http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?
type=topNews&storyID=2641033&src=eDialog/GetContent

Report: Aziz Tells Interrogators Saddam Is Alive
Mon April 28, 2003 07:34 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq's former deputy prime
minister, Tareq Aziz, has told U.S. interrogators that
Saddam Hussein survived two air strikes launched to
kill the ousted Iraqi president, USA Today reported on
Monday.
But the newspaper also quoted a senior defense
official as saying that interrogators had concluded
that Aziz was lying about other matters that had come
up in questioning. Aziz, who is being questioned at an
undisclosed location, said he saw Saddam alive after
the March 19 and April 7 air strikes on Baghdad
targeting the former Iraqi leaders and his two sons,
USA Today said, citing the senior defense official.

Aziz, the most recognizable of the 13 former Iraqi
officials known to be in U.S. custody, surrendered to
U.S. forces last Thursday. He was No. 43 on the U.S.
list of 55 most-wanted members of Saddam Hussein's
administration.

U.S. officials have said the fate of the toppled Iraqi
president remains unknown amid mixed reports about
whether Saddam was dead or alive. If he is alive,
Saddam would mark his 66th birthday on Monday.

U.S. war commander Gen. Tommy Franks said on Sunday
Aziz was providing a lot of information to U.S.
intelligence interrogators. He did not elaborate.

"What we don't know is the veracity of it. It will
take time," Franks was quoted as saying.

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