Two-year-old Ali Hussein is pulled from the rubble of his family's home

All we are missing, is this guy:

In another view, we see some strong resemblances to the GHG (Green Helmet Guy) photos in Lebanon. Notice that the child's body is dirty and rubble covered, but the skin tone looks to be that of a corpse. Compare to the very clean skin of his "rescuer" who is holding him aloft. And notice how crisply clean the rescuer's nice white shirt is for being down in a rubble covered hole, scrabbling for bodies.

And note that neither of the two "rescuers" in this picture seem to have a hair out of place or a spec of the light colored dirt/dust in their black hair. My, I didn't realize how scrupulously clean those Shiite-heads were.

Supposedly, this child was still alive, as the caption states that he died later at the hospital. If he was actually alive when the picture was taken, I doubt the skin tone would be so deathly pallid. Maybe so, but I seem to remember GHG and descriptions of his refrigerated truck that seemed to arrive at every dead child's "rescue" from the rubble, and some stated that his refrigerated truck was used to bring bodies to the scene, not take them away. [sarc]But that couldn't be happening here, of course [/sarc]

I don't doubt that a child who is mortally wounded and in shock would have lost a lot of skin color, but notice there is no evidence of blood anywhere on the child. If he has been buried in the rubble, I would think that there would be a little bit of blood somewhere on the body. Couple that with the pallor of a corpse and who ya gonna believe- the AP or your lyin' eyes?

Good! Ya got it! Seems you and Laz have the same thoughts.

This is by the same photog, Karim Kadeem

Here's another one from the same series, but now Kadim is at the hospital. This guy really gets around!

Notice how the child has absolutely no visible wounds or damage from being pulled from the rubble "in one of four homes allegedly destroyed by U.S. missiles.". No blood to be seen except a little bruising around the jaw line, yet still the deathly pallor, and fully clothed. Are the Iraqi medical facilities so behind the time that they don't even cut off (or remove) the clothes of a trauma victim in the hospital to ascertain the possibility or location of wounds? I know that as a paramedic, I did a LOT of cutting of clothes from trauma victims at the scene, just to make sure exactly what the injuries were and so that nothing was hidden from me. And they don't do this in the hospital there???

According to this other picture from the same series, they do seem to cut off the clothes of an injured victim:

So I guess what I'm sayin' is that the AP photos by Karim Kadim just don't pass the smell test. There are so many things that just don't add up and that all point to them being "staged" for the publicity. I wouldn't doubt at all that the child's body was brought to the scene, and the "rescue" was staged for Kadim, so the AP could provide the world with more anti-US fodder.

But then again, I'm just a former pro photographer, former Paramedic who wouldn't have any idea of how the real world, or at least the AP's world, is. Color me skeptical.

Oh, and by the way, I didn't add the "alleged" in any of my quotes from the AP captions. Those were the AP's words. Maybe they learned something from the GHG staged photos and captions and now are covering their butts with "allegedly's".

Look at the kid in post 22 and post 25. It looks like they could be twins. Even the sandals look the same. Further, the kid in the coffin is wearing clean street clothes. Only martyrs are buried in the clothes they died in and if the consider him a martyr, he would still be further wrapped in a white cloth.

I”n preparation for burial, the family or other members of the community will wash and shroud the body. (If the deceased was killed as a martyr, this step is not performed; martyrs are buried in the clothes they died in.) The deceased will be washed respectfully, with clean and scented water, in a manner similar to how Muslims make ablutions for prayer. The body will then be wrapped in sheets of clean, white cloth (called the kafan).”

Another one a little younger. Looks similar. Different name. Look how happy he seems

Notice the blood in the coffin in post 25. Blood on the right arm, possible pool of blood under the head and blood on the right leg extending up under the clothing. Blood on the stomach, extending up under the clothes. I don't think this is the same child.

The one in #22 has no blood or evidence of external wounds anywhere. The sandals are similar but don't seem to be the same color. The ones in #25 are bright, clean, new - even the soles are clean.

