by Tom Zeller
The New York Times
October 6, 2002
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.
IN a rhetorical turn that conjured Clint Eastwood, Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, suggested last week that the estimated cost of a war in Iraq -- tens of billions of dollars by most counts -- might be needlessly high. ''The cost of one bullet,'' Mr. Fleischer said, ''if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less than that.''
The none-too-subtle implication, of course, was that any ambitious fortune hunter with a firearm and a clear shot of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein should recognize the opportunity and take aim.
Mr. Fleischer subsequently backpedaled, but sympathetic marksmen in Iraq could have told him that even a point-blank opportunity might prove fruitless. Shoot Saddam Hussein? Fine. But which one?
It's a question that even American troops might face.
Intelligence officials have long suspected that the Iraqi president makes ample use of body-doubles -- an idea reinforced two weeks ago when a German television news program asked a forensic pathologist to examine hundreds of archived photographs and video stills of the Iraqi leader. The pathologist, Dr. Dieter Buhmann of Homberg University in Saarland, determined that there are at least three Saddam Hussein lookalikes in rotation, making public appearances, firing rifles, smoking cigars, waving and strutting. (The doubles rarely speak, it was suggested, because Mr. Hussein has an inimitable lisp.)
Iraqi dissidents have told stories of impostor Husseins in the past -- of recruitment schemes and plastic surgery, of training in mannerisms, strides and tics. The differences can seem remarkably subtle. In some instances, Dr. Buhmann suggested, the face of the doppelgänger was just a hair too wide. In others, the area under the mouth was just a bit too small and too low.
Which makes it all the more unlikely that the Bush administration would accept Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan's suggestion -- apparently made in response to Mr. Fleischer's tough talk -- that the two presidents simply take it all outside and settle things mano-a-mano in a duel (with United Nations oversight, of course). How could anyone be sure that the man behind the mustache was really Mr. Hussein?
''One of the main reasons for using a double is to avoid being shot,'' said Dino A. Brugioni, a former officer with the Central Intelligence Agency's National Photographic Interpretation Center and the author of the book ''Photo Fakery'' (Brassey's, 1999).
Indeed, the pop-culture fascination with cloak-and-dagger devices like doubles, disguises and decoys tends to give Mr. Hussein's use of lookalikes a sort of buffoonish quality. But this is serious business, with a long history. And it would be naÛve, some intelligence officials have suggested, to think that everyone isn't playing the game.
''The truth must have a bodyguard of lies,'' said Antonio Mendez, a former chief of disguise for the C.I.A. and a co-author of the book ''Spy Dust'' (Atria Books, 2002). He was paraphrasing the famous words of Winston Churchill, who was known to have made use of a double himself. So too did George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Most world leaders, in fact -- and the intelligence apparata surrounding them -- consider doubles and decoys a part of their bag of tricks.
''It's definitely a play that one wants to have in their arsenal,'' Mr. Mendez said. ''It's the sort of thing that comes to mind immediately when you think about the good guys and the bad guys. The idea of bilocation -- of being able to be in two places at once -- is key to some situations of security,'' he said. ''Everyone uses it.''
J UST what lengths a government like Iraq might go to is only a matter of resources. Finding lookalikes willing to serve a higher calling isn't difficult, Mr. Mendez said, particularly when patriotic passions are inflamed. Makeup artists are deft at making temporary changes. And turning to plastic surgery for more permanent alterations is common in every corner of international intrigue. Iraq is not likely to be an exception.
Which would make expediting so-called regime change in Iraq with an assassin's bullet -- whatever the savings, both in lives and cash -- a bit more daunting.
''It's a matter of playing a little bit of roulette,'' Mr. Mendez said. ''It goes with the turf.''
Photos (MSNBC); (Central Intelligence Agency); ZDF-auslandsjournal); (Royal Army Pay Corps) Chart: ''The Many Faces of Saddam . . .'' Spotting impostor Saddams can be a daunting business. Facial features need to be scrutinized, mustaches and eyebrows measured. Here's how a German team went about it. FOREST OF FACES -- Hundreds of photographs and video stills of Saddam Hussein were examined, looking for similar angles and profiles. The best shots were selected for digital enhancement so that facial features could be compared. LINING THEM UP -- As images were selected, they were resized to align facial features with those on images known to be of the real Saddam Hussein. REFERENCE POINTS -- Facial relationships that should remain stable over time, such as the width of the eyes, were mapped, measured and compared. In the end, the research suggested that Saddam uses at least three different doubles. At left, what might be a boatful of them. These four images came from the German research project. Can you spot the real Saddam among the impostors? . . . Are Simply Part Of a Global Game Both in war and times of peace, most governments make use of doubles -- for security reasons or otherwise. GOOD GUYS -- At Gibraltar and in Algiers during World War II, the actor Clifton James (bottom image) doubled for Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery (top). BAD GUYS . . . -- Mao Zedong's double was spotted by analyzing his ear (below). In the book Photo Fakery, the middle Mao is said to be the impostor. . . . AND BUFFOONS -- Uganda's Idi Amin was known to employ a body-double -- most frequently when he thought he was in danger of being shot. The real Mr. Amin is in the bottom image.
Correction: October 20, 2002, Sunday A picture caption on Oct. 6 with an article about President Saddam Hussein's use of lookalikes in Iraq reversed the identities of Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery and his lookalike in World War II, Clifton James. Mr. James was shown in the top picture.