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Tensions with Kuwait
The end of the war with
Iran served to deepen latent tensions between Iraq and its wealthy
neighbor Kuwait.
Saddam saw his war with Iran as having spared Kuwait from the imminent
threat of Iranian domination. Since the struggle with Iran had been fought
for the benefit of the other Persian Gulf Arab states as much as for Iraq,
he argued, a share of Iraqi debt should be forgiven. Saddam urged the
Kuwaitis to forgive the Iraqi debt accumulated in the war, some $30
billion, but the Kuwaitis refused, claiming that Saddam was responsible to
pay off his debts for the war he started.
Also to raise money for
postwar reconstruction, Saddam pushed oil-exporting countries to raise oil
prices by cutting back oil production. Kuwait refused to cut production.
In addition to refusing the request, Kuwait spearheaded the opposition in OPEC
to the cuts that Saddam had requested. Kuwait was pumping large amounts of
oil, and thus keeping prices low, when Iraq needed to sell high-priced oil
from its wells to pay off a huge debt.
Meanwhile, Saddam showed
disdain for the Kuwait-Iraq boundary line (imposed on Iraq by British
imperial officials in 1922) because it almost completely cut Iraq off from
the sea. One of the few articles of faith uniting the political scene in a
nation rife with sharp social, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic
divides was the belief that Kuwait had no right to even exist in the first
place. For at least half a century, Iraqi nationalists were espousing
emphatically the belief that Kuwait was historically an integral part of
Iraq, and that Kuwait had only come into being through the maneuverings of
British imperialism.
The colossal extent of
Kuwaiti oil reserves also intensified tensions in the region. The oil
reserves of Kuwait (with a population of a mere 2 million next to Iraq's
25) were roughly equal to those of Iraq. Taken together Iraq and Kuwait
sat on top of some 20 percent of the world's known oil reserves; Saudi
Arabia, by comparison, holds 25 percent.
The Kuwaiti monarchy
further angered Saddam by allegedly slant drilling oil out of wells that
Iraq considered to be within its disputed border with Kuwait. Given that
at the time Iraq was not regarded as a pariah state, Saddam was able to
complain about the alleged slant drilling to the U.S. State Department.
Although this had continued for years, Saddam now needed oil money to stem
a looming economic crisis. Saddam still had an experienced and
well-equipped army, which he used to influence regional affairs. He later
ordered troops to the Iraq-Kuwait border.
As Iraq-Kuwait relations
rapidly deteriorated, Saddam was receiving conflicting information about
how the U.S. would respond to the prospects of an invasion. For one,
Washington had been taking measures to cultivate a constructive
relationship with Iraq for roughly a decade. The Reagan
administration gave Saddam roughly $40 billion in aid in the 1980s to
fight Iran, nearly all of it on credit. The U.S. also sent billions of
dollars to Saddam to keep him from forming a strong alliance with the
Soviets. 7
U.S. ambassador to Iraq April
Glaspie met with Saddam in an emergency meeting on July
25, 1990,
where the Iraqi leader stated his intention to continue talks. U.S.
officials attempted to maintain a conciliatory line with Iraq, indicating
that while George
H. W. Bush and James
Baker did not want force used, they would not take any position on the
Iraq-Kuwait boundary dispute and did not want to become involved. The
transcript, however, does not show any explicit statement of approval of,
acceptance of, or foreknowledge of the invasion. Later, Iraq and Kuwait
then met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent
his troops into Kuwait.
The Persian Gulf War
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Main article: Persian
Gulf War
On August
2, 1990,
Saddam invaded and annexed
the oil-rich emirate
of Kuwait.
U.S. President George
H. W. Bush responded cautiously for the first several days after the
invasion. On the one hand, Kuwait, prior to this point, had been a
virulent enemy of Israel and was on friendly terms with the Soviets. On
the other hand, Iraq controlled ten percent of the world's crude oil
reserves and with the invasion had doubled the percentage.[9]
U.S. interests were heavily invested in the region,8
and the invasion triggered fears that the price
of oil, and therefore the world economy, was at stake. The United
Kingdom was also concerned. Britain had a close historical
relationship with Kuwait, dating back to British colonialism
in the region, and also benefitted from billions of dollars in Kuwaiti
investment. British
Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher underscored the risk the invasion posed to Western interests
to Bush in an in-person meeting one day after the invasion, famously
telling him, "Don't go wobbly on me, George."