Is that blood on the fingertips of the hand holding the coffin lid?? Or just discoloration of some kind? There is blood on the child, but it seems to have been covered by the clothes, although the clothes don't seem to have blood soaked into them from the wounds. Interesting, no?

Do they actually just unceremoniously dump a child's body into a wooden casket and tack the lid on? No padding, no covering, no wraps? Just let the child rattle around in a big, ol' empty wooden box?

According to your descriptions, I would expect this child's body would be handled differently than just being dumped into an adult sized casket, still bloody but with new clean clothes and sandals on.

All I'm sayin' is that none of this passes the smell test for me.

Thanks, Laz. I was going to go dig (pun intended) those pix up for comparison, but you saved me the trouble. [grin]

I hope you’re right that the scene is staged. Many prayers for this poor child. If he died from disease, his death is just as tragic.

As to the photo, allow me to play devil’s advocate for a moment because you’re going to hear these questions from the other side:

Why is it so hard to believe the photographer, Kadim, went to the hospital, too?

Maybe the child’s wounds just aren’t visible in that photo. And maybe he was declared dead right away before they cut away his clothing and checked for injury.

I can appreciate your experience as a paramedic, but maybe medical clinics in Iraq don’t hold to the same standards that you do here in the U.S.

I hope to find out I’m wrong and that these photos were faked. I would like to believe that this didn’t happen the way the photos suggest. I don’t see a way to prove it, though.

Another one a little younger. Looks similar. Different name. Look how happy he seems

Ah, I'll give 'em a little benefit of a doubt and figure that it could be a grimace of pain by the kid that was caught by the still camera, and just looks like he's likin' it. Still...ya just gotta wonder about the AP.

The kid has what looks like abdominal adipose tissue protruding from his wound. I wouldn't expect such a young child to have a lot of adipose fat. If this is actual abdominal tissue exposed, shouldn't there be a LOT more bleeding associated with it? For exposed abdominal tissue that is protruding out of an abdominal wound? Does there seem to be a similar lack of blood on the bandages/cotton being used?

Again, ol' Kadim seems to have a real in with somebody to be able to get all these pictures, even in a hospital treatment room where they are treating a small child for a protruding abdominal wound, which would really require at least some attempt at a clean, sterile field and area. Which makes me note that none of the hands that are shown, even those holding the bandages/cotton are gloved up. Look at the GHG pix in yours and Laz's posts. Even in the GHG Lebanon photos, some of the rescue guys at the scene had latex gloves on, even the GHG in some photos.

Does anyone know if the hospital ER's in Baghdad are so impoverished, or the medical practitioners so ignorant of sterile procedure, that they don't at least require latex exam gloves to treat an abdominal wound with protruding tissue?

Then again, if I was a terrorist enabler working for the AP, trying to make the US and the US military look as bad as possible, I wouldn't hesitate to grab some young kid, put an ounce or two of hamburger on his stomach to look like a serious wound, then take all the pix I could. Then caption them to blame the US military for killing/wounding innocent children.

But a real, legit, reputable organization like the AP wouldn't stand for anything like that, would they? [/sarc]

That is not a smiling child. He is grimacing in pain and fear. Note the knotted forehead, the lower teeth exposed not the upper, the teeth clenched, the lips are stretched out but not upward, the cheeks are not raised to narrow the eyes as in a genuine smile.

I hope you’re right that the scene is staged. Many prayers for this poor child. If he died from disease, his death is just as tragic.

I agree with all of that. But if his poor, lifeless corpse is being paraded around for the press to use as anti-US propaganda, that is the worst kind of tragic.

Why is it so hard to believe the photographer, Kadim, went to the hospital, too?

