"What can those appointed by the occupier offer the people and country other than what the occupier wants?" Saddam asked

BAGHDAD, July 17 (IslamONline.net & News Agencies) – As if U.S. President George Bush and  his war ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair were not having enough hard times at home over charging of cocking or at least exaggerating intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction to make the case for war, ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein joined the chorus of critics blasting the war duo as "liars."

In an audiotape aired Thursday, July 17, by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV on the 35th anniversary of the Baath party seizure of power in Iraq, Saddam reportedly hailed Iraqi towns where U.S. troops have repeatedly come under attack.

He told Iraqis they were one people, be they Sunni or Shiite Muslim, Arab, Kurd or Turkmen.

The speaker, said to be Saddam, lambasted Iraqis appointed by the U.S. forces as being "lackeys" of the American occupier who will not serve their people's interests.

"What can those appointed by the occupier offer the people and country other than what the occupier wants?" Saddam asked in a thinly veiled reference to the U.S. handpicked interim Governing Council.

"How can the people benefit from employees named by the foreign occupiers," he said, charging the council was "made by the will of the foreigners, therefore it is the servant of the foreigner and not a servant of the people."

Meeting Sunday, the council first act was to abolish holidays marked by Saddam's regime and declare the day of Baghdad fall as a national holiday.

Iraqis received the formation of the new council with mixed feelings, but hoped it would be a key milestone to ruling themselves.

The reference to the council indicates the reported Saddam audiotape was new.

The speaker also underlined that the "lies" of Bush and Blair to justify the war on his country were finally being exposed.

"What will the liars Bush and Blair tell their people and mankind, what will the chorus of liars that backed them say, and what will they tell the world after they wove a scenario of lies against Iraq and its leadership?

"(What will they do) after it became clear that what they said were lies and that this was known to the president of the United States and the prime minister of Britain when they decided to wage war and aggression?" Saddam asked.

"In order to save themselves," Bush and Blair were now "trying to blame others" for those lies, he noted.

"What will Arab officials ... say after some jumped on the (U.S.-British) bandwagon and took part in the aggression?"

As with previous messages, the authenticity of the tape could not be verified, though U.S. intelligence sources have said the other tapes appeared to be the voice of Saddam.

The new audiotape comes amid an upsurge in attacks on U.S. troops in Baghdad and to the north and west, which the top U.S. commander in the region, General John Abizaid, described as a guerrilla war.

On June 4, a day after the U.S. put up 25 million dollars for information leading to his arrest, Saddam said he was still inside Iraq and that "Jihad cells" had already been formed "on large scale" across the country to resist the occupation.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Thursday, March 20, called on Iraqis to resist, vowing victory will be theirs just hours after the United States unleashed war.

Saddam's whereabouts have been a mystery since his overthrow by the U.S.-British forces on April 9.