Pictures of Saddam Hussein in various stages of dress appeared in the British tabloid “The Sun” and other magazines around the world. The photos have deeply embarrassed the former Iraqi dictator as well as the U.S. military.
Why is the U.S. military embarrassed? Is Saddam being sexually abused by U.S. troops in the photos? No. Is Saddam being beaten in the photos by U.S. troops? No. Is he being tortured by U.S. troops in the photos? No. Is he doing his laundry in his undergarments in the photos? Yes. Is he sleeping in the photos? Yes.
Saddam is a prisoner of the sovereign Iraqi government and is no longer a prisoner of war. Therefore, the Geneva Convention does not apply in this case with regard to releasing photos of POWs for public interest. He’s a common criminal now, accused of horrific crimes.
As far as the photos being taken while he was in U.S. custody, it is not official U.S. military policy to take and release humiliating photos of prisoners. The photos of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad were taken by soldiers who were NOT (arguably) acting under orders from the Department of Defense. Those soldiers in the Abu Ghraib photos are in the process of going through the military justice system.
The Pentagon has denied releasing any photos to the Sun or any other newspaper. The Sun says that the U.S. military was trying to break the spirit of the insurgency by releasing the photos.
It’s more likely that a guard at Camp Cropper (where Saddam is being held) either sold or gave the photos to the Sun and hoped that it would help to break the spirit of the insurgency. But the Sun attributed the statement to “unnamed sources” in the U.S. military. (More “unnamed sources” idiocy.)
What the U.S. military should do (and is doing) is find the idiot who took and sold the photos to the paper and bring the party responsible up on charges for violating U.S. military policy. And the Iraqi government should be talking to the Sun for violating whatever policy they have about humiliation of prisoners.
The only reason that the U.S. military is making a big deal out of this is that they don’t want to offend Arab sensibilities more than they already have been from the Abu Ghraib scandal, the retracted Newsweek report of the desecration of the Quran at Guantanemo Bay and the reported mistreatment of prisoners at U.S. military facilities around the world.
That's why the U.S. military is embarrassed about this mini-scandal. If they had been treating prisoners humanely all along, this story may well have gotten a "so what?" from the very people that the military is now afraid of offending further. This is very unfortunate.
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