http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.a...E25440,00.html
IRAQ
back PRINT-FRIENDLY VERSION EMAIL THIS STORY
Next stop Syria for exiled Saddam
28mar03
SADDAM Hussein has made extensive preparations to flee Iraq – and has already smuggled his family out to Syria.
He has also been selling off property and valuables to raise millions for his exile.
Just days before the bombardment of Baghdad began, Saddam's first wife Sajida – mother of his heirs Uday and Qusay and daughters Raghad, Rana and Hala – fled to Damascus with three lorryloads of possessions and 60 bodyguards.
They are staying with Iraq's ambassador to Syria, Saddam's former protocol minister Haitham Rashid Wihaib told newspapers in London.
The news will heighten speculation that Saddam's regime may be about to crumble.
Several of his most senior lieutenants, including his deputy Tariq Aziz, have also sent their families on ahead to Syria before the fall of Baghdad.
The Iraqi leader has an aircraft on stand-by 24 hours a day to fly him out of the country. The pilot will be Raad al-Tikriti, son of his former minister of defence.
The families were able to slip away because they had been staying close to the border for several weeks, avoiding allied monitoring of movements from Baghdad.
They had originally planned to flee to Amman in Jordan – "Iraq's second capital" – where many senior members of the Iraqi regime have homes and bank accounts. But Saddam does not trust the Jordanians, who have let US troops into the country.
"He knows it is only a matter of time before he is defeated and he has made sure that everything is in place for a very comfortable exile," Mr Wihaib said.
If his escape route is cut, Saddam wants his most trusted bodyguards to kill him.
"Saddam will never be captured alive," Mr Wihaib added.
Mr Wihaib also revealed that Saudi diplomats acting as middlemen told the US that Saddam would leave Iraq – if Qusay was allowed to take over. President George W. Bush flatly rejected the deal.