More Saddam pics released
2005-05-21 12:59
Baghdad - A British tabloid published more revealing photographs of Saddam Hussein in United States custody on Saturday, a day after it ran a front-page picture of the former Iraqi leader naked except for his underwear.
Some Iraqis expressed anger, but US President George W Bush said he did not think the images would incite further anti-American sentiment.
The new pictures published in The Sun including one of Saddam seen through barbed wire wearing a white robe-like garment, and another of Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali," in a bathrobe and holding a towel.
Alongside Saddam's photo in Saturday's editions, The Sun ran pictures of a man and woman. They were identified as al-Majid, who faces charges for his role in poison gas attacks against Iraq's Kurdish minority, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher dubbed "Mrs Anthrax," who got her nickname for her alleged role in trying to develop bio-weapons for Saddam.
Divided opinions
The man, grizzled and grey, is shown hunched wearing a bathrobe, leaning on a cane and holding a towel while rising from a chair. The woman can be seen wearing a headscarf, walking outdoors and looking forlornly in the distance.
"It is clear that the pictures were taken inside the prison, which means that American soldiers have leaked the pictures," said Saddam's chief lawyer, Ziad al-Khasawneh. He said the photos "add to acts that are practiced against the Iraqi people, and of course we remember what happened in Abu Ghraib and we remember what happened in Guantanamo."
The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch, said the photos it published on Friday and Saturday were provided by a US military official it did not identify who hoped their release would deal a "body blow" to the insurgency.
Sun managing editor Graham Dudman told The Associated Press that the newspaper paid "a small sum" for the photos. He would not elaborate except to say it was more than £500.
The New York Post, which Murdoch also owns, published the photos on Friday.
Saddam's attorney said he would sue the newspaper "and everyone who helped in showing these pictures."
The US military in Baghdad said the publication of the photos violated US military guidelines "and possibly Geneva Convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals."
Saddam, who was captured in December 2003, has been jailed at a complex near Baghdad airport named Camp Cropper, which holds 110 high-profile detainees.
Some Iraqis called the photos the latest in a series of insults to Arabs and Muslims. Others said the humiliation is what the 68-year-old former dictator deserved.
- AP