Iraqi Government investigates Saddam footage

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

From today's news:

Iraq investigates Saddam footage

The Iraqi government has launched an inquiry into unofficial mobile phone footage showing the execution of former leader Saddam Hussein.

The mobile phone footage showed he exchanged taunts and insults with witnesses at his hanging on Saturday.

The grainy video showed the former leader being told to "go to hell" by someone attending the hanging.

One of the trial prosecutors who saw the execution said he threatened to halt it if the jeering did not stop.

Munkith al-Faroon - who can be heard appealing for order on the unofficial video - said that he had threatened to walk out.

This could have halted the execution, as a prosecution observer must, by law, be present.

Mr Faroon also said he knew "two top officials... had their mobile phones with them [at the execution]. There were no mobile phones allowed at that time."

The Iraqi authorities fear the footage, released on the internet hours after the execution, could contribute to a dramatic rise in sectarian tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities.

"There were a few guards who shouted slogans that were inappropriate and that's now the subject of a government investigation," an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, Sami al-Askari, told Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Peter Greste, in Baghdad, says Iraq's government is desperate to clear the air, having hoped that the execution would signal the start of the reconciliation process between the Sunni and Shia communities.

I think whoever was involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves

John Prescott

Today interview

Death scenes 'deplorable'

But an internet message claiming to be from Saddam Hussein's fugitive deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, said the execution would reinforce the anti-US insurgency.

"Assassinating a leader will only strengthen the will of the Baath Party... and increase their determination to escalate their jihad," the message said.

Violence

Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November over the killings of 148 Shias from the town of Dujail in the 1980s.

He was executed before dawn on Saturday in Baghdad and buried near his hometown of Tikrit a day later.

The daily cycle of violence in Iraq has continued since the execution.

In the latest developments:

* A US marine killed an Iraqi soldier in an apparent fight at security post in the western town of Falluja

* Gunmen shot and killed a provincial politician and three others travelling with him in Diyala province, officials said

* US forces killed a suspected al-Qaeda weapons dealer and two others in Baghdad on Tuesday, the military said

* Three people died and seven others were wounded when a bomb hidden in a pile of rubbish exploded in a mixed Sunni-Shia area of Baghdad

* Police said 45 bodies were found in Baghdad, apparent victims of the sectarian violence

Chants and insults

The Iraqi authorities released official footage of Saddam Hussein's execution to prove to the public that he was dead.

But that film did not include any sound and did not show the actual moment of death.

The grainy mobile phone footage that emerged hours later was shot from below the gallows.

As Saddam Hussein is led towards the trapdoor, one of the unseen observers shouts "go to hell".

Others can be heard chanting the name of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr and of Muhammad Sadiq Sadr, his father who was murdered by Saddam Hussein's agents.

In response Saddam Hussein is sarcastic, asking "do you consider this bravery?"

In a BBC interview, UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott condemned the surfacing of video clips on the internet.

"Frankly, to get the kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable," he said.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

saddam's tribespeople should sue manufacturers of camera cell phones for emotional damages.

[mawilson 2,133]

The whole thing is f*cked up. As Stephen Moss writes today:

"Saddam's killers have achieved the impossible: they have made us feel sympathy

for him, for his grace under pressure. There may not have been dignity in the dying,

but there was courage. A five-star death."

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The whole thing is f*cked up. As Stephen Moss writes today:

"Saddam's killers have achieved the impossible: they have made us feel sympathy

for him, for his grace under pressure. There may not have been dignity in the dying,

but there was courage. A five-star death."

Yes they have - and in releasing the video sans the sound of the sectarian hecklers and the prosecutor's objections they have (yet again) played into the hands of the fundamentalists. Hopefully someone will get it right soon - but its not encouraging considering that they have botched almost every major play.

[Robor007 0]

The whole thing is f*cked up. As Stephen Moss writes today:

"Saddam's killers have achieved the impossible: they have made us feel sympathy

for him, for his grace under pressure. There may not have been dignity in the dying,

but there was courage. A five-star death."

Please don't include *me* with 'us' in that statement. Given his actions in life I can only say his death was too quick.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The whole thing is f*cked up. As Stephen Moss writes today:

"Saddam's killers have achieved the impossible: they have made us feel sympathy

for him, for his grace under pressure. There may not have been dignity in the dying,

but there was courage. A five-star death."

Please don't include *me* with 'us' in that statement. Given his actions in life I can only say his death was too quick.

He was saying that the execution was conducted in a manner that will likely increase the sectarian violence. The official video contained no sound, the unofficial one showed Saddam being taunted by several people with loyalties/sympathies to Moqtada Al Sadr (a militant Shia cleric). That raises some questions - the sound was likely removed because the government didn't want people hearing the taunting - precisely because it presents the execution as an act of sectarian revenge, not genuine justice. As a result they have effectively martyred Saddam... hardly the ideal outcome.

