Great Stuff!

Thanks AL.

These photos were posted at http://schnittshow.com over a week and a half ago... :)

That last one sure made my day.

Thanks.

Wow great pictures, I'm heading over there in the near future, guess this isn't a pictures I'm going to be able to get.

That first pic - Ace in the Hole - looks like he is seriously drugged, unconscious even.

I'm sorry, but my distrust of America, and American media, is only heightened by these images.

"That first pic - Ace in the Hole - looks like he is seriously drugged, unconscious even"

Or blinked when the photo was taken. Or had some dust in his eye. Or shut his eyes as he knew the game was up.

I'm not saying the above are right, or that you are wrong, Jay. Just that there are many reasons why he might have looked like that for a split second from that angle, through the lens of a camera. Remember that he has not had time to compose himself, like in the last photo. You are reading too much into the picture.

Drugged????
Perhaps that is what deranged madmen look like when they have been on the run, poorly fed, living in unsanitary conditions and recently drug from a hole in the dirt.

I would have preferred that he swallowed a percussion grenade, personally. They leave a nasty aftertaste.

In "Down and Out...", Saddam is showing some serious Bill the Cat.

...after all: even Saddam is a human being and should be treated with a minimum standard of respect. He ain't Adolf and he didn't run Buchenwald.
Does anyone remember that even Pol Pot was treated more generously in his very last days after being discovered ?
If the exhibition of Saddam and his family is part of his punishment, please court-marshal him before.
Until then keep him as POW. That will do !

regards,

Howard

ask a (preferably drunk) marine friend when we had saddam...his answer should be 2 months before it was reported in the news media. if you'll recall, the front page story worldwide in the days before the "capture" was halliburton's (dick cheney's former company, recent winner of billions in no-bid Iraqi contracts) overcharging an absurd amount for fuel. how long do you think it took saddam to grow that beard? do you really think he was in a tiny hole by himself? do you doubt that karl rove or dick cheney (the brains behind the current white house) could and do time events like this to manipulate the unquestioning mass media? all i ask is think it over. oh, and mention this to a marine next time you see one. my experience has been many suprised faces and as of yet not one denial. sleep tight...

"Knowledge",

Given that the unit in the area was the 4th Infantry Division not the Marines, I don't understand why you'd expect them to know anything about it. Which may explain both the surprised looks and lack of denials.

In answer to your questions: about 6 months, some of the time, and not in a foolproof way when the execution depends on all 600 soliders plus a number of news reporters playing along with no leaks and no defections.

If you're going to clutter our comments section with conspiracy theories, at least make them entertaining and plausible.

your "saddam" is a bit TOO skinny and way TOO young, compared to the real thing. by making these pictures available, you are in fact betraying the scam. keep it up.

I personally think this is totally disgusting. Saddam was a tyrant but that does not justify behaving in such an arrogant manner and parading the photographs before the world. Remember the hue and cry when the Iraqis showed pictures of the U.S troops they had killed? In what way is this different? He IS a bad person but when Americans stoop to this level,what ground do we have to praise ourselves?

World Citizen - yes, it does justify it, and I'm proud we published them. If the executives of Enron have to do perp walks on CNN, Saddam can smile for the camera.

Zeyad sure seems to enjoy these pictures, and I'm sure he isn't alone. Just think of them as part of the healing process, reassuring Iraqis that his days are done and showing him as the cowardly little man he is instead of the demigod he built himself up to be.

You may not think that has much value... but have you ever lived in a country like Iraq? Do you really have even the slightest idea what that means? Until you do, maybe you should try to understand their point of view instead of imposing your hegemonic narrative on their liberatory contextualizations. Or something.

"Totally disgusting" is ordering people to be fed feet-first into plastic shredders. Smiling for the camera on a bad hair day doesn't remotely qualify.

After viewing dozens of pictures of the bones, bags, and skulls dug up from mass graves outside of Baghdad, I'm not concerned about a few pictures of Saddam. If we hadn't published them, the Muslim world would be calling the story a lie, and many Iraqi citizens would still be living in fear of his return to power.

Go review those pictures of the bodies of Iraqi citizens, most of them guilty of no crime, even babies buried in those graves, and then tell me we're wrong.