Cooperation between the
United States and the Soviet Union made possible the passage of
resolutions in the United
Nations Security Council giving Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and
approving the use of force if Saddam did not comply with the timetable.
U.S. officials feared that Iraq would retaliate against oil-rich Saudi
Arabia, a close ally of Washington since the 1940s, for the Saudis'
opposition to the invasion of Kuwait. Accordingly, the U.S. and a group of
allies, including countries as diverse as Egypt,
Syria and Czechoslovakia,
deployed massive amounts of troops along the Saudi border with Kuwait and
Iraq in order to encircle the Iraqi army, the largest in the Middle East.
During the period of
negotiations and threats following the invasion, Saddam focused renewed
attention on the Palestinian
problem by promising to withdraw his forces from Kuwait if Israel
would relinquish the occupied territories in the West
Bank, the Golan
Heights, and the Gaza
Strip. Saddam's proposal further split the Arab world, pitting U.S.
and Western-supported Arab states against the Palestinians. The allies
ultimately rejected any connection between the Kuwait crisis and
Palestinian issues.
Saddam ignored the
Security Council deadline. With unanimous backing from the Security
Council, a U.S.-led coalition launched round-the-clock missile and aerial
attacks on Iraq, beginning January
16, 1991.
Israel, though subjected to attack by Iraqi missiles, refrained from
retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into leaving the coalition.
A ground force comprised largely of US and British armored and infantry
divisions ejected Saddam's army from Kuwait in February 1991 and occupied
the southern portion of Iraq as far as the Euphrates.
On March
6, 1991,
referring to the conflict, Bush announced: "What is at stake is more
than one small country, it is a big idea — a new world order, where
diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the
universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the
rule of law."
In the end, the
over-manned and under-equipped Iraqi army proved unable to compete on the
battlefield with the highly mobile coalition land forces and their
overpowering air support. Some 175,000 Iraqis were taken prisoner and
casualties were estimated at approximately 20,000 according to U.S. data,
with other sources pinning the number as high as 100,000. As part of the
cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to abandon all chemical and biological
weapons and allow UN observers to inspect the sites. UN trade sanctions
would remain in effect until Iraq complied with all terms.
Gulf War aftermath
Iraq's ethnic and
religious divisions, together with the resulting postwar devastation, laid
the groundwork for new rebellions within the country. In the aftermath of
the fighting, social and ethnic unrest among Shi'ite Muslims, Kurds, and
dissident military units threatened the stability of Saddam's government.
Uprisings erupted in the Kurdish north and Shi'a southern and central
parts of Iraq, but were ruthlessly repressed. In 2003 the Coalition, using
Iraqi sources, estimated that 300,000 people had been buried in as many as
260 mass
graves, mostly from 1983 to 1991. [10]
In 2005 the BBC reported that as many as 30,000 persons had been killed
during the 1991 uprisings [11].
The United States, which
had urged Iraqis to rise up against Saddam, did nothing to assist the
rebellions beyond enforcing the "no
fly zones". U.S. ally Turkey
opposed any prospect of Kurdish independence, and the Saudis and other
conservative Arab states feared an Iran-style Shi'ite revolution. Saddam,
having survived the immediate crisis in the wake of defeat, was left
firmly in control of Iraq, although the country never recovered either
economically or militarily from the Persian Gulf War. Saddam routinely
cited his survival as "proof" that Iraq had in fact won the war
against America. This message earned Saddam a great deal of popularity in
many sectors of the Arab world.
Saddam increasingly
portrayed himself as a devout Muslim,
in an effort to co-opt the conservative religious segments of society.
Some elements of Sharia law were re-introduced (such as the 2001 edict
imposing the death penalty for homosexuality,
rape and prostitution,
and the ritual phrase "Allahu
Akbar" ("God is the greatest"), in Saddam's handwriting,
was added to the national flag.)
1991-2003
Relations between the
United States and Iraq remained tense following the Persian Gulf War. In
April of 1993 the Iraqi Intelligence Service, it is alleged, attempted to
assassinate former President George H. W. Bush during a visit to Kuwait.
