Dueling Intelligence

The fact that British intelligence sources believe Saddam Hussein survived Monday’s bombing has been widely trumpeted; on the other hand, the Washington Times reports that “[m]ultiple U.S. intelligence sources saw Saddam Hussein enter a building in Baghdad on Monday and not emerge before four 1-ton Air Force bombs destroyed it, government officials said yesterday….The CIA [was described] yesterday as being ‘in a state of euphoria.’ ‘They say there is no doubt he is dead,’ said a U.S. military official on the condition of anonymity.”
So we’ll see whose intelligence service has the best information. But President Bush is right when he declines to be drawn into the “Is he dead yet?” speculation, rightly noting that the main point is that Saddam is no longer tyrannizing Iraq. If he isn’t dead yet, he soon will be; and if not dead, then hiding ignominiously until he is caught and dragged before an Iraqi tribunal. Saddam–unlike, say, Idi Amin–will not spend his twilight years in the south of France.