Regarding the "overcharging" for gasolene...have you read about the number of trucks blown up by terrorists in Iraq, drivers burned to death, I think three in one convoy alone. That has to be figured in the costs of transportation. I don't think you'd want a job with Halliburton driving a tanker truck, would you? Al Qaeda knows that targeting the tankers stalls the recovery and hopes to damage the move to restore order and democracy in Iraq. The job ain't easy, and we're doing a lot better than after the war in Europe.
What about the treatment of Kuwaitis after the invasion by Iraq? We're doing a hell of a lot better by far.

As if these photos justify raining bombs on Baghdad, killing and maiming thousands, or the disgusting gloating over the capture of what is a broken man! Like somebody said earlier, Saddam was not Hitler, and was supported by the US during the Iran/Irag war, the casualities of which we now like to use to justify the recent grab for political influence and - oil.

The only thing these photos prove is how prone to hysteria human beings are and loss of all rationale and indeed humanity when their own conscience is at stake.

Winds of Change my foot, more like Idiot Wind followed by a storm of hypocrisy!

If you were actually familiar with what these photos represented (to Iraqis, but also to Iranians, Kuwaitis, and many others) instead of drowning in conspiracy theories and hatred of the USA... yes, as a matter of fact they do make it all worthwhile.

Try reading some Iraqi blogs, it might give you some perspective on your bilious venom. One certainly wishes you had shown half as much solicitude for the hundreds of thousands of people this man tortured and killed as you seem to show for Saddam himself.

Leesa, I agree with you that Saddam is no Hitler. Saddam only killed one to two million Iraqis and as such he hardly qualifies as a bad man. We should slap him on the wrist and apologise for invading his country. Since you obviously don't value the lives of people killed by anyone other than the united states and are completely capable of turning your back on human suffering not propogated by US forces, I propose that we return the butcher of Bagdhad to power so that you can sleep better at night.

Your lack of compassion for the Iraqi people is amazing. I was in favor of the war, knowing full well that innocent people would die, but how many innocent people died under the sanctions? How many innocent people died under Saddam's rule? How many soldiers died in the liberation of Kuwait? Far fewer than died in the second gulf war and the end of the second gulf war was a chance for the Iraqi people to be free from the tyrant who ruled them. The whole situation was miserable and the only right thing to do was to make the decision to remove Saddam himself because it was the only way to make Iraq better.

down and out is the best!! ok, i have to agree with the person who said that it was arrogant, disrespectful, but this is so american..dont get me wrong, its not that i hate you all or something, i think you lack in humility and you will behave like that.i personally have mixed feelings about these pictures.surely, it is some kind of proof. if they hadnt been presented to the public, many of ppl would still believe saddam is still alive.after all why should we care about these images..i was once taken a picture which was later published in a newspaper.no one asked me for the permission :)

Those are very nice pictures to see.

I find it strange that some people always find something to critisize.

Don't like the pictures, don't look. He could have been shown in a far more embarassing situation: with his pants down or on his knees....

I can imagine Iraqi's feel kind of strange seeing the dictator they had to fear and simultaneously admire all their lives "fallen off his throne" - but, non-Iraqi's??? What's the problem? It's not like other fallen dictators/mass-murderers have not been shown to the public in the past, after having been caught or killed. So, why should he be special?

Rant alert. As a former democrat, the liberal left the world over makes me want to throw up with disgust for my piss poor past judgement. How can any human being have more concern and compassion for the bloodiest living man on the planet than he can muster for that man's 28 million victims?

Every Iraqi citizen was his victim. He stole the very food out of their mouths for over 30 years. He stole their money, their assets, their thoughts, their dreams, their homes, their government, their country, their children, their dignity, their lives. He took everything but their humanity and their souls.

Now, these 28 million people can breathe free air because this one man cannot. And the left cries out, "Have more compassion for Saddam. The Americans are arrogant." My GOD, you sicken me.

History has seen too many of the genocides your brand of selective compassion produces. You dare to call yourselves humanitarians as you jump eagerly at every opportunity to defend a repeatedly documented genocidal maniac, denounce America, and call Bush Hitler. Talk about arrogant.

Tom... I totally agree. I have found the conspiracy theory's posted here somewhat amusing, however none posessing any credible information. But I guess that's what you get in a blog like this.

It amazes me the short memory of some who post here. And relating dead americans being drug through the streets to the (to borrow a phrase) 'bill the cat' Saddam photos is so unbelievably rediculous I am not sure what else to say about it.