Kuwaiti security forces apprehended a group of Iraqis at the scene of an
alleged bombing attempt. It has been alleged by some that the charges
against Iraq in relation to this event were fabricated [12],
though this conspiracy
theory has not gained widespread acceptance. On June
26, 1993,
the U.S. launched a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence
headquarters in retaliation for the attack against former President Bush [13][14].
The UN sanctions placed
upon Iraq when it invaded Kuwait were not lifted, blocking Iraqi oil
exports. This caused immense hardship in Iraq and virtually destroyed the
Iraqi economy and state infrastructure. Only smuggling across the Syrian
border, and humanitarian aid ameliorated the humanitarian crisis. UN
organizations (such as UNICEF
and the WHO)
have estimated between 500,000 and 1.2 million deaths were caused by the
sanctions, mostly in the under-5 age group [15].
Skeptics have estimated that only 350,000 excess deaths occurred between
1991 and 2000 [16],
and that many deaths were actually due to the bombing of Iraqi
infrastructure. Some object to the accusation that these deaths were
caused by the sanctions. They argue that Saddam's hoarding his country's
resources was the true cause of the crisis. On December
9, 1996
the United
Nations allowed Saddam's government to begin selling limited amounts
of oil for food and medicine. Limited amounts of income from the United
Nations started flowing into Iraq through the UN Oil
for Food program. However, it is alleged that, due to corruption on
both sides, very little food and medicine was actually delivered to the
Iraqi people.
U.S. officials continued
to accuse Saddam Hussein of violating the terms of the Gulf War's cease
fire, by developing weapons
of mass destruction and other banned weaponry, refusing to give out
adequate information on these weapons, and violating the UN-imposed
sanctions and "no-fly zones." Isolated military strikes by U.S.
and British forces continued on Iraq sporadically, the largest being Operation
Desert Fox in 1998. Charges of Iraqi impediment to UN inspection of
sites thought to contain illegal weapons were claimed as the reasons for
crises between 1997 and 1998, culminating in intensive U.S. and British
missile strikes on Iraq, December
16-19,
1998. After two years of intermittent activity, U.S. and British warplanes
struck harder at sites near Baghdad in February, 2001.
Saddam's support base of
Tikriti tribesmen, family members, and other supporters were divided after
the war, and in the following years, contributing to the government's
increasingly repressive and arbitrary nature. Domestic repression inside
Iraq grew worse, and Saddam's sons, Uday
Hussein and Qusay
Hussein, became increasingly powerful and carried out a private reign
of terror.
They likely had a leading hand when, in August 1995, two of Saddam
Hussein's sons-in-law (Hussein
Kamel and Saddam
Kamel), who held high positions in the Iraqi military, defected to
Jordan. Both were killed after returning to Iraq the following February.
Iraqi cooperation with UN
weapons inspection teams was questioned on several occasions during the
1990s and UNSCOM
chief weapons inspector Richard
Butler withdrew his team from Iraq in November 1998 citing Iraqi
non-cooperation, without the permission of the UN, although a UN spokesman
subsequently stated that "the bulk of" the Security Council
supported the move [17].
After a crisis ensued and the U.S. contemplated military action against
Iraq, Saddam resumed cooperation. [18]
The inspectors returned, but were withdrawn again on 16th December 9.
Butler had given a report the UN
Security Council on 15th December in which he expressed
dissatisfaction with the level of compliance. Three out of five of the
Permanant Members of the U.N. Security Council subsequently objected to
Butler's withdrawal.
It has been speculated
that either Iraq was deliberately hiding the weapons or playing a game of
bluff, hoping to convince the Western powers and the other Arab states
that Iraq was still a power to be reckoned with, rather than that Iraq was
hiding significant stockpiles of prohibited materials. Scott
Ritter, chief UN weapons inspector at the time, suggested after his
resignation that it was US foreign policy from the Bush 41 through the
Clinton presidencies to depose Saddam Hussein, using the notion that he
was a threat as justification, and that these administrations interfered
with the action of weapons inspectors. [19]
Saddam continued to loom
large in American consciousness as a major threat to Western allies such
as oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Israel, to Western oil supplies from the Gulf
states, and to Middle East stability generally. Bush's successor, U.S.
