The Sun – Britian’s most pathetic excuse for a paper – is at it again. In it’s “world exclusive” it shows pictures of the imprisoned Saddam Hussein in his underpants.

The Sun boasts:

HE WAS once the world’s most feared despot with the blood of innocent thousands on his murderous hands.

Now Saddam Hussein is reduced to shuffling around his prison compound in his underpants and washing his OWN dirty socks in a simple bowl.

The Sun newspaper’s world exclusive shots give a first fascinating insight into his pathetic life behind bars.

Regardless of what this man has done in the country he once ran, he is still effectively a Prisoner of War, and as such has rights under the Geneva Convention. Whatever you think of the attrocities he and his minions committed, those rights have been put in place, and they must either be completely adhered to, or not at all.

The Sun thinks it gives a ‘fascinating insight into his pathetic life’. Actually, it gives further predictable insight into the pathetic lives of the ‘journalists’ and editors who work for this tabloid trash.

This is not real news. We all know Saddam Hussein is in prison. How does seeing a picture of him in his underwear add any value to that news?

According to the BBC News article, The Sun said it “thought long and hard” before publishing. About three minutes, probably, between deciding which busty blonde to put on Page 3 and how to write an oh-so-funny sport headline.

I wonder if they thought for a greater amount of time than when they carried out their denial of service attack on the Swiss referee that apparently was the sole cause of England’s defeat in Euro 2004.

Pathetic, as usual. Sadder still that The Sun is Britain’s most popular ‘newspaper’. Trash, pure trash.

Update 21 May 2005: The Geneva Convention states:

Prisoners of war must be humanely treated at all times. Any unlawful act which causes death or seriously endangers the health of a prisoner of war is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions. In particular, prisoners must not be subject to physical mutilation, biological experiments, violence, intimidation, insults, and public curiosity. (Convention III, Art. 13)

The Sun’s managing editor, Graham Dudman’s, response?

People seem to forget that this is a man who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and all that’s happened to him is someone has taken his picture

I don’t think for a moment people have forgotten. Whilst this may seem trival, Graham, your paper has still most likely breached a Convention; therefore once again you show disregard and contempt for laws and conventions.

This is a sort of modern-day Adolf Hitler. These pictures are an extraordinary iconic news image that will still be being looked at the end of this century

Whatever, Graham. Now what super-funny headlines can we concoct with ‘Dud’ and ‘Man’ in the title?