Dead or Alive

[davefoc]

Is Hussein dead or alive. Pick the percentage closest to the odds where you'd be undecided whether to bet dead or alive.

My own cut at this is that it's really strange we don't know definitively, so I'm leaning to dead. But maybe Hussein is just screwing with us or maybe the US government is. Who knows.

[Denise]

I think he's dead.

[Thumper]

Alive, but injured in an obvious place like the face.

But good question.

[schplurg]

Think he's alive, hope he's not.

70%+

[subgenius]

A cruise enema. (Wishful thinking)

[BillyTK]

Dead or Alive released a coupla storming pop songs in the eighties but Pete Burn's lips seem to have grown in inverse proportion to write any hits, imo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/extremecosmetics/images/peteburns.jpg

[Ian Osborne]

I think he's alive, because Iraq would crumble without him. You just can't be that powerful for that long and then suddenly disappear without the aparatus of government falling apart behind you.

[Pyrrho]

Go ask Psi Tech.

[ShowMe]

Originally posted by Ian Osborne
I think he's alive, because Iraq would crumble without him. You just can't be that powerful for that long and then suddenly disappear without the aparatus of government falling apart behind you.

It's only been a week. A government can certainly cruise under its own momentum for a bit longer than that, especially in a dictatorial society.

I did receive this in an e-mail today, i thought it was funny:

All of Sadaam Hussein's doubles are called into a room. They're told there is some good news, and some bad news.

The good news is that Sadaam is still alive. The bad news is, he lost an arm.....

[Philip]

Read the the thread that I started here:
http://www.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16313

Watch Saddam's speech and vote on whether you think it was recorded before the attack on his bunker.

[PygmyPlaidGiraffe]

I can not determine if Saddam is alive or dead but I do know one thing for certain:

From watching his address to the Iraqi people and combatants I have observed that Saddam has successfully attained PODIUM CAPABILITY.


Bush's administration has maintained for a while now that Saddam's Regime was approaching PODIUM CAPABILITY. The administration now has definitive proof that within the last week or so the near impossible task has been completed by Iraqi scientists.

Countries such as France and Russia doubted that a single Podium would ever be found in Iraq.
Russian statesmen contend that the so-called "podium" that Saddam stood behind was a nothing but an elaborate doctoring of footage by the Americans.


Podiums, as we all know, are chic and essential for spokespersons, CEOs, leaders of democratic nations, and the floors of stock exchanges. They are also essential for the sole purpose of CNNs cameras to have something to focus on while waiting for a spokesperson to approach one to give a much anticipated press release.

North American viewers are quite familiar with the standard PODIUM. CNN viewers have been known to comment in a recent poll: "The White House podium is real nice, I can sit in front of the TV and be placated by its simple yet elegant, functional form for hours."

In a bold move Saddam, without first thoroughly and rigourously testing it, delivered the speach from a PODIUM, shocking the world.

A thorough investigation needs to be done to determine
whom or what siditious group gave the Regime the plans (the US had long suspected the Iraqis lacked the technology and scientific know how to develop a podium on there own) to develop it's own PODIUM.


An effort needs to be made to destroy Iraqs ability to create more podiums.

Saddam is suspected of using the Oil for Food program to fund the development of the PODIUM. A United Nations spokesperson, despite not standing behind a podium to give her statement added weight, stated "The Iraqi people need nourishment and water, not PODIUMs."

This is PPG reporting

From the Veldt.

[PygmyPlaidGiraffe]

As time goes by won't this affect people's responses as this poll becomes dated. I know the war has only been going on 8 days at time of this post so this question would have very different responses on Wednesday than on Friday. The question becomes irrelevant quite quickly in the perspective of 24 hour war coverage.

[dingler44]

I believe he's alive.

Everytime the MEDIA gives us a 2nd-hand story of what LIMITED INTEL has been revealed... I scoff. (and I think it's pathetic how the media clings to these reports like children to a shiny rock they found in their backyard)

Not only is the intel either unverified or inconclusive, the very notion of intel is vague.

Since intel is something our government has gathered that we couldn't possibly find out ourselves - couldn't the government just say whatever they want and call it unverified intel? Yes!

I believe the US wants to try and improve support for this war by suggesting to us with its carte blanche "limited intel" that Hussein has been injured or killed... implying that the war will end sooner.

(personally, I think it's very rash for people to assume Iraq would collapse after Saddam's death, maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't)

[davefoc]

PygmyPlaidGiraffe,
I agree completely, new information is coming in all the time that effects peoples view on this issue. I limited the poll to 5 days to sort of deal with that. But if other people that took the poll are like me their view of this has changed substantially during the last several days. I thought there was only about a 30% chance that he was alive after the press conference with the fat guy that may or may not have been Hussein and that may have been conducted before or after the bombing, but now I'm up over 70% that he's alive. Mostly I'm basing my thoughts on the idea that the US government has been saying he's probably alive for the last few days.

I thought Thumper's theory about serious injury might be right. Maybe he did the voice for that first press conference but they used a double for the picture because he was in such bad shape. Maybe that's too far fetched to even consider, I don't know.

ShowMe's joke gets my vote for the best joke I've read in this forum, thanks for passing it on. I've told it several times now. The reactions are a little strange because people don't get it right away and then all of a sudden they're laughing out loud.

pyrrho2000,
That was a good suggestion about PsiTech. I emailed them the question this morning, but haven't gotten a response yet. I don't know why the media wastes time on all this speculation when they could just call in somebody like them to really pin this down.