President Bill
Clinton (1993-2001), maintained economic sanctions, as well as
military control of the "Iraqi
no-fly zones". In 1998, in response to the departure
of U.N. weapons inspectors from Iraq, President Clinton signed the Iraq
Liberation Act, declaring that regime change was necessary in order
for Iraq to "rejoin the family of nations" [20]
and allocating funding to support Iraqi exile groups. This was soon
followed by the three-day Operation
Desert Fox, an air-strike effort to hamper Saddam's weapons-production
facilities and suspected weapons of mass destruction sites.
Several journalists have
reported on Saddam's ties to Islamic terrorism
prior to 2000. Saddam, like most Arab leaders, had contacts with
Palestinian terrorist groups. When his contacts with al-Qaeda
were investigated, however, the NSA,
CIA, FBI,
DIA, the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence, the U.S.
State Department, and the independent 9/11
Commission all concluded that there was no formal cooperation between
Saddam Hussein's government and al-Qaeda.
2003 Invasion of Iraq
The domestic political
equation changed in the U.S. after the September
11, 2001 attacks, which bolstered the influence of the neoconservative
faction in the presidential administration and throughout Washington. In
his January 2002 state-of-the-union message to Congress, President George
W. Bush spoke of an "axis
of evil" comprising Iran,
North
Korea, and Iraq. Moreover, Bush announced that he would possibly take
action to topple the Iraqi government. Bush stated, "The Iraqi regime
has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for
over a decade." "Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward
America and to support terror," said Bush.11
As the war was looming on
February
24, 2003,
Saddam Hussein talked with CBS
News anchor Dan
Rather for more than three hours — his first interview with a
U.S. reporter in over a decade.12
CBS aired the taped interview later that week.
The Iraqi government and
military collapsed within three weeks of the beginning of the U.S.-led
2003 invasion of Iraq on March
20. The United States made at least two attempts to kill Saddam with
targeted air strikes, but both failed to hit their target. By the
beginning of April, Coalition forces occupied much of Iraq. The resistance
of the much-weakened Iraqi Army either crumbled or shifted to guerrilla
tactics, and it appeared that Saddam had lost control of Iraq. He was last
seen in a video which purported to show him in the Baghdad suburbs
surrounded by supporters. When Baghdad fell to the Coalition on April
9, Saddam was still preparing to leave.
Pursuit and capture
Pursuit
As the US forces were
occupying the Republican
Palace and other central landmarks and ministries on April
9, Saddam Hussein had emerged from his command bunker
beneath the Al
A'Zamiyah district of northern Baghdad and greeted excited members of
the local public. In the BBC
Panorama programme Saddam on the Run witnesses were found for these
and other later events (see Note 15). This imprompto walk about was
probably his last and his reasons for doing what was certainly extremely
dangerous and almost cost him his freedom, if not his life, are unclear.
It is possible that he wished to take what he thought might be his last
opportunity to greet his people as their president. The walkabout was
captured on film and broadcast several days after the event on Al-Arabiya
Television and was also witnessed by ordinary people who corroborated
the date afterwards. He was accompanied by his bodyguards and other loyal
supporters including at least one of his sons and his Personal Secretary.
After the walk about
Saddam returned to his bunker and made preparations for his family.
According to his eldest daughter Raghad
Hussein he was by this point aware of the "betrayal" of a
number of key figures involved in the defence of Baghdad. It appears there
was a lot of confusion between Iraqi commanders in different sectors of
the capital and communication between them and Saddam and between Saddam
and his family were becoming increasingly difficult. This version of
events is supported by Muhammad
Saeed al-Sahhaf the former Information Minister who struggled to know
what was actually happening after the US captured Baghdad
International Airport.
The Americans had
meanwhile started receiving rumours that Saddam was in Al A'Zamiyah and at
dawn on April
10 they despatched 300 US
Marines to capture or kill him. As the Americans closed in, and
realising that Baghdad was lost, Saddam arranged for cars to collect his
eldest daughters Raghad
and Rana
and drive them to Syria.
