More Saddam Photos Revealed

A British tabloid published more revealing photographs of Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody on Saturday, a day after it ran a front-page picture of the former Iraqi leader naked except for 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 white robe-like garment, and another of Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali," in a bathrobe and holding a towel.

The tabloid also ran prison pictures of the woman known as "Chemical Sally" who was Saddam's WMD chief, reports CBS News Correspondent Larry Miller.

The photos were certain to offend Arab sensibilities and heap more scorn on an American image already tarnished by the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison and allegations by Newsweek, later retracted, about 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."

The Sun said the photos were provided by a U.S. military official it did not identify who hoped their release would deal a blow to Iraq's insurgency. 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 British pounds, which is about $900.

The New York Post, which is also owned by Murdoch, also published the photos on Friday.

The U.S. military in Baghdad said the publication of the photos violated U.S. military guidelines "and possibly Geneva Convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals."

"Publishing the type of pictures of Saddam Hussein that appeared in both U.S. and British newspapers may be politically embarrassing but it also is a clear violation of the Third Geneva Convention which deals with Treatment of Prisoners," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk, who is an international law professor.

"The Geneva Convention has several provisions that were created to govern prisoner treatment against this type of mockery, regardless of the character of the prisoner," said Falk. "This type of photograph violates international law and plays into the hands of critics of U.S. policy."

A spokesman, Staff Sgt. Don Dees, said the military would question the troops responsible for Saddam.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S. military officials in Iraq believe the photos are "dated" — perhaps more than one year old, although no specific date has been established.

"This is something that should not have happened," Whitman said.

Army Maj. Flora Lee, Multinational Forces spokeswoman in Baghdad, said the photos could have been from January 2004 to April 2004, "based on the background of the photos and appearance of him."

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.

Lee would not confirm an NBC report citing Pentagon sources that Saddam was moved to a different cell in another location and that the photos were taken by 24-hour surveillance cameras.

Aside from U.S. soldiers, the only others with access to Saddam are his legal team, prosecuting judge Raed Johyee and the International Committee for the Red Cross, which monitors his treatment for compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

"Taking and using photographs of him is clearly forbidden," ICRC Middle East spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas said. U.S. forces are obliged to "preserve the privacy of the detainee."

Alongside the photo of Saddam in Saturday's editions, The Sun ran photos of a man and a 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, who allegedly developed bio-weapons for Saddam.

The man, grizzled and gray, is shown hunched wearing a bathrobe, leaning on a cane and holding a towel as he rises out of a chair. The woman can be seen wearing a headscarf, walking outdoors and looking forlornly in the distance.

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

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."

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."

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."