Saddam and Osama: The Match-up

Aug. 15 -- Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are now closer than they have ever been before — at least in the public imagination.

As the White House adjusts its focus from the war on terror towards a potential war on Iraq, these two men have emerged with a common distinction. They are the men most wanted by the leader of the most powerful nation in the world.

But this pair has much more in common than their willingness to stand in the face of the world's sole superpower. Their personal histories and political situations show some distinct parallels.

It is their contrasts though, that may point to who should be the priority for the current administration — and who will be the bigger political prize.

Bin Laden, of course, is the alleged terrorist mastermind whose al Qaeda organization has killed thousands of Americans. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush said of bin Laden: "There is an old poster out West. As I recall it said: 'Wanted, Dead or Alive.'"

Saddam Hussein is the president of Iraq who invaded neighboring Kuwait a decade ago — drawing a previous president, the current president's father, into the Persian Gulf War. He has also been accused of developing weapons of mass destruction.

The president said in April, "the policy of my government is to remove Saddam and that all options are on the table."

Commonalities of Fugitives

The biggest similarities between bin Laden and Saddam is their wanted status and their ability to maintain relatively public profiles.

Saddam, under the aegis of his own state, has continually taunted and refused Washington. In a nationally televised speech on Aug. 8, he said "the forces of evil will carry their coffins on their backs to die in disgraceful failure."

Bin Laden, in hiding, still managed to issue several videotaped messages to Arabic satellite broadcaster al-Jazeera in the months after U.S. forces took control of his former sponsor state of Afghanistan. However, it has been some months since the last tape aired which has prompted speculation that he has been killed or seriously wounded.

Knowing how badly Bush and other Western leaders want them dead, both men maintain a rigid security pattern aimed at confusing those who may be watching.

Before meeting Saddam for rare private talks last week, British parliamentarian George Galloway was driven around Baghdad for an hour, in a car with blacked out windows. He then met the Iraqi leader in a bunker that was so deep underground, his ears popped on the way down.

ABCNEWS' correspondent John Miller, one of the few Western journalists to meet bin Laden, said he was subjected to similar scrutiny when he interviewed him in 1998.