Posted on 05/20/2005 9:43:31 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Fri May 20, 8:45 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - A picture of Saddam Hussein in his underpants was splashed across the front-page of the Sun on Friday.
The Sun quoted U.S. military sources as saying they had handed over the pictures "in the hope of dealing a body blow to the resistance in Iraq".
Other photographs showed Saddam, with short, dyed-black hair and a moustache, washing clothes by hand and asleep on his bed.
But a U.S. military statement said the pictures might be a year old, contravened Saddam's rights as a prisoner and could have broken the Geneva Convention.
"Multi-National Forces-Iraq is disappointed at the possibility that someone responsible for the security, welfare, and detention of Saddam would take and provide these photos for public release," the statement said.
"This lapse is being aggressively investigated to determine, if possible, who took the photos, and to ensure existing procedures and directives are complied with to prevent this from happening again," it said.
Toppled from power in the U.S. war in Iraq in April 2003, Saddam was captured hiding in a small underground bunker in December of the same year. Apart from a brief court appearance last year, no images of Saddam have been made public since then.
Saddam is expected to stand trial in next year on charges of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. If he is found guilty he could face the death penalty.
"Saddam is not superman or God, he is just an ageing and humble old man," The Sun quoted the military source as saying.
"It's important that the people of Iraq see him like that to destroy the myth. Maybe that will kill a bit of the passion in the fanatics who still follow him.
"It's over, guys. The evil days of Saddam's Baath Party are never coming back - and here's the proof," the source said.
The newspaper said the pictures were taken at a top secret location where Saddam was being held in a 12-ft by 9-ft (3.6-m by 2.7-m) cell, watched 24 hours a day on closed circuit television by special forces and military police.
It is not the first time pictures of U.S. detainees in Iraqi jails have been leaked to the media.
A year ago graphic photographs of the abuse of detainees in the notorious Abu Ghraib jail outraged world opinion and were described as the best recruiting campaign for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Abu Craib rerun yawn.
They once asked Clinton if he wore Boxers or Jockeys, at least they wont have to ask Saddam.
IMO the Sun somehow got hold of these pictures, saw a chance to embarass the US and ran with it, The story that the US military gave these pictures to them is so much horse dung.
so he was getting changed....With all the hoopla about it I was expecting something worse.
At least the underwear isn't on his head....
I DO have to ask:
WHY is he being supplied with "Just For Men"?
Let the Arab world see him as he really IS: a broken-down old despot!
Some will.
count on it.
YUCK!
Looks like he's lost a little weight!
Saddam in his underwear!
I guess that justifies World War III.
News at 6.
Here's hoping the future will find Saddam as well hung as he appears in this picture.
The press ain't gonna be dictated to by a Repub President who is an idiot!
So now it's all-out war and the press is going to print as many articles as they can to embarrass this President......our national security and the troops be damned!
Too bad this isn't WWII...FDR would throw their arses in the pokey.
No doubt it's another disgruntled Clinton holdover in the Pentagon.
Look at the pic closely. He's supposed to be a prisoner. Why is there a lock on the inside of where he is? Am I wrong or does it look like he could just let himself out of the room?
Did we learn from Abu Graib that the "most humiliating thing" you could do to a Muslim was to show them in their underwear? Or was it flush the Koran in their presence? Or was it taking orders from a woman? I forget.
Sort of like how the press tells us that the "most humiliating thing" you can do to a black man is call him "boy"? Or was it spit in his face? Or confirm Janice Rogers Brown? I forget which because they keep changing it to fit whatever outrage is in the storyline for that week.
Bottom line, there must be hundreds of "most humiliating things" the press can make up and get a few of their lib toadies to agree with.
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