Then there's the issue that Saddam was only tried and convicted of the deaths of 148 people. 148 people got their day in court to bear witness to the crimes perpetrated against them, opposed to the many thousands that didn't.

That's important because many former Saddam army personnel who perpetrated atrocities on behalf of the leadership (and likely in pursuit of their own personal gain) may not face trial because rather than investigate the entirety of the crimes that the regime has committed, Saddam has effectively taken the fall for everything.

More than that - if you saw the news report about the British raid in Basra last week and other articles that have appeared in the press over the last few months about Iraqi police participating in Death Squad activities, it seems that many of those people have been getting their jobs back...

Edited January 3, 2007 by erekose

[kaydee457 13]

Well, I think a thorough investigation is in order. The video was absent of detail, was obviously amateurish, and I am generally unhappy with its quality.

I would have liked more detail; his swinging on the rope would have been great but the graininess and quality of the video was disappointing.

Perhaps they can do better the next time around?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well, I think a thorough investigation is in order. The video was absent of detail, was obviously amateurish, and I am generally unhappy with its quality.

I would have liked more detail; his swinging on the rope would have been great but the graininess and quality of the video was disappointing.

Perhaps they can do better the next time around?

Thank you adding your practical experience and big picture perspective.

Of course a sectarian revenge killing will do wonders for the security situation and the legitimacy of this government.

And I wonder how much safer it will make the US troops that you claim to support...?

Somewhere amid those trees, there's a forest...

Edited January 3, 2007 by erekose

[Lizzy 0]

Whoever was being put to death, this was no way to treat them, it should in my eyes of been a quiet time before hand, imagine being put to death and not even being able to pray in peace.

WHOEVER was being killed, this is unacceptable in my eyes.

[Ban Hammer 14,414]

Whoever was being put to death, this was no way to treat them, it should in my eyes of been a quiet time before hand, imagine being put to death and not even being able to pray in peace.

WHOEVER was being killed, this is unacceptable in my eyes.

i suppose having saddam drawn and quartered would be out of the question then?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

This is interesting - the guy who shot the "unofficial", "unedited" video has been arrested on what looks like treason charges...

Guard 'quizzed over Saddam video'

A guard present at Saddam Hussein's execution is being questioned over the unofficial mobile phone footage of the hanging, Iraqi officials say.

Iraqi authorities have pledged to track down the person responsible for a video in which the former Iraqi leader was seen being taunted in his last moments.

The US military has said it would have handled the execution differently.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants may be hanged on Thursday.

Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan Al-Tikriti, and a former chief judge, Awad Al-Bandar, were both found guilty and sentenced to death alongside their leader.

An Iraqi government official, Sami Al-Askari, denied the reports that a date had been set for their execution.

Sectarian issues

Meanwhile, a committee investigating who had made the unofficial film of the execution was questioning a guard at the prison facility where Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn on Saturday, Iraq's national security adviser said.

Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie was present at the execution.

He said the unofficial video was "disgusting" and that the taunting - including chants praising Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr - had damaged relations between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

There seems to be a lot of concern about the last two minutes of Saddam Hussein's life and less about the first 69 years

Tony Snow

White House spokesman

Papers fear Iraq tension

Video shows hanging taunts

"Whoever leaked this video meant to harm national reconciliation and drive a wedge between Shi'ites and Sunnis," he told the Reuters news agency.

Haider Majeed, an official in Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's media office, was quoted by AFP as saying: "It's true. One of the guards has been arrested."

The prime minister's office itself has not yet confirmed the arrest, but has acknowledged the statement by Mr Majeed.

Iraq's government has expressed its concern over the release of the video.

The official government video of the execution did not include any audio and did not show Saddam Hussein's actual death.

But in the mobile phone video shot in the gallows chamber men could be heard shouting insults at the prisoner before he dropped through the gallows platform.

Mixed messages

Earlier on Wednesday, the US military commander in Iraqi, Maj Gen William Caldwell, said the US would have handled the execution differently, and denied reports that US troops searched people entering the room.

"This was a government of Iraq decision on how that whole process went down," he said.

But White House spokesman Tony Snow said criticism of the way the execution unfolded was deflecting attention from Saddam Hussein's real crimes.

"There seems to be a lot of concern about the last two minutes of Saddam Hussein's life and less about the first 69 [years], in which he murdered hundreds of thousands of people," Mr Snow said.

"That's why he was executed

[Lizzy 0]

LOL i would say so yes!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Another "non-story"

Boys hanged while 'copying Saddam'

[Ban Hammer 14,414]

Another "non-story"

Boys hanged while 'copying Saddam'

a darwin award?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Another "non-story"

Boys hanged while 'copying Saddam'

a darwin award?

Easy to say.