Vegas radio hosts making waves with Internet tune mocking Saddam

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 5:59 a.m.

LAS VEGAS AP) - A radio station is making waves again on the Internet with a tune mocking Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The calypso-rhythm "Bomb Saddam Song" was produced by the same Las Vegas radio hosts whose "Bin Laden Bomb Song" drew international attention after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The new two-minute cartoon has Saddam sunning himself in a desert, where explosions start and tanks move in while U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell sings, "Hey, Saddam, your tyranny is done."

Backup vocals are provided by line-dancing likenesses of President Bush, his father, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

The "Bomb Saddam Song" was developed by a KOMP-FM morning team that set the "Bin Laden Bomb Song," to the tune of Harry Belafonte's 1956 hit, "The Banana Boat Song (Day (O)-."

Disc jockey "Sweet" Al Miller said that Bin Laden parody and the accompanying animation was downloaded about 50 million times off the Internet.

As of Tuesday, Miller said several hundred people had downloaded the new song over the Internet. He expected that adding video images crafted by an Australian company to give the song a boost.

Some said they were offended by attempts to joke about war.

"This is not a happy occasion. Our troops are dying," said Kalynda Tilges, executive at the Shundahai Network, a Las Vegas-based group that has organized frequent anti-war protests.

"I'm sure it's ridiculously funny," she said. "But it also perpetuates the lie that our children are out there killing other people's children for a good reason."

The song and video include lewd references to Saddam and graphic images of violence. Miller told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that response to the radio station has been overwhelmingly positive.

"A song is not going to make George Bush or anybody else drop a bomb on innocent civilians," the disc jockey said. "If we get a chuckle from an airman or a general, if it helps some of our troops (in the Middle East) and they hear it and they crack up, then it was all worth it."

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