Seeing double: Haider and Saddam's doubles

Seeing Double

A few months ago, Austrian right-wing politician and political enfant terrible Jörg Haider caused quite an uproar when he travelled to Iraq on what he claimed was a "humanitarian mission", met and shook hands with Saddam Hussein and extended his greetings and "the best wishes of the Austrian people" to Saddam. Green party leader Alexander van der Bellen, usually a very stoic, thoughtful man, summarized pretty much what just about everybody in Austria thought when he said: "Haider has now gone completely gaga."

Now it seems Haider didn't meet Saddam after all. According to the Austrian news magazine Format, German forensic law professor Dieter Buhmann claims that Haider merely met one of Saddam's doubles. Buhmann says that he has done extensive research on video footage of Saddam Hussein, and his results have shown that there are at least three doubles of Saddam, surgically altered to look like him. Haider was apparently not important enough to be met by the real McCoy Saddam, for the person on the picture with him (left) was not the one that spoke to the League of Arab Nations earlier this year (right).

But wait! Take another look at this picture. Maybe the person on the left isn't Jörg Haider at all. Maybe Haider felt that Saddam wasn't all that important and therefore sent one of his own doubles. Or maybe we'll soon hear a press release from the Freedom Party that Haider wasn't really in Iraq, in fact somebody else sent a Haider double to Iraq to discredit him. Haider double meets Saddam double. The possibilities are endless...