In a show of international solidarity, NewsCorpse's big London (UK) tabloid front-paged Saddam pottering peacefully around his room in his underdungers.
24 hours later, is what we have here a pro-Saddam Media Riot?
If so, here's what a genuine media-made riot might look like. Compare and discuss:
Shiites Stage Mass Anti-U.S. Protests
By ABDUL HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 11 minutes ago
A little more below the fold.
NAJAF, Iraq - Thousands of Shiites, many waving Islam's holy book over their heads, protested the U.S. presence in Iraq on Friday after the detention of several supporters of a radical cleric, while Sunnis shut down places of worship elsewhere in a show of anger over alleged sectarian violence against the minority.
Flush with victory over Newsweek and with The Dirty Digger's invaluable assistance, the US military is apparently going after the International Red Cross:
The U.S. military also launched what it said would be an aggressive investigation into how a British newspaper got pictures of an imprisoned Saddam Hussein clad only in his underwear, saying the photos violated military guidelines and possibly the Geneva convention on the humane treatment of prisoners.
The photos, which appeared on the front pages of the British tabloid Sun and the New York Post and were broadcast across the Middle East by some Arab satellite networks, were expected to fuel anti-American sentiment among supporters of the former dictator who are believed to be the driving force behind the country's insurgency [=Fight for Freedom From American Occupation, as the article awkwardly explains below].
[snip]
The protests, which drew an estimated total of 6,000 demonstrators in the three cities, followed radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's call Wednesday to reject the U.S. occupation of Iraq by painting Israeli and American flags on the ground outside mosques to be stepped on in protest raids against holy places.
[snip]
Al-Sadr, a burly, black-bearded cleric, launched two uprisings against U.S. forces in Baghdad and Najaf in April and August last year, then went into hiding before surfacing on Monday to demand that U.S.-led forces withdraw from the country.
"From this platform, we warn the government not to fight the al-Sadr movement because all the tyrants of the world could not beat it," Hazim al-Araji, the imam of a mosque in Kufa during Friday;s sermon. "We say to the government do not be a tyrant like Saddam or (former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad) Allawi."
In the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Kufa, al-Sadr followers painted American and Israeli flags on most streets near mosques before stepping on them. [Not the hoped-for civil war, then.]
"Down, down Israel; down, down USA," chanted protesters following midday prayers at a Kufa mosque.
In Nasiriyah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, al-Sadr supporters clashed with guards at the headquarters of Dhi Qar provincial governor, Aziz Abed Alwan.
[snip]