Was Saddam groomed for the cameras shots to achieve the most visual effects? The masses are being served another turkey here Ray!!!!
A Careful U.S. Plan to Dispel All Doubt on Hussein's Fate
Published: December 15, 2003
(Page 2 of 2)
According to the plan that Iraqis be part of the news break, Jalal Talabani, a former president of the Iraqi Governing Council and a leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, first began to tell reporters in Iraq and Iran after 4 a.m. Eastern time that Mr. Hussein had been captured. He did not share many details.
A more detailed account of Mr. Hussein's capture was provided at a news briefing held in Iraq just after 7 a.m. Eastern time by Mr. Bremer and officials of the Iraqi Governing Council. The shared podium and the pictures of Iraqi journalists among those cheering Mr. Bremer's announcement that "We got him" also put an Iraqi stamp on that event, where the first military pictures and video of Mr. Hussein's capture were shown.
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"Obviously, you have to choose carefully," Mr. Thatcher said. "You don't want an image that in any way allows him to be built up as a martyr or allows him to appear heroic."
The images shown, of a disheveled Mr. Hussein being examined by coalition medical personnel, was better than any officials had hoped for, he said.
"The image of him undergoing a physical examination for lice in the hair and having his tongue pushed down with a tongue-depresser is about as routine as it gets, which showed basically that he was an ordinary mortal, was not superhuman, that he was no longer a threat," he said.
"Our planning was good," he said. "But Saddam helped it immeasurably in the long run. He contributed in ways we never dreamed possible — he allowed himself to get into such a disheveled state and to look so haggard."
Another consideration was whether the image of Mr. Hussein as a prisoner could be shared with the news media in accordance with international law. Mr. Thatcher said he believed that the provisional authority was free to show the captured Mr. Hussein, by law, until he is formally charged, much as the police parade suspects before the news cameras when they trot them into police stations.
These images were shown instantly around the world, and perhaps more important, on the rebuilt Iraqi national television network, Al Iraqiya, which is under the supervision of the American-led administration. It is thought to reach 93 percent of Iraqi urban households, compared with 33 percent with satellite dishes to receive Al Jazeera.
Some American news executives expressed some discomfort at having to run the images provided by American officialdom. But Paul Slavin, senior vice president of ABC News, said the images were so arresting and significant that the source of the footage ultimately became irrelevant.
"I think it's transcendent," he said. "Whether they were released by the government or shot by us, the impact would be the same."
"Seeing Saddam in a disheveled, disoriented state — in a potentially or seemingly humiliating state — was a startling image, even to people as jaded as in the media," Mr. Slavin said. "He did not get to live the life of a martyr. He did not go down shooting. He was found in a hole in the ground."
The breaking news was of such magnitude that both Time and Newsweek decided to redo issues that were already being printed.
When the phone rang at 5 a.m. on Sunday, Jim Kelly, managing editor of Time, thought that it was more bad news, following the bad wounds suffered last week by a correspondent, Michael Weisskopf, and a veteran war photographer, James Nachtwey, in Baghdad. Instead, it was news of the capture.
Reporting for this article was contributed by Jacques Steinberg and David Carr in New York and Thom Shanker in Washington. |
