The Many Faces Of Saddam

A German forensic pathologist said Friday that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has used at least three men as doubles for public appearances over the last four years.

Dr. Dieter Buhmann said he examined some 450 images from videos of public appearances of people purporting to be Saddam and can prove that the Iraqi leader is not always what he seems.

"The anatomical specificity of the faces are different," Buhmann said. "One, for example, has a very large middle face. The distance from one ear to the other is very much different (from) Saddam Hussein. And in another case the region under the mouth is too small and not high enough."

Saddam's elaborate security precautions have been widely reported in the Arab press, which has said he makes frequent use of doubles and never spends two nights in a row in the same building.

Buhmann, a pathologist at the University of the Saarland in Homburg since 1979, said he presented his technique of comparing facial features at an FBI forum in 2000, but did not know if U.S. authorities had adopted the technique.

He took on the Saddam project for a German public television station.