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Bush pledges probe into Saddam pictures
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-20 23:53
LONDON Agencies- Washington promised an investigation on Friday into how
pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underpants were splashed across the front-page
of Britain's biggest-selling daily newspaper.
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man reads the British tabloid newspaper The Sun in London May 20, 2005.
The paper carries a front page picture showing imprisoned former Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein in his underpants and has other pictures inside of
various aspects of his life in prison.
[Reuters] | The imprisoned former Iraqi leader
appeared on the front of the Sun, naked except for a pair of white briefs and
holding a pair of trousers in his hand.
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 mustache,
washing clothes by hand and asleep on his bed.
The photos later appeared in the New York Post. Both papers are owned by
Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch.
A U.S. military statement said the pictures might be a year old. They
contravened Saddam's rights as a prisoner and could have broken the Geneva
Convention, the military statement said.
"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.
The White House said President Bush had been told of the pictures and
"strongly supports the aggressive and thorough investigation that is already
under way."
Saddam's lawyers expressed outrage. 
"In our opinion this is a violation of all international agreements and human
dignity, therefore we must sue the people responsible and the providers of these
pictures, because if you look closely you can see that they were taken from his
prison cell," lawyer Ziad Khasawneh of Saddam's defense team said.
"This is considered as another Abu Ghraib and we will take the necessary
legal actions which we have already started," he told Reuters in Amman.
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
short court appearance last year, no images of Saddam have been made public
since then.
Saddam is expected to stand trial 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 aging 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 by 9 foot (3.6 by 2.7 meter) cell, watched 24
hours a day on closed circuit television by special forces and military police.
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.
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