BAGHDAD, Iraq -- His hat? Kevlar-coated for bulletproofing. His meals? Nibbled by food-tasters first, sampling for poison. And is it really Saddam Hussein anyway -- or one of his many reported doubles, hired to fool would-be assassins?

Contemplating war, Washington has made clear that the U.S. goal in any attack on Iraq would be getting rid of its leader.

But Saddam is taking elaborate steps against being eliminated -- ranging from networks of bunkers, sleeping compartments on wheels, to unusual headgear -- according to those who've dealt with him and Western intelligence agencies.

Unseen among his people since December 2000, the Iraqi leader today appears only on television in very secure settings.

Countless others before the Bush administration have wanted Saddam gone -- official biographies list at least nine assassination and coup attempts against him.

Iraq's wily leader has survived them all, and learned lessons.

"You will have to wait in line to get to me. Thousands are ahead of you wanting to kill Saddam Hussein," he is said to have told an Iraqi tribal leader decades ago.

Now, heading into possible conflict with the United States, Saddam has made his whereabouts a mystery to his own people.

Saddam did not go out in public during last week's referendum vote that extended his military rule for seven years.

The Saddam family avoids motorcades, even well-guarded ones -- relying instead on the anonymity of unmarked cars as they dart among dozens of palaces and family homes.

Saddam goes to great lengths to safeguard himself.

Meals are prepared in each of his palaces, to conceal until the last minute where the Iraqi leader will be dining. Food-tasters sample the dishes.

Visitors to the president are driven about for disorienting hours before arriving at meetings, at mystery locations.

Several Saddam doubles were reported in the 1980s and 1990s -- filling in for the real Saddam during lesser events, and sometimes, reportedly drawing assassin's fire.

Thousands in the security forces are trained just to protect Saddam. Drawn from his world of the Sunni Muslim underclass, they are coached against subversion -- and made to study every coup and revolution of the 20th century.

In the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein rode out the American-led attacks in undisclosed homes of average citizens in Baghdad for many nights -- shunning his own palaces, more visible targets, personal secretary Lt. Gen. Abed Hammeed Mahmoud later wrote.

This time around, many suspect Saddam would hide in Baghdad or in his home turf around the northern city of Tikrit.

Bunkers and surface-to-air missile batteries were seen on the plains outside Tikrit by visiting reporters last week.

U.S. and other Western intelligence agencies point to Saddam's underground military installations and to reports of fleets of trucks with sleeping compartments -- allowing Iraqi leaders to run and hide at the same time.

In "Zabiba and the King," a romance novel believed to have been written secretly by Saddam, the beautiful peasant girl Zabiba reproaches the king for isolating himself from his people behind closed palace doors.

"I, shut myself up, Zabiba?" the King responds. "The guards that you saw aren't here to hold me, but to protect me, and to give me prestige. ..."

"Everything is set up so you don't see anyone," Zabiba says.

"Set up to answer the demands of security and power," the king replies, gently chiding the young peasant.