Yeah... poor guy... killed hundreds of thousands and responsible for the death, suffering and neglect of millions more. How dare the Americans take disrespectful pictures of him like that!

Wow, I see you've got plenty of weirdos here too...You can try til you're blue in the face to get them to use common sense....I never cease to be amazed at the fools that actually step right up to the keyboard and let everyone know how ignorant they are.....Does 'Liberal' have the same meaning as 'Labotomy', in some other language?

Winds of Change....keep up the good work.

It's sad ...
Human being is the only creature that kills members of his own nature for pleasure...and he spends all his life to justify what he did...

FORT CARSON, Colo. - A US Army officer was found guilty of negligent homicide late Saturday in the death of an Iraqi general at a detention camp, but was spared a conviction of murder that could have sent him to prison for life.
A panel of six Army officers also convicted Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr., 43, of negligent dereliction of duty. He was acquitted of assault after six hours of deliberations.

Welshofer was accused of putting a sleeping bag over the head of Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, sitting on his chest and using his hand to cover the general's mouth while asking him questions in 2003.

Welshofer, who stood silently and showed no reaction when the verdict was announced, faces a dishonorable discharge and up to three years in prison for negligent homicide and three months for negligent dereliction of duty. Sentencing was scheduled for Monday.

If convicted of the original murder charge, he could have been sentenced to life in prison.

The defense had argued a heart condition caused Mowhoush's death, and that Welshofer's commanders had approved the interrogation technique.

"What he was doing he was doing in the open, and he was doing it because he believed the information in fact would save lives," attorney Frank Spinner said.

Spinner said he was disappointed with the verdict and would decide after sentencing whether to appeal.

"The verdict recognizes the context in which these events took place," he said. "It was a very difficult time in Iraq. There was confusion, and they were not getting clear guidance from headquarters."

Welshofer and prosecutors left without commenting.

During the trial, prosecutor Maj. Tiernan Dolan described a rogue interrogator who became frustrated with Mowhoush's refusal to answer questions and escalated his techniques from simple interviews to beatings to simulating drowning, and finally, to death.

"He treated that general worse than you would treat a dog and he did so knowing he was required to treat the general humanely," Dolan said.

Welshofer used his sleeping bag technique in the presence of lower ranking soldiers, but never in the presence of officers with the authority to stop him, Dolan said.

The treatment of the Iraqi general "could fairly be described as torture," Dolan said.

In an e-mail to a commander, Dolan said, Welshofer wrote that restrictions on interrogation techniques were impeding the Army's ability to gather intelligence. Welshofer wrote that authorized techniques came from Cold War-era doctrine that did not apply in Iraq, Dolan said.

"Our enemy understands force, not psychological mind games," Dolan quoted from Welshofer's message. Dolan said an officer responded by telling Welshofer to "take a deep breath and remember who we are."

The defense urged jurors to consider conditions in Iraq at the time of the interrogation: Soldiers were being killed in an increasingly lethal and increasingly bold insurgency. Welshofer had to make some decisions on his own because guidance was lacking and other techniques weren't working, Spinner said.

Officials believed Mowhoush had information that would "break the back of the whole insurgency," said defense attorney Capt. Ryan Rosauer. They also thought Mowhoush helping to bring foreign fighters into Iraq from across the Syrian border, he said.

Several prosecution witnesses, including one whose identity is classified and who testified in a closed session, had been granted immunity in exchange for their cooperation, Spinner noted. Two soldiers who were initially charged with murder in the case also were given immunity.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060122/ap_on_re_us/iraq_suffocation

IRAN next!

"Every Iraqi citizen was his victim. He stole the very food out of their mouths for over 30 years. He stole their money, their assets, their thoughts, their dreams, their homes, their government, their country, their children, their dignity, their lives. He took everything but their humanity and their souls."

2 million plus dead in Iraq, would have taken Saddam a very long time to do that much damage. Plus the 1st place to be taken over was the oil fields 3 months before the 'invasion'.

Wofat and Tom you sound like a bunch of muppets.

Conspiracy theory!!!

Money, money money... = greed = kill everyone and justify it to the idiots

Gavin, what you just posted looks to be about two millimeters away from a drive-by -- and I'm being generous. Drive-by posts are deprecated here. Would you care to substantiate any of your claims? If not, you might want to post somewhere else.

This constitutes a warning.

Nortius "Big Tuna" Maximus, acting in my Marshal capacity.