. Sound quality is poor. 
Full text.

4 July 2003: Arabic news station al-Jazeera broadcast an audio tape  urging guerrilla fighters in Iraq to continue their resistance to the US-led occupation.

8 July 2003: Two television channels in the Middle East - al Hayat-LBC [Lebanon] and al-Jazeera broadcast extracts from a tape. The content appeared very similar or even identical to the May 7 tape. Possibly it was a better-quality recording of the same message. 
Report

17 July 2003: Satellite channels al-Arabiyya and al-Jazeera broadcast tape condemning Iraq's new governing council. Tape was apparently timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 1968 Ba'athist revolution. al-Arabiyya broadcast the full tape and al-Jazeera broadcast extracts.
Extracts.

29 July 2003: Satellite channel al-Arabiyya broadcast tape referring to the deaths of Saddam's sons, Udai and Qusai.
Extracts.

1 August 2003: Tape broadcast by al-Jazeera, addressed to Iraqis who have seized property belonging to the government or Ba'ath party. It says they can keep the property but will be greatly rewarded if they return it "once things are back to normal". On no account must they hand it over to the Americans.
Full text.

     

In the documents section

 
 

In the Iraq section

Related pages

 

Iraq under Saddam Hussein

The fall of Saddam Hussein

  

 

 

 

 
 
 
 


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Last revised on 04 August, 2015