posted
US soldiers sold pictures of the jailed Saddam Hussein in his underwear: Now,
quote:Saddam to sue over prison photos
The Sun says this is an "extraordinary iconic news image"
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.
These pictures are an extraordinary iconic news image that will still be being looked at the end of this century
Graham Dudman The Sun
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."
___________________ AJ Posts: 44 | Registered: May 2003
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Thanks to those pictures in the Sun, we all now know that there is a manual for the treatment of a US president should he ever be captured by his enemies. Note, I said his enemies, not necessarily the enemies of his country.
Posts: 449 | Registered: Mar 2001
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For our african standards still very humane treatment of prisoner. It is not pictures of saddam being tortured but just him washing his clothes. Iminently more embarrasing where pictures of saddam the coward, cowering in his hole in the ground, looking unkept and dirty like and animal.
___________________ Biafra is inevitable.Illegitimis nil carborundum. Posts: 760 | From: europe | Registered: Jan 2005
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That will never happen. Remember this... the world has not seen us on a "real" war footing since 1945. At a certain point Americans will throw caution to the wind and all hell will break loose like you have not seen in your lifetime. A fulfillment of your words will without fail bring that about. I'm talking about unlimited war. Trust me...you don't want that. No sane person does. Perhaps a few muslims do, but no sane ones, if there are any.
___________________ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves... Posts: 665 | Registered: Nov 2004
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"Remember this... the world has not seen us on a "real" war footing since 1945."--- MultipleGreg
First of all, what does an Okoro man like you mean by "us?" Please, drop it. We are not buying the "I am an American" bit anymore; it is old and worn out. You are just another confused Igbo man stranded abroad.
Second, the only genuine victory America participated in in WWII was in France, the sissy invasion of Normandy. And Normandy was a joint operation involving many countries. It was the Russians that smashed Germany and captured Hitler's bunker. Look how America was handily defeated in Vietnam, and is now bogged down in Iraq, even when no one is helping Iraq. Look how America could not win the war in Korea. When the whole world goes to war and wins, America declares that it won the war alone. Let us see them win one alone against a real army and a real country.
I can bet you that China will defeat the US in a war. Unless it is a nuclear war, which no one will win. When America is not using weapons of mass destruction, it does not know how to fight and win. So, will "your" America nuke the prison where the president is being held?
What did Ronald Reagan and America do when a Russian president ordered a plane carrying a US senator, Senator MacDonald, shot down in broad daylight killing the senator and hundreds of passengers? Oh! I forgot, they increased the amount of sanctions on Cuba. To talk about America fighting an "unlimited war" is absolutely childish because America will be defeated just weeks after the war starts.
[ May 23, 2005, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: Ahmed ]
___________________ Long live Arewa Posts: 32 | Registered: Mar 2001
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I’ll continue to call the shots as I see it without fear, prejudice or favor.
Much as I'm not a fan of saddam, I believe it was wrong for this photo to have been taken. There's absolutely no need for it especially since our adopted country, U.S. would want the world to believe that they're more civil than the entire universe. I said it before and will repeat here that the U.S. hypocrisy, empty arrogance and daily noise is their major flaw and this picture affirms that. What happened to the one-sided Geneva bulls..t? I guess it only applies when a private in the U.S. military is captured then the shouts and scream of how not to treat a war captive engulfs the air?
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2483 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
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