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U.S. 'to show Saddam sons' bodies'
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition authorities say they will reveal the bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein, in an effort to convince skeptical Iraqis their ousted president's sons are really dead. The bodies were due to be shown to broadcast and print journalists in Baghdad at 1 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Friday, a coalition spokeswoman told CNN. Thirty-nine-year-old Uday and 37-year-old Qusay died Tuesday in a six-hour battle with U.S. troops who tried to capture them at a home in Mosul, in northern Iraq, according to the Pentagon. The brothers -- second and third on America's list of most-wanted fugitives in Iraq, behind Saddam Hussein -- were feared nationwide as ruthless killers and protectors of their father's dictatorship. The Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led administration in Iraq, released photographs of the blood-spattered, bearded corpses to Western news agencies Thursday evening. Senior Iraqi officials in U.S. custody have also identified the remains, U.S. officials said. (U.S. releases death photos) But the coalition spokeswoman acknowledged that releasing the dark, grainy photos may not have been enough to prove Saddam's sons were dead. Former CIA Director James Woolsey said in an interview with CNN that releasing the photographs was necessary despite ethical reservations. "Normally, we would not do this," he said. "But I think it's necessary for the world to see and particularly for the Iraqis to see that these two are, in fact, dead, that this is not some ginned-up story from the United States." (Ethical questions) The consensus from Iraqi newspapers -- more widely available than television -- was that most Iraqis were unlikely to believe the coalition. "All the U.S. promises done by U.S. President George W. Bush before the war couldn't be met by coalition forces," editor of the Assaah newspaper Firas Ayyash told CNN. "I'm not convinced," one man told CNN in a Baghdad cafe. "The two brothers wouldn't risk being in the same place." But a former doctor who treated the brothers said there was no doubt the pair were dead. "The pictures of Uday and Qusay are 100 percent accurate," Dr Salah al Shamari was seen saying on satellite television. The CD also includes copies of X-rays that the United States said showed wounds Uday suffered in a 1996 assassination attempt. "The X-rays of Uday's left leg shows a similarity to the ones I did for him in 1996," al Shamari said. Fedayeen statementPossibly the most convincing argument for Iraqis that the brothers are dead has come from so-called New Fedayeen fighters in a taped statement delivered to an Arab television broadcaster and shown in Iraq. "To the occupiers who said the killing of Uday and Qusay would reduce attacks on the invaders, we say the deaths will increase the attacks on their soldiers," the message said. The message was shown on the day three U.S. soldiers were killed in a gun and rocket grenade attack. It was not only the most deadly on U.S. forces since the end of the war, but close to where Uday and Qusay were killed and involved the same 101st Airborne division which conducted the Mosul raid. (Three killed in Iraqi ambush) The area is well outside the deadly Sunni triangle where U.S. troops suffer most fatalities. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said it was his decision to release the pictures, and that he hoped by doing so he might save American lives and undercut the Iraqi resistance. "I honestly believe that these two are particularly bad characters and that it's important for the Iraqi people to see them, to know they are gone, to know they are dead and to know they are not coming back," Rumsfeld said Thursday. While the U.S. has protested angrily when its enemies have displayed dead Americans, such as in Somalia in 1993, Pentagon officials drew a distinction between dead soldiers, and dead dictators. "I think that will save American lives and save coalition lives and be a great benefit to the Iraqi people to be free of that," Rumsfeld said. "And I feel it was the right decision and I'm glad I made it."
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