Red Cross to probe Saddam photo leak

THE US military and the Red Cross have launched an investigation after photos were published in British and American newspapers of an imprisoned Saddam Hussein wearing only his underwear.

The probe was launched over fears the pictures may violate the Geneva Convention.

Britain's The Sun and the New York Post said the photos were provided by an unidentified US military official.

The photos not only angered the US military, which issued a rare condemnation, but were also expected to further fuel anti-American sentiment in a country edging toward open sectarian conflict.

Saddam's chief lawyer, Ziad al-Khasawneh, said his legal team was preparing a lawsuit against The Sun for publishing what he said represented "an insult to humanity, Arabs and the Iraqi people."

"It is clear that the pictures were taken inside the prison, which means that American soldiers have leaked the pictures," he said. "We will sue the newspaper and everyone who helped in showing these pictures."

He said they were part "of a comprehensive war against the Islamic and Arab nations" that included abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and allegations about a Quran desecration at an American prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Sun managing editor Graham Dudman defended the decision to print the pictures and defied any media outlet to have withheld publication.

"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.

Asked to respond to criticism of the decision to publish the photos, Dudman said: "This is a man who has murdered a minimum of 300,000 people and we're supposed to feel sorry for him because someone's taken his picture?"

"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."

The sentiments of people on the streets of Baghdad seemed to reflect the divisions now plaguing Iraq.

"This is an insult to show the former president in such a condition. Saddam is from the past now, so what is the reason for this? It is bad work from the media. Do they want to degrade the Iraqi people? Or they want to provoke their feelings," said Baghdad businessman Abu Barick, 45.

US President George Bush was briefed by senior aides this morning about the photos' existence and "strongly supports the aggressive and thorough investigation that is already underway" to find who took them, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. With that inquiry ongoing, he would not comment on how the pictures may affect the US image abroad.

In coffee shops in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, people watched as some Arab satellite networks showed the front page of The Sun.

In northern Kirkuk, Marwan Ibrahim, a civil servant, said the pictures were a "humiliation for a man who in the near past was the leader of Iraq and a top Arab leader."

The US military in Baghdad said: "The specific issue here is that these images are against (Department of Defence) policy.

"It's not the content of the photo that is the issue at hand, but it is the existence or release of the photos," US military spokesman Staff Sgt Don Dees said.