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| Iraq |
| US displays bodies of Saddam sons |
| 2003-07-25 |
| The United States military has allowed TV journalists into a morgue in Iraq to film two bodies said to be Uday and Qusay Hussein, in another attempt to convince Iraqis the men are really dead. Earlier US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defended the release of graphic pictures showing the mutilated bodies of the men the US says are Saddam Hussein’s sons. But even this has left lingering doubts among some Iraqis that two of the old regime’s most feared men were killed when US forces raided a house in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday. May have to let them drag the bodies through the streets. On Friday US military morticians and forensic pathologists told journalists that each body contained more than 20 bullet wounds, but there was no evidence the men committed suicide. The bodies had undergone post-mortem "facial reconstruction", officials told Reuters. "OK, which body does this ear belong too?" Mr Rumsfeld told reporters on Thursday that the decision had not been easy. However, he said, "it’s important for the Iraqi people to see them, to know they’re gone, to know they’re dead and to know they’re not coming back". "I feel it was the right decision and I’m glad I made it," the defence secretary added. After the pictures were shown on Arabic satellite television channels, cars in Baghdad could be heard honking their horns and there was a sustained burst of gunfire. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #8 Now there's a bunch of assorted Arab asshats quoted in this WP article that think displaying the corpses is abhorrent and anti-Islamic! That's right. Displaying the corpses of Muslims is anti-Islamic. Displaying the corpses of unbelievers (as Saddam did to our dead soldiers) probably gets Muslims a ticket straight to paradise. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-7-25 4:41:06 PM |
| #7 Now there's a bunch of assorted Arab asshats quoted in this WP article that think displaying the corpses is abhorrent and anti-Islamic! One clown even mentions the "humanitarian" angle--think of their mother viewing her sons' bodies! Yeah, that Uday sure was a humanitarian--feeding people into giant shredders. His mom must have been so proud. 'Scuse me while I go retch now. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-7-25 4:04:33 PM |
| #6 Moxie.nu suggested that they aren't even (and never were) Saddam's sons. I believe Qusay was, as there's a strong resemblence. Reflecting further, though, Uday looks more like a certain prominent European who happened to have been in Baghdad around the time of Uday's conception. That would certainly explain a lot. We'll know shortly. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2003-7-25 3:17:12 PM |
| #5 The key is really what happens in the next several weeks. Uday and Qusay undoubtedly had stashes of cash they hid even from their most trusted confidants. Their deaths mean that no one can get to this money. If attacks on our guys do not go down, I would suspect that foreign countries are providing money to these guerrillas. Won't affect the final outcome - of our guys taking out the garbage - but the respite they were hoping for may not materialize. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-7-25 11:39:58 AM |
| #4 I find it rather puzzling that the bodies would have been "touched up" in an attempt to make them more recognizable, which would raise questions of an attempt at deception. I've seen enough open-casket funerals and a lot of times the appearance of the person in the box looks markedly different than what they looked like when they were alive. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-7-25 11:21:25 AM |
| #3 'E's not pinin' for Tikrit! 'E's passed on! This Uday is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you didn't 'ave 'im in this morgue 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-UDAY!! |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-7-25 9:52:25 AM |
| #2 More details: But unlike grisly, blood spattered photographs published by the US military earlier, the faces had been touched up and shaved to make them more closely resemble the brothers in life with an US official insisting the aim was not to deceive. "The two bodies have undergone facial reconstruction with morticians putty to make them resemble as closely as possible the faces of the brothers when they were alive," a US military official said. Qusay's uncharacteristic beard, visible in the original US photographs, had been shaved off but a moustache, which he normally wore, had been left. The gaping wound in Uday's face, visible in the pictures, was gone but a hole in the top of his head was still visible to reporters. Businessman Khalil Ali said photographs meant nothing. "They should have been hung up on poles in a square in Baghdad so all Iraqis could see them," he said. "Then they should have died as people ate them alive." |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-7-25 9:28:55 AM |
| #1 US military morticians and forensic pathologists told journalists that each body contained more than 20 bullet wounds, but there was no evidence the men committed suicide. Reminds me of Abu Nidal's untimely end when he accidently emptied a full magazine from his Uzi into his chest. |
| Posted by: Douglas De Bono 2003-7-25 8:52:49 AM |