Controversial phone card with image of captured Saddam pulled from market

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2005

SAO PAULO (AFP) — A telephone card bearing an image of deposed Iraq leader Saddam Hussein was pulled off the Brazilian market by Telefonica after Sao Paulo prosecutors threatened the telephone company, a company spokesman told AFP.

The card, featuring a heavily bearded Hussein in the custody of soldiers, one of whom is pointing his gun at the former dictator, was issued by the company in June as part of its "World History" series.

But Telefonica withdrew the card this week after local prosecutors threatened to charge the company with inciting violence and racial intolerance and representing only one view - that of the United States - of Hussein's situation.

"Telefonica regrets the trouble caused to the public and our clients by this phone card carrying a...