September 27, 2002

1:54 PM

How many Saddams are there?"A German television network said on Thursday it had made a scientific study of 450 photographs of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and concluded there are at least three doubles posing as the Iraqi president."
posted by owillis (38 comments total)

I gotta say... that picture at the top surely is an embarrassment of Saddams.

I just hope they win the big surf-off!
posted by tittergrrl at 1:59 PM on September 27, 2002

that picture is definitely someone's idea of a fetish. saddam and his posse are playas.
posted by donkeyschlong at 2:02 PM on September 27, 2002

You know, Iraqi don't dig Elvis impersonators, so...
posted by matteo at 2:04 PM on September 27, 2002

incidentally, it must be lame trying to get your mack on with that much sausage around you all the time. unless, you know...
posted by donkeyschlong at 2:04 PM on September 27, 2002

"an embarrassment of Saddams"?

I'd propose that you call the grouping a "gomorrah of Saddams", but hey, that's just me.
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:05 PM on September 27, 2002

How about a "buttload of Saddams"?
posted by starvingartist at 2:07 PM on September 27, 2002

And, the US president during the riskier public events also always has at his side a Secret Service agent who looks a bit like him (try those old Clinton photos, there's very often a tall big guy with white hair close to the president -- you know, I guess they hope an assassin can get confused). I sure don't envy that guy's job
posted by matteo at 2:07 PM on September 27, 2002

"an embarrassment of Saddams"?

I'd propose that you call the grouping a "gomorrah of Saddams", but hey, that's just me.

either one would make a great band name.
posted by donkeyschlong at 2:08 PM on September 27, 2002

"In the film sequences since 1998 only the doubles appear,” said Dieter Buhmann, a Homburg coroner. “He himself has not been seen again.”

Is there any way for us to know if Saddam Hussein is actually still alive? It it possible that Hussein is dead and the Iraqi establishment though it be a good idea to continue his "brand"?
posted by 4easypayments at 2:10 PM on September 27, 2002

If Saddam was dead and 'still in power'. Wouldn't that tick off his sons?

Saddam is just.. resting.. that's right.
posted by RobbieFal at 2:12 PM on September 27, 2002

Don't forget his double in Latin America.

Or his Hollywood stand in.

But really, in that pic at the top it is obvious the cat driving the boat is Hussein, the other guys aren't stand ins.

The second pic down below is more convincing.

What music do you think they're blasting as they cruise the playa?
posted by Kneebiter at 2:14 PM on September 27, 2002

"an embarrassment of Saddams"?

How about "a Scapegoat of Saddams"?
posted by interrobang at 2:18 PM on September 27, 2002

Am I the only one thinking what a great porn film this would be?
posted by RJ Reynolds at 2:31 PM on September 27, 2002

Yes. Yes, you are.
posted by sacre_bleu at 2:36 PM on September 27, 2002

We have the same thing in the United States, a man impersonating a President, I mean.
posted by the fire you left me at 2:37 PM on September 27, 2002

I dunno RJ, I was thinkin' the guy in the middle of the Saddam sandwich there in the first picture, the one in the life preserver (ha! Life preserver? You are a body double for Saddam! The only life you must preserve is his! His slightest displeasure means your death!! Now KNEEL. Kneel before ZODDAM!) was kinda cute. I'd do him.

See? You're not alone.
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:40 PM on September 27, 2002

Knock off all goys with mustaches, whether or not they look like Sadam. I have yet to meet a guy with a mustache who was moral, decent, honorable.
posted by Postroad at 2:40 PM on September 27, 2002

"Saddam vs. Saddam. Too dam' tough."
posted by moonbiter at 2:41 PM on September 27, 2002

Dick Cheney should get a double. Then they could both hide in two separate undisclosed locations.
posted by elwoodwiles at 2:42 PM on September 27, 2002

If you listen all the way to the end of the German broadcast their forensics expert actually says that the most recent TV broadcast shown on Iraqi TV of him meeting with his advisers actually does show the original Saddam again from the Gulf War era. This is not really made obvious in the MSNBC story.
posted by jschuur at 3:25 PM on September 27, 2002

Matteo: And, the US president during the riskier public events also always has at his side a Secret Service agent who looks a bit like him (try those old Clinton photos, there's very often a tall big guy with white hair close to the president -- you know, I guess they hope an assassin can get confused). I sure don't envy that guy's job

Oh, I dunno. You might get sloppy seconds every now and then. Presidential sloppy seconds. Now that's something, ain't it?
posted by ColdChef at 3:33 PM on September 27, 2002

This is not really made obvious in the MSNBC story

It isn't?

