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(回答先: サダムの弁護士、「パンツ姿写真」でThe Sunに百万ドルの損害賠償を請求（The Sun表紙の写真upしました） 投稿者 バルセロナより愛を込めて 日時 2005 年 5 月 21 日 17:36:38)
フセイン・マードック系タブロイド写真で米政府調査急ぐ
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/21/politics/21saddam.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print
May 21, 2005
Hussein Photos in Tabloids Prompt U.S. Call to Investigate
By DAVID E. SANGER and ALAN COWELL
WASHINGTON, May 20 - The publication on Friday of photographs of Saddam Hussein wearing only underwear in his cell in Iraq led the Bush administration on Friday to open an investigation into how the pictures made their way into tabloid newspapers in London and New York, apparently supplied by someone in the American military.
The newspapers, The Sun in London and The New York Post, both part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, said the pictures had been provided by American military sources to undermine the Iraqi rebellion.
President Bush spoke about the photos on Friday morning, saying he did not think the images would worsen the Iraqi insurgency, but he said nothing to condemn their publication. Less than two hours later, after White House officials discussed the possible repercussions of the images, Mr. Bush's deputy press secretary, Trent Duffy, said the release of the pictures violated American military regulations, and probably the Geneva Conventions.
"I think this could have a serious impact," Mr. Duffy said Friday afternoon, comparing it to the revelations of prisoner abuses last year. He promised "there will be a thorough investigation into this instance," and said President Bush was upset about the release and "wants to get to the bottom of it immediately."
Administration officials were clearly concerned that they would be accused of deliberately portraying Mr. Hussein in a humiliating light, a fallen emperor with few clothes. "These photos were wrong; they're a clear violation of D.O.D. directives, and possibly Geneva Convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals," Mr. Duffy said. "And the multinational forces in Iraq, as well as the president, are very disappointed at the possibility that someone responsible for the security, welfare and detention of Saddam Hussein would take and provide these photos for public release."
Under the headline "Tyrant's in His Pants," The Sun's front page on Friday showed Mr. Hussein clad only in white briefs, folding another item of clothing. He was standing in front of what looked like a windowless door and a wall of plywood. The photographs offered "a first fascinating insight into his pathetic life behind bars," The Sun said.
Other shots inside the newspaper showed Mr. Hussein seeming to sleep and walking in a long robe. Page Three, usually devoted to semi-nude photos of young women, showed Mr. Hussein wearing a white Arab galabiyah robe as he did laundry by hand. The caption described him as "a pathetic figure as he washed his trousers in jail."
"Saddam once sat on thrones and treated himself as a king," the caption said. "Now he sits astride a plastic pink chair while he carries out the chores of a laundry maid."
It was unclear how, if at all, Sunnis in Iraq or the wider Islamic world would react to photographs. Al Qalaa, an Islamic Web site with ties to the insurgency, briefly showed the picture and condemned its publication. But then it took the picture down after the administrators of the site apparently concluded it was forbidden under Islamic law.
Judging by Mr. Hussein's appearance, the photographs appear to have been taken more than a year ago, according to Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman. If so, that would mean that Mr. Hussein was still considered a prisoner of war in American custody, entitling him to the protection of the Geneva Conventions. The conventions forbid exposing captives to "public curiosity," as by releasing humiliating photographs. But Pentagon officials noted that the conventions barred governments from releasing such photographs. In this case, the pictures appear to have been leaked without American permission, the officials said.
The United States did release pictures of Mr. Hussein in his cell immediately after his capture in December 2003. In those pictures he looked disheveled and was shown being examined by a doctor. In a statement issued Friday evening, the White House said those pictures were of a different nature. "Those photos were released for overriding needs of security - to demonstrate to the Iraqi people and the insurgents that Saddam Hussein was in fact in custody, which we believed was important to help quell the insurgency," the statement said. "The recent release of photos had no such justification."
Mr. Hussein held prisoner of war status until last July, when he was deemed to be under Iraqi legal control before a possible trial, Mr. Whitman said. Although Pentagon officials would not describe the specific conditions under which Mr. Hussein was being held, they acknowledged that he remained in the physical custody of American forces. They would not say whether Iraqi guards or personnel from other countries were also present.
Even if the pictures were taken after Mr. Hussein lost prisoner of war status, guidelines governing his treatment would still have prohibited taking and disseminating such pictures, Mr. Whitman added.
The International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the publication of the photographs. "Taking and using photographs of him is clearly forbidden," said the International Committee's Middle East spokeswoman, Dorothea Krimitsas.
In a statement on Friday evening, Graham Dudman, The Sun's managing editor, said: "The Sun obtained these pictures by professional journalistic methods, and by any standards this is an extraordinary scoop as shown by the way it has been followed in the world's media.
"These are iconic images of the world's most notorious war criminal," he added. "We are astonished that some people seem more concerned about Saddam Hussein doing his own laundry when he was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children."
Mr. Bush's first commented on the pictures when he was asked whether they would inflame the insurgents or trigger anti-Americanism in the Middle East.
"You know, I don't think a photo inspires murderers," Mr. Bush said. "I think they're inspired by an ideology that is so barbaric and backwards that it's hard for many in the Western world to comprehend how they think."
Ziad Khasawneh, a member of Mr. Hussein's defense team, called the publication of the photographs a "violation of all international agreements and human dignity, and therefore we must sue the people responsible," Reuters reported from Amman, Jordan.
"This is considered as another Abu Ghraib and we will take the necessary legal actions which we have already started," Mr. Khasawneh said.
Some Arab officials said the photographs might distract attention from the enormity of the accusations facing Mr. Hussein.
"I was a little bit disappointed that the press is picking up on an issue of not really major relevance," Foreign Minister Muhammad al-Sabah of Kuwait said on CNN. Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Shiites Protest in South
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 20 - Followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr burned American and Israeli flags on Friday and demonstrated in the southern Shiite-dominated cities of Najaf, Kufa and Nasiriya to protest American troops in Iraq.
In Kufa, demonstrators stepped on American flags in what they said was a specific protest of a recent raid by the American military on a Shiite mosque in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. At least 10,000 Sadr followers were involved in protests in the three cities, The Associated Press reported.
In Baghdad, an influential Shiite political leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, struck a conciliatory tone in a statement he issued calling on all Iraqis to "stand seriously and firmly" against efforts to divide the country along sectarian lines and to join together to draft a new constitution.
Violence continued Friday with a car bomb striking an Iraqi military convoy in a northern Baghdad neighborhood. It killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded three, according to an interior ministry official.
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