Isn't hard to believe at all. I don't doubt that he did. I'm just pointing out the discrepancies and the similarity to staged photos used before by the AP and by this same band of merry photographers, who "just happen" to be exactly on the scene at exactly the right time to get the perfect angle(s) and shots- all the time. It's almost like their scenes were staged so they could take the Pulitzer Prize winning pics. Exactly like they were staged!

Maybe the child’s wounds just aren’t visible in that photo. And maybe he was declared dead right away before they cut away his clothing and checked for injury.

Look at the series of photos. Read the captions that accompanies them. The caption writers have mostly the photographer's notes and descriptions, if not the exact captions, to use when publishing the photos. If they say that the child was pulled alive from the rubble, but died at the hospital an hour later, what else are we to go by? It's the AP's own words!

I can appreciate your experience as a paramedic, but maybe medical clinics in Iraq don’t hold to the same standards that you do here in the U.S.

I don't doubt at all that they may lack the standards of here in the US, but I've been out in the real world. I've pulled bodies out of mangled vehicles, handled gun shot/knife victims, pulled people living and dead out of a lot of different places. There are certain similarities in how bodies bleed, how wounds look, how clothing absorbs blood, how corpses look that are pretty much universal. There is a death pallor of a corpse and then there is the paleness of a living victim who is alive but in traumatic or hypovolemic shock. Trauma looks the same the world over. Once you've seen enough of it, it isn't hard to instantly recognize. Same thing with death.

No, I wouldn't hold a clinic in Iraq to the same standards as a trained EMS tech in the US. But removing clothes to look for compromising wounds on a dying child is clearly not a high standard to hold, nor a stretch of logic for most any medically trained person- even in a clinic in Iraq. Just think, you've got a child, supposedly just pulled from the rubble of a building, who is unconscious and near death. Wouldn't you look under the child's clothes to see if you could find out why? Crush injuries? Closed fractures? Wouldn't you at least remove the clothes to look for wounds? Maybe not. Not if the child was already a corpse and the whole thing was just being staged for the news cameras.

I hope to find out I’m wrong and that these photos were faked. I would like to believe that this didn’t happen the way the photos suggest. I don’t see a way to prove it, though.

I agree, I would love to believe that it didn't happen that way. And in order to "prove" that, you have to do a little objective analysis of what evidence you are given. We are given these photos with the captions that allegedly damn the US military and Iraq military for the "attacks" on "Shiite militants [who] ambushed a U.S. patrol", killing innocent civilians.

If the AP is going to produce these photos (and words) as true and valid documentation and description of the real world in Iraq, then we are fully entitled to scrutinize them in minute detail, and point out any discrepancies between how the real world works and what AP says and shows. I'm just doing my part in pointing out what strikes me, based upon MY real world experiences. And the AP's documented history of faking/staging photos and writing anti-US propaganda.

At this point, I'm more convinced that the little "two year old" was an already dead corpse that was trotted out by propagandists so that Kadim and friends could stage the photos and give the AP more anti-US fodder.

Yup, I'm that skeptical.

Note the knotted forehead, the lower teeth exposed not the upper, the teeth clenched, the lips are stretched out but not upward, the cheeks are not raised to narrow the eyes as in a genuine smile.

All that in response to "say cheese"?

But if his poor, lifeless corpse is being paraded around for the press to use as anti-US propaganda, that is the worst kind of tragic.

Agreed.

I'm just pointing out the discrepancies and the similarity to staged photos used before by the AP and by this same band of merry photographers, who "just happen" to be exactly on the scene at exactly the right time to get the perfect angle(s) and shots- all the time.

You're right, those points should raise suspicion.

Wouldn't you at least remove the clothes to look for wounds? Maybe not. Not if the child was already a corpse and the whole thing was just being staged for the news cameras.

OK, that's food for thought.

I think you may be right. When I first saw it, I thought the boy in post #28 was giggling, smiling a happy smile. But, then I read your post and leaned my head to look at his face from a different angle, and his expression does look more like a grimace, or like he’s crying. The photo is almost like an optical illusion.