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Iraqi leader everywhere, yet nowhere

AFP, Dubai
Saddam Hussein is everywhere in Iraq, beaming out from street corners and offices, newspapers and television screens, but he is also nowhere to be found, as his people can bear witness.
US and British intelligence trying to locate the Iraqi president, let alone determine if he has been wounded or even killed, face a foe who is a past master at deception.
Stories of multiple doubles, deep underground bunkers, decoy convoys and the like swirl around the Iraqi leader who has developed a legendary paranoia with personal security.
Given past reports of numerous coup attempts, the brutal violence of the Baath regime, and previous US efforts to target Saddam, his fears may be justified.
The snap bid to "decapitate" Saddam and his high command precipitated rather than prevented Gulf War II on Thursday.
An anonymous British official told the BBC he was dead, but US officials now seem to be groping in the dark again.
Hopes that surgical Tomahawk missile strikes at least injured Saddam receded after a series of statements from senior Iraqi officials that the president and his family had again escaped.
Repeated television footage of Saddam and statements attributed to him promising "victory" and urging Iraqis to resist to the death did nothing to help the US case, even if they are far from convincing evidence of his survival.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the "shock and awe" attack on Baghdad only began
Friday night after the administration failed to find out whether Saddam was alive and it was evident he was not going to quit Iraq.
US officials still believe Saddam is losing his iron grip and see him as vulnerable to attack either because of intercepted communications or spies in his inner circle, a message the first strikes were also intended to convey.
US intelligence has reported a marked decline in communications between the senior leadership and military commanders.
After the first firestorm, the question of Saddam's whereabouts remains at the centre of the conflict as the United States conceded there was "no concrete evidence".
Paradoxically, a huge personality cult in Iraq has raised Saddam to the status of everyman -- his smiling portrait dressed as a judge, a tourist,
a soldier or of course a benign president, stares down everywhere across the country.
Yet the only time Iraqis get to see their "great leader" move is in regular television footage from meetings with senior aides. Where or when such tape is recorded is never revealed.
After becoming famous for unannounced visits to his people, including simple villagers, public appearances have become increasingly rare -- the last was in January 2001 -- and he has not travelled abroad since before the 1991 Gulf war.
The 2001 appearance at a huge military parade in Baghdad saw Saddam fire off a shotgun held in one hand, defying rumours he was riddled with cancer and dying.