I was not impressed. The video was introduced by the Minister of Information, who told us to wait for an important and "historic" speech from Saddam. It then cuts to the - what's it called - station ID playing the national anthem for a least a couple of minutes. Only then do we get to the actual video.

A couple of things struck me about it. If the translation was right, Saddam refers to the invasion starting "today"; of course, the video was being shown several days after the start of the invasion. Also, lots of names were thrown out, but nothing specific. He did mention Umm Qasr and there has been strong resistance there, but he made no specific reference to that. Finally, he made no mention of the American POWs, a sure way to alert the world that he was alive and in control.

The CNN pundit (with one of those sneering British accents Lileks has been talking about) seemed overly impressed. She was certain that this proved Saddam was alive. After all, he mentioned Umm Qasr and Mosul! (Though nothing specific about Mosul.)

A different idea sprung into my mind: This was a tape created before the start of the war. A number of different tapes were created at that time, each with a different set of names and places. After the start of the war, the tapes with the most relevant names could be played. It would be kind of a propaganda mix tape. In a few days we'll probably get another tape full of vague references to current events but nothing specific.

"Led his country in confrontation the aggression launched by 33 countries led by US. which waged war against Iraq, the Iraqis' confrontation of which is called by Arabs and Iraqis as the Battle of Battles (Um Al-Ma' arik) , where Iraq stood fast against the invasion, maintaining its sovereignty and political system. "