U.S. Officials: Saddam Seen on Gurney

March 21, 2003 -- U.S. intelligence sources say Saddam Hussein was seen being wheeled out of a Baghdad residential complex on a stretcher after the complex was struck in "decapitation attacks" by the United States.

Eyewitnesses saw the Iraqi leader being taken from the complex on a "gurney, with an oxygen mask over his face" Thursday morning (Wednesday night U.S. time), the officials told ABCNEWS.

Sources said there was clearly a U.S. observer nearby, watching the complex.

When asked today whether Saddam may have been injured in the attack, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said he wouldn't address rumors, but added ambiguously, "I don't know how Saddam Hussein is feeling today."

Three Critical Iraqi Leaders Believed Dead

Intelligence sources also said there has been a significant lack of communications between Saddam and his military structure since the airstrike.

They are optimistic that the attack injured Saddam, though they are cautious about the extent.

The U.S. officials believe that one or both of Saddam's sons were also in the complex when it was struck. The attack was "massive, catastrophic," the Washington Post's Bob Woodward told ABCNEWS.

Still, there are unconfirmed reports that Iraqi Sunni and other armed groups loyal to Saddam have been told that the Iraqi dictator is alive but communication with his son Odai has been lost and it is suspected that he died in the attacks. Intelligence officials told ABCNEWS they have no hard evidence that one of Saddam's sons was killed.

In addition, Iraq TV showed Saddam, his other son Qusai and Defense Minister Saddam Hashem Ahmed in a meeting. The person who read the news on air said they met today, but the claim is not independently confirmed. Later, a TV newscaster read new decrees by Saddam offering rewards to soldiers who shoot down coalition planes and missiles or kill or capture or coalition troops.

U.S. intelligence officials are confident other high-ranking leaders in Saddam's regime were killed. ABCNEWS' Brian Ross reported that U.S. intelligence believes three Iraqi officials — Taha Yasin Ramadan, Izatt Ibrahaim al Douri, and Ali Hassan Majid (also known as "Chemical Ali") — were killed in the attack. A CIA spokesman said officials had no information to confirm the report.

Complex Reportedly Housed Bunker

The strikes targeted a large residential complex in a Baghdad suburb, not a military installation or one of Saddam's palaces. Saddam and his advisers were believed to be sleeping inside a "hardened bunker" beneath the ground floor, intelligence sources said.

Yet within hours of the predawn bombardment, Saddam appeared on Iraqi television, condemning the U.S. attacks and calling on his people to defend the country in a jihad, or holy war, against its enemies.

A debate soon began: was it really Saddam making the speech, or one of the body doubles he is reputed to use as a security measure?

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing today that he had no doubt that the bunker was destroyed. But, he added, "The question is what was in there." Rumfeld said officials had no definitive evidence that Saddam was dead or still alive.

Was Puffy-Faced Man Really the Iraqi Leader?

Saddam is believed to have at least three body doubles, and many who saw his speech thought they were looking at one of them.

The man at the podium wore glasses, and looked puffy, old and tired, unlike the Iraqi leader's robust appearance three days earlier.

The White House said today it does appear to be Saddam in the videotape, but press secretary Fleischer said there's no way to know when it was really recorded.

U.S. officials concluded it was Saddam after conducting voice analysis of the speech and using computer algorithms to compare the speaker's face with known images of Saddam. They also studied a second video purporting to show the Iraqi leader meeting with members of his Cabinet in the hours after the attack.

CIA officials said the man who gave the speech was the real Saddam, without his contacts, without his make-up, and without a good night's sleep.

Dieter Buhmann, a German pathologist who has meticulously studied hundreds of photographs of the Iraqi leader's public appearances, said he agreed with the CIA's conclusion. He said he was almost certain that the man who appeared on Iraqi TV was Saddam.

Buhmann, of Homberg University, had earlier measured and mapped Saddam's mustache and eyebrows, and concluded that he uses at least three different doubles.

Ex-Mistress Says It Was a Double

But there was a different assessment from a woman who claims to have known the Iraqi leader intimately. Parisoula Lampsos, who says she was Saddam's mistress over a period of nearly 30 years, told U.S. officials and ABCNEWS that the man who appeared on TV was not Saddam.

Lampsos had previously distinguished Saddam from his doubles in more than a dozen cases and she said that Saddam would never come out of the bunker during battle to deliver a statement.

Last year Lampsos explained to ABCNEWS' Claire Shipman how she could spot Saddam's doubles.

For starters, she said, the real Saddam has an unusual tattoo: two dots on his left hand that he received in prison years ago. But his eyes are the real giveaway, she said.

"Look everywhere — it might change," Lampsos told ABCNEWS. "You can change your teeth, everywhere. But the eyes, no."

ABCNEWS' John McWethy, Brian Ross, Pierre Thomas and Martha Raddatz contributed to this report.