Mixed Response To Saddam Photos

British Tabloid Releases More Pix Of Hussein In Prison

(CBS/AP)  A British tabloid published more surreptitious photographs of Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody along with two former members of his regime on Saturday, a day after it ran a front-page picture of the former Iraqi leader clad only in his underwear.

The international Red Cross, which is responsible for monitoring prisoners of war and detainees, said the photographs violated Saddam's right to privacy. The U.S. military condemned the publication and ordered an investigation of how the pictures were leaked to The Sun.

Saturday's pictures included one of Saddam seen through barbed wire wearing a traditional white Arab robe known as a dishdasha, and another of Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali," in a dark robe and holding a towel.

The Sun also ran photos of a man and a woman 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 researcher dubbed "Mrs. Anthrax" for her alleged role in trying to develop bio-weapons for Saddam.

"Inside Saddam's Prison," is how The Sun headlined the latest pictures, reports CBS News Correspondent Larry Miller. The Sun says getting a shot of Saddam is like getting a shot of Hitler in his Berlin bunker. But Saddam's lawyers disagree and claim his rights were breached. They have threatened to sue the paper for a million dollars.

The photos have not provoked much of an outcry in the Middle East but raised concerns about offending Arab sensibilities and doing further damage to the American image already tarnished by the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison and a now retracted Newsweek report about the desecration of the Quran at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Saddam's chief lawyer, Ziad al-Khasawneh, said the photos "add to acts that are practiced against the Iraqi people." He said he would sue the newspaper "and everyone who helped in showing these pictures."

Some Iraqis and other Arabs called the photos of Saddam the latest in a series of insults to Muslims. Others, however, said the humiliation is just what the 68-year-old former dictator deserved.

Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said he did not know how the pictures were taken but he did not believe the U.S. military was involved.

"I don't believe that these pictures were taken by the U.S. Army or coalition forces," he told reporters in Baghdad, but he didn't elaborate.

Newspaper coverage varied across the region. Iraq's Al-Mutumar newspaper ran a small front-page picture of The Sun's cover with Saddam in his underwear alongside a short story. The Azzaman published a larger spread featuring the same front page.

The London-based Asharq Al-Awsat devoted its entire front page to a photo of Saddam washing some clothes. The Arab daily said it had permission to use the picture.

Al-Arabiya satellite television station aired footage of the photographs from the newspaper's Friday and Saturday editions, though Al-Jazeera did not, citing ethical and professional reasons.

The photos also were splashed on the front pages of newspapers in Kuwait, where Saddam was despised for his 1990 invasion. A headline in the Al-Rai Al-Aam daily read "Stripped of power and clothes." The Al-Watan newspaper said, "It is the right of those who were tortured by the tyrant to gloat."