I was stunned when I read this story. After all the fallout from the Newsweek "Koran flushing" article--the Administration releases pics of Saddam in his underwear. This will not only incite the insurgents, but will outrage the entire Moslem world. I can't imagine what the Administration thought they would accomplish--insulting Moslems will not win them over and end the violence.


Pictures show Saddam Hussein in his underwear
Fri May 20, 2005 09:57 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A picture of Saddam Hussein in his underpants was splashed across the front-page of Britain's biggest-selling newspaper on Friday.
The Sun newspaper 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.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LONDON (Reuters) - A picture of Saddam Hussein in his underpants was splashed across the front-page of Britain's biggest-selling newspaper on Friday.
[b]The Sun newspaper 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.[/B]


FOX news claims that the Pentagon is furious about the release of the photos, and they are going to find out who was responsible, admitting that the photos make the US look bad, not Saddam. However, the quote (if it can be proved) from US military sources will blow the Pentagon story apart.

The Pentagon is furious??????

Well maybe they should have thought of that ahead of time!!!!

Yes, Saddam probably has it in his karma to have horrible things happen to him.

But, I for one, am getting sick and tired of the message that this administration is sending to the world.

This is sad....

I agree!!!

One of the problems with the release of the Saddam photos is they are more likely to soften Saddam's image worldwide--making Moslems sympathetic with him. Saddam will no longer be viewed as the strong dictator who murdered thousands--he may now be viewed as a martyr.


Friday, May 20, 2005 10:05 AM CDT
Shiites, Sunnis Protest U.S. Presence
By ABDUL HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI

NAJAF, Iraq - Thousands of Shiites, many waving Islam's holy book over their heads, protested the U.S. presence in Iraq on Friday after the detention of several supporters of a radical cleric, while Sunnis shut down places of worship elsewhere in a show of anger over alleged sectarian violence against the minority.

The U.S. military also launched what it said would be an aggressive investigation into how a British newspaper got pictures of an imprisoned Saddam Hussein clad only in his underwear, saying the photos violated military guidelines and possibly the Geneva convention on the humane treatment of prisoners.

The photos, which appeared on the front pages of the British tabloid Sun and the New York Post and were broadcast across the Middle East by some Arab satellite networks, were expected to fuel anti-American sentiment among supporters of the former dictator who are believed to be the driving force behind the country's insurgency.

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The Shiite protests in the southern cities of Najaf, Kufa and Nasiriyah, came as Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced that he will visit Syria, which has been accused of harboring insurgents bent on starting a civil war in Iraq.

The protests, which drew an estimated total of 6,000 demonstrators in the three cities, followed radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's call Wednesday to reject the U.S. occupation of Iraq by painting Israeli and American flags on the ground outside mosques to be stepped on in protest raids against holy places.

In violence elsewhere, a suicide bombing targeting the house of Iraqi national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, killed two civilians and wounded three in the Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah, police said.

After the explosion, gunmen in the nearby Azamiyah area opened fire at a U.S. base in Kazimiyah on the western side of the Tigris River, witnesses said. The gunmen later fled, they added. Witnesses reported seeing U.S. Apache attack helicopters firing rockets into the neighborhood.

A U.S. soldier also was killed early Friday in a vehicle accident caused by roadside bomb attack near Taji, 10 miles north of Baghdad, the military said. At least 1,628 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Al-Sadr's call for protests was made a day after U.S. and Iraqi forces detained 13 of his supporters during a raid on a Shiite mosque in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Iraqi troops confiscated weapons from the mosque.

Al-Sadr, a burly, black-bearded cleric, launched two uprisings against U.S. forces in Baghdad and Najaf in April and August last year, then went into hiding before surfacing on Monday to demand that U.S.-led forces withdraw from the country.

"From this platform, we warn the government not to fight the al-Sadr movement because all the tyrants of the world could not beat it," Hazim al-Araji, the imam of a mosque in Kufa during Friday;s sermon. "We say to the government do not be a tyrant like Saddam or (former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad) Allawi."

In the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Kufa, al-Sadr followers painted American and Israeli flags on most streets near mosques before stepping on them.

"Down, down Israel; down, down USA," chanted protesters following midday prayers at a Kufa mosque.

In Nasiriyah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, al-Sadr supporters clashed with guards at the headquarters of Dhi Qar provincial governor, Aziz Abed Alwan.

The fighting broke out before noon as about 2,000 members of al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Amy marched toward the cleric's local office, which is near the governor's headquarters.

Armed men guarding the headquarters shot toward the crowd in an apparent bid to disperse it, prompting retaliatory fire from al-Sadr supporters. Four policemen and four civilians were wounded, as were nine al-Sadr supporters, said Sheik al-Khafaji, an official at al-Sadr's Nasiriyah office.

Sunni clerics also delivered fiery sermons in Baghdad and Ramadi, in the volatile Sunni Triangle in western Iraq, repeating a call from three of Iraq's most influential Sunni organizations for the places of worship to be shut for three days to protest alleged Shiite violence against them.

