Hussein Execution Imminent?

[SWJED]

Here is a link to the entire execution as reportedly taken by a cell phone video camera.

[Bill Moore]

It is disappointing that the government's executioners chanted long live Al Sadr. I think the Iraqi government did a poor job managing this stage event, and the propaganda they gave the Sunni insurgents is invaluable to them.

[Uboat509]

I have said before that we cannot kill al-Sadr until we isolate him from Maliki, despite the fact that al-Sadr clearly needs to go. Now I wonder if it is even possible to isolate him. This execution seems to me to have tied them even closer together. I didn't think there could possibly be a downside to Saddam's execution but it appears that by using the Mahdi army to perform the execution, Maliki may have handed to Sunni insurgents a huge propaganda gift. There can be no doubt that Saddam's execution was justice but I cannot shake the feeling that to a Sunni, even one who was not a Ba'athist, this looks like vengeance and it looks like the Mahdi army is running things.

SFC W

[SWJED]

... of Saddam's last words:

A witness, Iraqi Judge Munir Haddad, said that one of the executioners told Hussein that the former dictator had destroyed Iraq, which sparked an argument that was joined by several government officials in the room.

As a noose was tightened around Hussein's neck, one of the executioners yelled "long live Muqtada al-Sadr," Haddad said, referring to the powerful anti-American Shiite religious leader.

Hussein, a Sunni, uttered one last phrase before he died, saying "Muqtada al-Sadr" in a mocking tone, according to Haddad's account.

[Jedburgh]

I have said before that we cannot kill al-Sadr until we isolate him from Maliki, despite the fact that al-Sadr clearly needs to go. Now I wonder if it is even possible to isolate him. This execution seems to me to have tied them even closer together. I didn't think there could possibly be a downside to Saddam's execution but it appears that by using the Mahdi army to perform the execution, Maliki may have handed to Sunni insurgents a huge propaganda gift. There can be no doubt that Saddam's execution was justice but I cannot shake the feeling that to a Sunni, even one who was not a Ba'athist, this looks like vengeance and it looks like the Mahdi army is running things.

SFC W

The final sentence of the blog post on the execution that RTK linked to earlier in this thread sums it up nicely: ...it is informative to the extent that it reveals the political baggage that the current government carries on its shoulders. It does not add up to a pretty picture.

[Tc2642]

Hanging him mid-prayer wasn't a good idea either. Too me the whole thing was a fiasco, what were they thinking letting someone in with a camera-phone? It would have been much better if a non partisan executioner had been involved. Just another milestone in the bloody mess that is now Iraq.

[Rob Thornton]

Well here is one we did not catch until too late. For those of you who know a little about the Hajj (I'm learning as I go here) there are certain things you are not supposed to do during it. Killing is one of them. Now - there are exceptions, war is war after all, but here is something I found out yesterday and confirmed today. The Sunni and Shiite have slightly different time schedules for the Hajj. The Sunni'd begin a day early and end a day early. The Maliki govt. did not want to execute Saddam during the holiday, so they executed him a day early then the beginning of the Hajj - by the Shiite Calendar! So Sunni Saddam was hung on the beginning of the Sunni holiday. Guess what the perception by the Iraqi Sunni is, especially when combined with the chanting of Sadr's name? Its not just Iraqis that are torqued either - Sunni Arabs in other Gulf States are not too happy either. One of our better terps commented that this is a great way to start a civil war. One of my IA counterparts told me he'd not be surprised to see some significant Shiite target by Sunnis in Baghdad.

Its hard to imagine that any Shiite living in Iraq would not know that that the Sunni holiday began a day early, and that it would not be perceived as a slap in the face to the Sunni. There has been so little activity in Mosul the last few days, I'm wondering if all the Sunni AIF went South?

[SWJED]

Iraqi Government to Investigate Saddam Execution, Unauthorized Video - VOA.

Iraqi officials say they have launched an inquiry into the conduct of the execution of Saddam Hussein and how it was secretly recorded. Unlike the official execution videotape, which was silent, a mobile phone camera captured picture and sound of Saddam being taunted and then dropping to his death. One person also can be heard shouting "Moqtada," the name of a radical Shi'ite cleric and opponent of Saddam.

Iraqi Government to Investigate Saddam Hanging, Leak of Video - AP.

The prime minister on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the conduct of Saddam Hussein's execution in a bid to learn who among the witnesses taunted the former Iraqi leader in the last minutes of his life, then leaked a cell phone video. The video contained audio of some witnesses taunting Saddam with chants of "Muqtada" and of the former leader responding that his tormentors were being unmanly. It surfaced on Al-Jazeera television and the Internet late Saturday, the day Saddam was hanged.