U.S. investigates tabloid’s Saddam photos

Bush: Photos won't inspire insurgents
President Bush said he didn’t think the images would energize the insurgents, thought to be led by Sunni Arabs who were favored under Saddam’s regime but largely excluded from the new Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.

“I don’t think a photo inspires murderers,” Bush said. “These people are motivated by a vision of the world that is backward and barbaric.”

Later, however, White House press spokesman Trent Duffy said the photos could be perceived by members of the insurgency in much the same way as revelations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib.

“This could have serious impact, as we talked about, with the revelations of prisoner abuse,” he said. “What the United States did in both of those situations, however, is recognize that, take immediate steps to investigate and get to the bottom of why it happened and how it happened and take steps to make sure that ... people are held to account.”

Strong opinions
The photos did not provoke much of an outcry across the Middle East on Friday, when businesses are shut and people take the day off and try to avoid the news.

But those who did notice expressed strong opinions when questioned.

In Dubai, Sabine Hajj, a 25-year-old Lebanese, said the pictures were “shameful and controversial. It’s an insult to human beings, regardless of who he is or what he did. This is a breach of privacy.”

Rawad Nasr, a 30-year-old Jordanian salesman, said the pictures were “shocking.”

“Regardless of what he did, they shouldn’t have been published. This is an insult to humanity, and whoever published them must be prosecuted,” Nasr said.

In Bahrain, Ali Yousef, 21, said he “cracked up” when he saw the pictures.

“I don’t care about Saddam, he was a ruthless dictator and he deserves worse,” Yousef said.

Charges against Saddam include killing rival politicians during his 30-year rule, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991.

Iraq’s planning minister, Barham Salih, said Friday the chief justice of the special tribunal in charge of prosecution in Baghdad had told him that “within the next few months Saddam Hussein could be brought before the court.”

Earlier outcry
It is not the first time there has been an outcry over images of Saddam.

Pictures and video images of Saddam being examined by a medic after his arrest were widely criticized. A top Vatican cardinal, Renato Martino, said American forces treated the captive Iraqi leader “like a cow.”

But Duffy, the White House spokesman, said Friday that the military had released the photos after the arrest “to demonstrate to the Iraqi people and the insurgents that Saddam Hussein was in fact in custody, which we believed was important to help quell the insurgency.”

Although Arab television networks broadcast the pictures of naked or semi-clothed prisoners being abused by American forces at Abu Ghraib, at least one — Al-Jazeera — chose not to air the Saddam photos.

Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said the network didn’t show them for ethical and professional reasons. “The photo is demeaning to Iraqis,” he said, adding: “from a professional side, it is not news.”

“There is a big difference, because the pictures were the news in Abu Ghraib,” he said.

Dudman, The Sun’s managing editor, defended the decision to print the pictures.

“They are a fantastic, iconic set of news pictures that I defy any newspaper, magazine, or television station who were presented with them not to have published,” he said. “He’s not been mistreated. He’s washing his trousers. This is the modern-day Adolf Hitler. Please don’t ask us to feel sorry for him.”

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