One of those organizations, the Sunni Muslim Association of Muslim Scholars, on Wednesday accused a Shiite militia of allegedly killing Sunni clerics _ a charge the group denied.

Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, were oppressed under Saddam, then emerged from the Jan. 30 elections with the biggest bloc in the National Assembly. They have allied with Kurds, who also were oppressed by Saddam, but have included Sunnis in the government in an effort to ease the minority's discontent over losing power.

The photos showed Saddam standing in his white underwear while holding what appeared to be a brown pair of trousers. In others, he is clothed and seated on a chair doing some washing. The Sun said it obtained the photos from "U.S. military sources."

The U.S. military in Baghdad said in a statement that the photos, which were believed to have been taken more than a year ago, violated its guidelines "and possibly Geneva convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals."

U.S. military spokesman Staff Sgt. Don Dees said an investigation was launched Friday as soon as the military discovered the existence and use of the photographs.

Saddam, who was captured in December 2003, is being held by the U.s. military at an undisclosed location believed to be in the Iraqi capital. He faces charges including killing rival politicians during his 30-year rule, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991. No trial dates have been set.

Aside from U.S. soldiers, those who have access to the toppled dictator include his legal team, prosecuting judge Raed Johyee and officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

ICRC Middle East spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas said use of such photos is "clearly forbidden" and U.S. forces are obliged to "preserve the privacy of the detainee."

In Turkey, al-Jaafari said Iraq would not tolerate foreign fighters crossing the porous desert frontier that separates his country from Syria.

"We will visit Syria some time soon, and one of the issues that will be taken up will be the security file and the prevention of such infiltrations," he said.

A U.S. official said Wednesday that Syria was the site of a key meeting last month in which lieutenants of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were ordered to carry out more attacks in Iraq. More than 520 people have been killed since the country's new Shiite-dominated government was announced April 28. Damascus has not commented on the allegations.

In another development, Iraq and Iran issued a joint statement blaming Saddam and other members of his regime for being the military aggressors in the 1980-88 war between both countries and Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which led to the 1991 Gulf War.

The statement, issued Thursday during Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi's historic trip to Iraq, comes as the Shiite-dominated governments of both countries try to forge better ties following Saddam's ouster two years ago.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

Bush's view on the photos


QUOTE
"But President George W Bush said he did not think the photos would encourage insurgents in Iraq."



Saddam to sue over prison photos

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools...ast/4567341.stm

Saddam Hussein plans to take legal action after a British newspaper published photos of him half-naked in his prison cell and doing his washing.
"We will sue the newspaper and everyone who helped in showing these pictures," said Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer Ziad Al-Khasawneh, speaking from Jordan.

The Sun newspaper said it would fight any legal action and said it planned to publish more photos on Saturday.

The US has launched an investigation into how the photos were leaked.

The US military and legal experts said the photos - possibly taken more than a year ago - may breach Geneva Convention rules on the humane treatment of prisoners of war.
The conventions say countries must protect prisoners of war in their custody from "public curiosity".

Saddam Hussein is being held by US troops at an undisclosed location in Iraq as he awaits trial on numerous charges, including murdering rivals, gassing Iraqi Kurds and using violence to suppress uprisings.

'Aggressive' investigation

The photos show the 68-year-old former leader with a moustache, rather than the beard he sported when he was captured in December 2003, and again when he appeared in court last July.

The Sun's front page showed him wearing a pair of white underpants.

Other pictures show him washing his trousers, shuffling around and sleeping.

The Sun quoted US military sources who said they handed over the pictures in the hope of dealing a blow to the resistance in Iraq.

"It's important that the people of Iraq see him like that to destroy the myth," the paper's source was quoted as saying.

However, several Arab commentators have suggested the photos could increase anti-American feeling in the region.

Khaled al-Maeena, the editor of Saudi Arabia's Arab News told the BBC the photos would be seen as "an insult and an affront".

The Sun's managing editor Graham Dudman defended the decision to publish the images.

"People seem to forget that this is a man who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and all that's happened to him is someone has taken his picture," he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

"This is a sort of modern-day Adolf Hitler. These pictures are an extraordinary iconic news image that will still be being looked at the end of this century."

A statement from the US military said it was "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 US military would "aggressively" investigate, the statement said.

But President George W Bush said he did not think the photos would encourage insurgents in Iraq.

"I don't think a photo inspires murderers. I think they're inspired by an ideology that's so barbaric and backwards that it's hard for many in the Western world to comprehend how they think."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/midd...ast/4567341.stm

Published: 2005/05/20 18:09:42 GMT

Political cartoon

Saddam's Briefs
Tuesday, May 24, 2005

http://www.post-gazette.com/robrogers/default.asp?id=1

I suppose if we'd seen him hanging by his heels from a lamp post like Mussolini it would have made someone feel sorry for him too.