WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Saddam cancer fear spurs rivals BY MICHAEL THEODOULOU AND GILES WHITTELL Links PRESIDENT Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the world's most resilient leader, is seriously ill and thought to have cancer, according to reports from Baghdad. Word of his deteriorating health will intensify a power struggle between his two sons and undermine the myth of invincibility that he has carefully fostered during two decades of autocratic rule. "We know Saddam is unwell and understand it may be cancer, but we don't know how bad it is or how long he can go on for," an Iraqi businessman in Jordan said. Other well-connected Iraqi travellers, who are not connected to opposition groups, have made similar claims in recent days. Ordinary Iraqis, too, have been speculating about Saddam's health since he made a far shorter than usual address to his countrymen last week to mark the 32nd anniversary of the coup that brought his Baath Party to power. He did not refer directly to his long stand-off with the West and spoke in almost mystical terms, comparing the Baath revolution to "the smile of a baby, the prayer of a hermit and rain falling on parched land". Dressed in a dark suit and tie for the televised speech, the 63-year- old Iraqi leader appeared haggard but there were no other signs of illness. His hair, as usual, was dyed a virile jet black. Rumours that Saddam has cancer have circulated before but have proved impossible to confirm, given the secrecy of his regime. The Iraqi leader has always prided himself on a healthy lifestyle. He once ordered Cabinet ministers to lose weight and took a well-publicised dip in the Tigris River to demonstrate his political buoyancy during a period of tension with the West. The unconfirmed reports of his deteriorating health came as President Putin welcomed Tariq Aziz, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, to the Kremlin yesterday to discuss the lifting UN sanctions. Proceeds from oil smuggling in the past ten years have ensured that the regime remains immune from the suffering caused by sanctions. There is little organised opposition within the country and Saddam's Western-backed exiled opponents remain weak. Assassination attempts, coup plots and an uprising in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War failed to unseat him. Any succession in the Iraqi regime is unlikely to be as smooth as that in neighbouring Syria after the death in June of President Hafez al-Assad. The reins of power in Damascus were passed uncontested to his son, Bashar, a British-trained eye doctor. The rivalry between Saddam's sons is compounded by his reluctance to make clear which one will succeed him. Uday, 36, is portrayed by defectors as a torturer, serial rapist and killer. The less mercurial Qusay, 34, controls the intelligence and security apparatus. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! ****************************************************************************** ******************* A vote for Bush or Gore is a vote to continue Clinton policies! A vote for Buchanan is a vote to continue America! Therefore a vote for Gore or Bush is a wasted vote for America! Don't waste your vote! 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