"But in the program, ZDF said that the original Saddam re-appeared on Iraq television on Saturday."
posted by jburka at 3:36 PM on September 27, 2002

i'm saddam, and so's my wife.
posted by asok at 3:36 PM on September 27, 2002

"Dolts! My Husseinbots will destroy you all!"
posted by straight at 3:41 PM on September 27, 2002

Exactly how much credibility should this study be given?

1. The study was conducted by a German public television network in conjunction with a corner. Certainly, two of the leading groups of experts when it comes to photographic analysis.

2. The aforementioned parties used facial recognition software to come to the conclusion that there are at least three Saddam stand-ins. The same sort of facial recognition software that has serious flaws and has been proven entirely useless in widescale application.

3. Assuming the three doppelgangers in the top photo are, in fact, body doubles for Hussein, would it really take a great deal of expensive technology to determine that they weren't the same person? It'd be more difficult to tell John Madden apart from an eight-legged turkey on Thanksgiving.
posted by Danelope at 4:05 PM on September 27, 2002

Every man of a certain age in Iraq looks like Saddam. He has a whole nation of look-alikes.

Does that first picture remind anyone else of this?
posted by evanizer at 4:19 PM on September 27, 2002

s/corner/coroner/

Damn grammartization.
posted by Danelope at 4:31 PM on September 27, 2002

jburka: My bad. I skimmed through the MSNBC article too fast.

However, the report does start out by talking about an entirely different doctor specializing in ears, noses and throats based in the region (Mosel al-Asadi), who did his own comparisions over the past few years. _Those_ statements were then verified by this German coroner, who is known to be an expert in his field even used by the FBI.

And Danelope... don't let the phrase 'public television' throw you off here. ZDF is the second oldest and one of the most respected TV stations in Germany. This is no PBS we're talking about.
posted by jschuur at 4:57 PM on September 27, 2002

Great. Dozens of Saddams that all look alike. How convenient for all our Speical Ops troops who were trained on Quake anyway.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 4:58 PM on September 27, 2002

Doesnt that top photo look photoshopped to anyone else?
posted by Espoo2 at 5:00 PM on September 27, 2002

Anybody else thinking it'd be cool to re-film "Spartacus" with Saddam look-alikes?

"I am Saddamacus"
posted by Lusy P Hur at 5:09 PM on September 27, 2002

Danelope - it's part of a coroner's job to identify the dead. I would think that they have some training in verifying the identity of a dead body using photographs (as well as fingerprints, DNA, etc.).

And the articles about facial recognition systems point to the fact that they have proven ineffective in a public surveillance system - a failure of the software to positively match a face in the crowd to an image in the database. What they did here seems like a different exercise, but I don't know enough about the software to be sure.
posted by pitchblende at 5:24 PM on September 27, 2002

Boys From Iraq
posted by stbalbach at 7:07 PM on September 27, 2002

"an embarrassment of Saddams"

Excellent.

Would the junior Saddams be known as Saddamites?
posted by Steve Hight at 8:47 PM on September 27, 2002

Some of the body doubles know a lot, or claim to: in 1999, one claimed that Iraq may have been responsible for West Nile encephalitis, because they had developed a strain in their bio-weapons program. The CIA and CDC investigated the charge and found no evidence, a conclusion repeated as recently as last week after inquiries from Congress.

In any case, this isn't a new thing for Saddam: supposedly, Shi'ite rebels assassinated one of his doubles way back in 1984. His sons use them too, although it didn't help Uday, who got shot up (or bombed, accounts vary) driving his candy-apple red Porsche; Qusay is said to have been shot up just last month.
posted by dhartung at 10:32 PM on September 27, 2002

so, now it's not WMD, it's cloning vats?
posted by tolkhan at 10:45 PM on September 27, 2002

Saddam is Günter Grass and therefore has a Nobel price. In literature. Did you knew he drinks wine in public. Odd.
posted by ugly_n_sticky at 1:13 AM on September 28, 2002

"It's Saddam Hussein and .... SADDAM HUSSEIN in The Parent Trap!"

Alternate:

"Meet Saddam who's been most everywhere,
From Zanzibar to Harold Square.
But Saddam₂'s only seen the sites
A girl can see from Brooklyn heights.
What a crazy pair!"
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 5:53 AM on September 28, 2002