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Saddam seriously ill january 2001 { January 4 2001 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1100131.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1100131.stm Thursday, 4 January, 2001, 18:04 GMT Doubt cast over Saddam images A foreign office minister has cast doubt on Iraqi attempts to demonstrate President Saddam Hussein is working normally following reports he is seriously ill. However, John Battle said the UK had no "inside information" confirming speculation the 63-year-old was in intensive care after suffering a severe stroke. An Iraqi opposition group based in Syria first suggested the president had been taken ill after attending a military parade on Sunday. The Iraqi information ministry described the reports as "stupid". State television later showed footage of the Iraqi leader, apparently fit and well, chairing a cabinet meeting. Mr Battle told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are aware that there are media reports around that Saddam Hussein has suffered a heart attack or stroke but we have no inside information at all confirming these reports. "The regime has got a reputation for manipulating TV images, as we have seen before, and it's in the nature of this closed regime that the information to confirm or otherwise is not available." Cancelled engagements However, he went on, there was reported "circumstantial evidence" including cancelled engagements and previous pictures of Saddam Hussein looking unwell. UK-based Iraqi dissident Dr Mowaffak Al'Rubaie said he is convinced the cabinet meeting footage is faked. Dr Al'Rubaie, who left Iraq when Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979, said there were several peculiarities which suggested the pictures were not genuine. "I've recorded many hours of this kind of footage from Iraqi satellite TV and I'm sure this was shown before, at least two weeks ago. Earlier broadcast "I noticed certain things like the way Saddam moves and turns around to look at a guard at one point. He does the exact same thing in an earlier broadcast." The doctor also said it was strange that the meeting was supposed to have taken place on Wednesday - they were normally held on Saturdays. It was also "well known" that the president has doubles who can make appearances for him, Dr Al'Rubaie added. In his same interview on Today, Mr Battle defended the policy of UN sanctions and UK-US airstrikes against Iraq. The aim was not to unseat Saddam Hussein, Mr Battle insisted, but encourage compliance with United Nations Security Council resolution 1284 providing for the resumption of weapons inspections. "There's one way forward for a positive future for Iraq and it depends upon that UN resolution being accepted by the Iraqi regime." But the government's stance has come under fire from a former UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, Graf Hans von Sponeck In an open letter published in The Guardian newspaper, he attacks resolution 1284 as a "still born creation" for which Iraqis "pay dearly, and daily".

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