Posted on 07/25/2003 4:46:16 AM PDT by 12B
If, again, this is true or just Reuters-speak, it IS stupid, stupid, stupid to have done this reconstruction so soon.
WE know there was no intent to deceive and that the bodies are those of the brothers. But the libs and Hussein propagandists will pick this one fact (if it is a fact) out of all other evidence and converge on it. I can hardly wait for CNN and the rest of the ravenous pack to start grinding on this as the day goes along.
Leni
If one is Uday or Qusay, and the other has a matching Y chromosome (which would be true if they were brothers) then you have a 100% match on the other too
What's to keep the critics from now claiming the original photos showed reconstructed faces also?
I repeat, WE know there's no attempt at deceit. But we're dealing with mindsets and motives of enemies (within and without) that are different from ours by a zillion miles.
Even with DNA, fingerprints and x-rays, this "putty reconstruction" will be seized upon and blown up to cast doubt on all other evidence.
Again, I say, dumb, not fatal, but dumb move.
Leni
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Fri Jul 25,10:00 AM ET
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By Andrew Marshall
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq (news - web sites) partly rebuilt the faces of two bodies shown to journalists on Friday in an effort to convince Iraqis that the battle-scarred corpses were those of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s widely feared sons.
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I was one of 15 journalists shown into an air-conditioned, khaki tent at Baghdad airport to view the corpses. They did look like the brothers, who U.S. troops said they killed during a siege on Tuesday.
Arabic networks al-Jazeera, Abu Dhabi Television and other broadcasters began showing the bodies identified as Uday and Qusay, laid out at the makeshift airport morgue.
A U.S. military official said "facial reconstruction" was used to repair wounds, particularly to the face of the elder son Uday, which had disfigured the bodies shown originally to the public in photographs taken by soldiers after the battle.
An uncharacteristic beard on the body of Qusay, seen in those U.S. pictures, had been shaved off, leaving a mustache.
Inside the tent, U.S. officials said it was standard practice to use morticians putty to prepare bodies for viewing and was not intended to fool the Iraqi people.
But while it may be common in the United States, the move is unheard of in the Arab world. That could affect Washington's efforts to quash Iraqi conspiracy theories that the bodies are not in fact those of the once powerful and hated sons of Saddam, who is believed to be still in hiding in Iraq.
U.S. officials have already played down the importance of visually identifying the men, saying their dental and medical records positively identified the brothers. Four top Saddam aides have also made positive identification, they say.
"You can make anyone look like anyone else," one U.S. official said, insisting the medical evidence was compelling.
The brothers were lying side-by-side on metal trolleys, their bruised bodies, riddled with bullets and shrapnel, naked apart from a blue cloth that covered their genitals.
Autopsies had been performed on both men and large Y-shape incisions bound by black stitches marked their torsos.
SURGICAL HISTORY
Uday still wore his beard. A hole in the top of his skull was left untouched. U.S. officials said they had no evidence to support suggestions that he had shot himself to avoid capture.
A faint smell of disinfectant hung in the air.
Journalists were shown a metal orthopedic plate that officials said they had removed from Uday's left leg and were told that its serial number matched that of a disc that was inserted in his limb after a failed 1996 assassination attempt.
U.S. officials have declined to reveal how they have had access to the former ruling family's medical records.
They said both men had died from multiple gunshot wounds and blast injuries in the northern city of Mosul. Two other people also died. Those bodies were not shown. U.S. officials say one of them was probably Qusay's teenage son, Mustapha.
DNA tests were also being carried out but because previous samples of Uday and Qusay's DNA were not available, U.S. officials said this test would not conclusively identify the bodies. Washington says it has Saddam's DNA.
The officials said the bodies would be refrigerated to slow decomposition but their fate thereafter remains unknown. Muslim tradition demands that they be buried as soon as possible.
A spokesman for the U.S.-led administration said no one had so far come forward to claim the bodies of the fugitives for burial. He said: "If any of their family members want to come forward, we'd be delighted to speak to them."
Paging Mr. Saddam Hussein, please pick up the courtesy phone.
The doubting Thomases will find ANYTHING to cast doubt on the evidence.
The DNA evidence will be hard for much of the illiterate Iraqi population to understand.
Fingerprint evidence can be claimed to be doctored or altered. Unless there is video-taped proof of obtaining fingerprints off of the bodies, and a widely-accepted fingerprint to compare it with, then it will be considered doctored. The x-rays can be claimed to be thrown in as evidence, but they aren't necessarily Odai's injury.
And then the facial reconstruction adds another layer of doubt.
There will be many who will NEVER believe that they are dead. Perhaps given another ten years, when they don't return to torture the citizens, the people will finally believe that he is gone.
Sometimes it just takes time for people to accept it. Didn't it take awhile to finally prove that Hitler was dead?
Sure, but this admin never claimed Apollo went to the moon in 1969, so they haven't lied about everything.
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