Saddam Loving Celebrity Watchers

The BBC does its own version of Hello! magazine as Martin Asser speculates about Saddam's 'sylph-like' appearance and whether his daughter has had a 'tummy-tuck'. He also mentions rumours that Saddam is a long-term 'afficionado' of the Atkins Diet.

It's just disrespectful to the people who suffered under Saddam's regime to discuss him in these ways. It will make it difficult for the Iraqi courts to establish the right kind of seriousness and authority if international media like the BBC treat the despot with this kind of levity. There's little doubt that Saddam's biggest encouragements over the last sixteen months (and more) have come from the western media.

The Beeb seem to think that since Gen. Myers mentioned Saddam's weight loss and followed it with a comment about excercise it was the cue for them to go all girly magazine (doesn't take much urging for the lightweights at the Beeb). It ought to be obvious that there is a reason for mentioning Saddam's physical condition: the media's distrust of US treatment of prisoners. Asser avoids saying this.

The serious point just doesn't seem to register. Hysterically anxious one moment; unserious the next. The Beeb set one fine example.

Asser makes one or two interesting asides. One of them is to describe items for the weight-conscious that were ordered by Saddam's regime via the UN. He says unambiguously 'all purchases were blocked by the UN'- and seems to imply a much frostier relationship than we've heard about recently via people like Claudia Rosett. But then, the Beeb don't take that seriously, either.

One final thing; to refer to Saddam as 'Iraq's political strongman' as Asser does in his conclusion seems to be understating things badly. I hate to harp on, but the term 'strongman' was used in a broadcast by Orla Guerin in April this year to describe Ariel Sharon (I heard it with my disbelieving ears). There's no doubt that Saddam will use his sham elections to defend himself as the popular leader of Iraq in his coming trial. Do the BBC agree with this defence?