Move over Randi. A psychic in Brazil is claiming he told the US government where to find Saddam Hussein, and now he wants the $25 Million reward:
A Brazilian court will consider a psychic's claim that the United States Government owes him a $US25 million reward for information he says he provided on the hiding place of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
(Snip)
"Jucelino da Luz alleges that the US armed forces only found Saddam based on his letters that provided his exact location, the very hole where he was hiding in Iraq. So he filed a court case to claim the reward."
(Snip)
The court said Da Luz sent letters to the U.S. government from September 2001, describing Saddam's future hiding place -- a tiny cellar at a farmhouse near Tikrit. He never received a reply
It will be interesting to see just how accurate this psychic’s information was. With perhaps thousands of people in the world claiming psychic powers it would have been surprising if none of them had guessed “in a cellar in Tikrit” at some point. (Anyone with access to CNN would know Tikrit was Saddam’s home town.) So how specific was this guy’s information? Does he have notarized documents to prove what he told them, and when, as is claimed in some places? And what else did he tell them that turned out to be false, that he’s “forgotten” about now?
Even so, this guy appears to have done better than Sylvia Browne who predicted Saddam would be found dead. Of course, Sylvia probably already had $25 Million so what does she care? Also better than PsiTech, the group who supposedly bought the US government’s secret Star Gate remote viewing technology after the government stopped using it because remote viewing doesn’t work. So kudos to him, even if his story does eventually turn out to be only part true.
According to the BBC, Saddam was captured after a tip-off “from an individual who had been arrested the previous day in Baghdad”. Psychic powers were not reported to have been involved.
Among her forecasts are the death of Saddam Hussein by the end of this year, a Democratic president elected in 2004, and the possible eruption of the volcano at Yellowstone within the next 3-4 months. "I think the whole thing is gonna blow," she said.
Thanks, Syl. Lotta good you're doing...
Posted by: Rockstar | October 10, 2005 at 06:14 AM
Well, let's see how well she did...
"The death of Saddam Hussein by the end of this year"? I'd say that, at the time, there was about a 50/50 chance of him being found alive or dead, so, a pretty reasonable gamble, but a miss.
A Dem elected in 2004? Again, 50/50, a good wager, but another miss.
"Possible" eruption of Yellowstone? Not really a prediction, since either way, she is right.
...why do people actually believe these crackpots again?
Posted by: ExtinctInstinct | October 10, 2005 at 10:30 AM
I may be wrong, but I thought I'd heard something on how the "Saddam in a hole" bit was PR, and that he was nearby but not in the hole. I didn't pay attention at the time, since it was not important to me, but IF it is true, that might negate the psychics claim that he was found in a hole.
Re Sylvia Brown, I heard her on Coast to Coast (yeah, I'm a glutton for morons), and nearly drove off the road from rolling my eyes when she said we didn't land on the moon "and not just because my guide told me". Definitely rubber-room time.
Posted by: badger3k | October 10, 2005 at 12:01 PM