His wife Sajida
Talfah and youngest daughter Hala
had already left Iraq several weeks prior. Raghad Hussein stated in an
interview for Panorama;
-
"After about
midday my Dad sent cars from his private collection for us. We were
told to get in. We had almost lost contact with my father and brothers
because things had got out of hand. I saw with my own eyes the [Iraqi]
army withdrawing and the terrified faces of the Iraqi soldiers who,
unfortunately, were running away and looking around them. Missiles
were falling on my left and my right - they were not more than fifty
or one hundred metres away. We moved in small cars. I had a gun
between my feet just in case." (Atttributed to Raghad
Hussein)
Then according to the
testamony of a former bodyguard Saddam Hussein dismissed almost his entire
staff;
-
"The last time I
saw him he said: My sons, each of you go to your homes. We said: Sir,
we want to stay with you. Why should we go? But he insisted. Even his
son, Qusay,
was crying a little. He [Saddam] was trying not to show his feelings.
He was stressed but he didn't want to destroy the moral of the people
who were watching him, but inside, he was definitely broken." (Attributed
to an anonymous former bodyguard)
After this he changed out
of his uniform and with only two bodyguards to guard him, left Baghdad in
a plain white Oldsmobile
and made his way to a specially prepared bunker in Dialah
on the northern outskirts of the city.
Ayad
Allawi in interview stated that Saddam stayed in the Dialah bunker for
three weeks as Baghdad and the rest of Iraq were occupied by US forces.
Initially he and his entourage used Satellite
Telephones to communicate with each other. As this became more risky
they resorted to sending couriers with written messages. One of these
couriers was reported to have been his own nephew. However, their cover
was given away when one of the couriers was captured and Saddam was forced
to evacuate the Dialah bunker and resorted to changing location every few
hours. There were numerous sightings of him in Beiji,
Baquba
and Tikrit
to the north of Baghdad over the next few months as he shuttled between
safe houses disguised as a shepherd in a plain taxi. How close he came to
being captured during this period may never be made public. Sometime in
the middle of May he moved to the countryside around his home town of Tikrit.
A series of audio tapes
claiming to be from Saddam were released at various times, although the
authenticity of these tapes remains uncertain. Sometime in May he moved to
the countryside around his home town of Tikrit.
Saddam Hussein was at the
top of the "most-wanted
list," and many of the other leaders of the Iraqi government were
arrested, but extensive efforts to find him had little effect. In June
they captured the former president's personal secretary, number 4 after
Saddam and his sons Uday
and Qusay.
Documents discovered with him enabled intelligence officers to work out
who was who in Saddam's circle. The cooks, the bodyguards the drivers, and
photographs proved a goldmine. One photo, taken just two years before,
featured a row of bodyguards around Saddam, looking every inch the mafia
don. One by one the Americans put names to faces, found their homes, then
they planned to catch them. Manhunts were launched nightly throughout the Sunni
triangle. Safe houses and family homes were raided as soon as any tip
came in that someone in Saddam's circle might be in the area.
In July 2003 in an
engagement with U.S. forces after a tip-off from an Iraqi informant
Saddam's sons were cornered in a house in Mosul
and killed.
According to one of
Saddam's bodyguards, the former president actually went to the grave
himself on the evening of the funeral:
-
"After the
funeral people saw Saddam Hussein visiting the graves with a group of
his protectors. No one recognised them and even the car they came in
wasn't spotted. At the grave Saddam read a verse from the Koran and
cried. There were flags on the grave. After he finished reading, he
took the flags and left. He cried for his sons."
The raids and arrests of
people known to be close to the former President drove him deeper
underground. Once more the trail was growing colder. In August the US
military released photo-fits
of how Saddam might be disguising himself in traditional garb, hair died
grey, even without his signature and moustache. By the early autumn the
Pentagon had also formed a secret unit – Taskforce
121. Using electronic
surveillance and undercover agents, the CIA
and Special
Forces scoured Iraq for clues. Their orders were clear, to capture or
kill high value target number one, Saddam Hussein.
By the beginning of
November Saddam was under siege. His home town and powerbase surrounded
his faithful bodyguard targeted and then arrested one by one by the
Americans. The noose was tightening day by day. Protests erupted in
several towns in the Sunni triangle. People showed their support for
Saddam.
On December
12 Mohamed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit was unexpectedly captured in
Baghdad. Mohamed had been a key figure in the President's special
security organisation. His cousin Adnan had been arrested in July. It
appears Mohamed had take control of Saddam on the run, the only person who
knew where he was from hour to hour and who was with him. According to US
sources It took just a few hours "interrogation" for him to
crack and betray Saddam.
