Tape: Saddam's deputy sees end of US military presence in 2008
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Saddam Hussein's former deputy predicted that US troops will leave Iraq by the end of 2008, according to an audio recording broadcast Tuesday by the Dubai-based television network, Al-Arabiya.
A voice purportedly to be Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri speaking in Arabic said that the year 2008 "will be the final and decisive year for the American presence in Iraq."
President George W. Bush "should leave Iraq and disclose the real casualties of the American troops in the last years," the voice added.
In the excerpts aired by Al-Arabiya, al-Douri also scoffed at the Bush administration for ignoring the Iraqi resistance, a reference to his dissolved Baath Party.