Saddam using three body doubles

Saddam Hussein as used at least three men as doubles for public appearances over the last four years, a German forensic pathologist said today .

Dr Dieter Buhmann said that, using new technology, he examined 450 images of people purporting to be the Iraqi dictator from videos of public appearances and was able to determine without a doubt that the Iraqi leader is not always what he seems.

“The anatomical specificity of the faces are different,” Buhmann said. “One, for example, has a very large middle face. The distance from one ear to the other is very much different to Saddam Hussein. And in another case the region under the mouth is too small and not high enough.”

Saddam’s elaborate security precautions have been widely reported in the Arab press, which has said he makes frequent use of doubles and also will never spend two nights in a row in the same building.

Buhmann, a pathologist at the University of the Saarland, said he presented his technique of comparing facial features using overlays at an FBI forum in 2000, but did not know if US authorities had adopted the technique.

He took on the Saddam project for a German public television station.