Within hours Colonel
James Hickey (1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division) together with US Special
Forces launched Operation
Red Dawn and under cover of darkness made for the village of Ad-Dawr
on the outskirts of Tikrit. The informer had told US forces the former
president would be in one of two groups of buildings on a farm codenamed Wolverine
1 and Wolverine
2.
Capture
On December
14, 2003,
the Islamic
Republic News Agency (IRNA) of Iran first reported that Saddam Hussein
had been arrested, citing Kurdish leader Jalal
Talabani. These reports were soon confirmed by other members of the Governing
Council, by U.S. military sources, and by British
prime minister Tony
Blair. In a press conference in Baghdad,
shortly afterwards, the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, Paul
Bremer, formally announced the capture of Saddam Hussein by saying,
"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him." Bremer reported that Saddam
had been captured at approximately 8:30 PM Iraqi time on December
13, in an underground "spider
hole" at a farmhouse in ad-Dawr
near his home town Tikrit,
in what was called Operation
Red Dawn. [21]
Bremer presented video footage of Saddam in custody.
Saddam Hussein was shown
with a full beard and hair longer and curlier than his familiar appearance,
which a barber later restored. His identity was later reportedly confirmed
by DNA
testing. He was described as being in good health and as "talkative
and co-operative." Bremer said that Saddam would be tried, but that
the details of his trial had not yet been determined. Members of the
Governing Council who spoke with Saddam after his capture reported that he
was unrepentant, claiming to have been a "firm but just ruler."
Later it emerged that the tip-off which led to his capture came from a
detainee under interrogation.
The Special
Operations Forces soldiers who captured Saddam Hussein turned him over
to the 4th
Infantry Division in order to avoid media publicity that would
compromise their future missions. The 4th Infantry Division troops also
received credit for their months of Military Intelligence and scouting
work prior to the operation. The soldiers involved have this operation
noted on their official US Army records (Officer and Non Commissioned
Officer Evaluation Reports), and have received US Army Awards.
Several people have
focused on abnormalities and inconsistencies in the official United States
government rendition of how Saddam Hussein was captured, including
individuals who claimed to be involved directly in the capture operation.
These claims open the debate whether Saddam was actually in the spider
hole or if he directly engaged U.S. Marines in a firefight where one
Sudanese born U.S. marine lost his life. For more on this, see the "Conspiracy
theories" heading under Operation
Red Dawn.
Incarceration
According to US military
sources, immediately after his capture on December
14 Saddam was hooded and his hands were bound. He was taken by a
military Hummer
vehicle to a waiting helicopter and then flown to the US base located in
and adjacent to one of his former palaces in Tikrit.
At this base he was paraded before jubilant US soldiers and a series of
photographs were taken. After a brief pause he was loaded onto another
helicopter and flown to the main US base at Baghdad
International Airport and transferred to the Camp
Cropper facility. Here he was photographed officially and had his long
beard shaved. The next day he was visited in his cell by members of the Iraqi
Governing Council including Ahmed
Chalabi and Adnan
Pachachi. It is believed that he has stayed at this high security
location for the majority of time since his capture. Details of his
interrogation and if he met president George
W. Bush when he briefly appeared at the airport on Thanksgiving
Day are unknown. There were rumours that he was flown out of Iraq
during a dangerous upsurge in the insurgency during 2004 but this now
seems unlikely.
On May
20, 2005,
Rupert
Murdoch-owned tabloid
newspapers The
Sun of U.K.
and New
York Post, printed photos of Saddam Hussein in his jail cell
wearing only his briefs
with the headline "Tyrant's in his pants" (The Sun). On
the page three of The Sun which is traditionally preserved for topless
"Page
Three girls", Saddam Hussein was shown wearing a white robe while
doing laundry by hand, with the caption: "a pathetic figure as he
washed his trousers in jail. (...) Now he sits astride a plastic pink
chair while he carries out the chores of a laundry maid." [22]
These photos, said to be "provided by American military sources to
undermine the Iraqi rebellion" [23],
were officially not authorised, being qualified "a clear violation of
United
States Department of Defense directives, and possibly Geneva
Convention guidelines for the humane treatment of detained individuals"
by Bush's deputy press secretary Trent Duffy. The U.S. military said that
it would "aggressively investigate" how the photographs of
Saddam Hussein in captivity were released.
