Wickham's musings from Chalke

 
Saddam Hussein was hanged just after 6.00 am on Saturday morning 30/12/06 in an Iraqi army base in Kazimain, a neighbourhood of northeast Baghdad. There has been a lot of discussion on the internet, on TV and in newspapers.

The official video issued by the Iraqi goverment had no sound and the video stopped just before the trap door opened under Saddam. The video was taken from the top of the steel platform looking towards the access steps showing about five hooded executioners with Saddam. It looked fairly calm and dignified as one executioner explained what he had to do and Saddam was seen replying.

Yesterday the internet had lots of links to an unofficial version which one of the witnesses had taken on his mobile phone. This version was taken looking up from the bottom of the steps. It had sound and it was clear that a lot of taunting and insulting was happening.

The Independent reported that National security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told The New York Times that one of the guards shouted at Saddam:
"You have destroyed us. You have killed us. You have made us live in destitution."
"I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persians and Americans," Saddam responded.
"God damn you," the guard said.
"God damn you," came the reply.
Saddam: "Oh God."
The assembled witnesses to the execution, gathered below the gallows, can be heard ignoring appeals for propriety.
Voices: "May God's blessings be upon Mohamed and his household. And may God hasten their appearance and curse their enemies."
Voices: "Moqtada [al-Sadr] ... Moqtada ... Moqtada." That is a reference to the powerful young Shia militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, whose father, a revered Shia cleric, was executed by Saddam in 1999.
Saddam: "Do you consider this bravery?"
Voice: "Long live Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr."
Voice: "To hell."
Voice: "Please do not. The man is being executed. Please no, I beg you to stop."
Then as the noose was ready around his neck Saddam recited a prayer:
"There is no God but Allah and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God," he intones. "There is no God but Allah and I testify that Muhammad..."

The trap door opened with a clang and Saddam fell very quickly. There was much shouting and the witnesses obviously rushed up the steps because the mobile phone video next showed Saddam's face swinging below in the noose.

The platform must have been about seven feet above the floor in a small badly lit room with concrete walls and ceiling. Occasionally the metal plate bolted to the ceiling was shown and there appeared to be two ropes hanging from it. I thought that someone said that the rope normally had about three feet of slack but Saddam seemed to fall right through the platform and the video next showed his face viewed from above.

The mobile phone video is currently accessible from www.vwho.net but I suppose it may be removed. There was an earlier video of a man being interviewed in a US police station. As the policeman turned away to look at some papers the man pulled a gun from his shorts and shot himself in the head, slumping slightly to one side. The policeman mumbled something like "Oh God, why didn't someone check him". The video was removed after a few days, presumably because most of these video sites ban sex and violence.

It's ironic that Saddam was reciting prayers and had taken a Koran with him as he was not religious until recently; even more ironic that his last word was Muhammad.

The prosecutor who was there said he nearly cancelled the execution because of all the insults. He also said that he saw two government officials with mobile phones, even though they had all been searched before entry. If so, why did he not delay the execution for a few minutes to confiscate the phones? It seems that he wasn't too bothered at the time but now there is a lot of fuss about it all and a government inquiry has been started into the matter.

There was a poll on The Motley Fool UK discussion board "Land of Serious Topics" and I voted against the question: "Is it right to have executed him?" The latest result is 44% Yes and 56% No. Idi Amin was also a dictator who allowed lots of people to be murdered but he lived quietly in exile for about thirty years. If he had any followers they obviously soon ignored him and I wonder whether the same might not have happened with Saddam.

Saddam has lots of followers at present and he is now considered a martyr because of his dignified bearing on the scaffold. Sectarian violence will continue for some time and I think his death will just make it worse for a while.

Two others, Saddam's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, and a former judge, Awad al-Bander, convicted with Saddam last month, are to be executed after the week long Eid al-Adha holiday.

Edit: 08/01/07

Some people have said that taking and publishing a mobile phone video is criminal and ghoulish. However, we now know that the whole world was totally misled by the official Iraqi version which, having no sound, gave the impression of a dignified and well-organised execution. In the mobile phone version we heard shouting and Saddam was returning insults. If the mobile phone video had not been released the next executions would probably have been undignified too.

When someone criticises something a common question is "Have you seen it/read it?" If the answer is "No" then the next remark is "Well, if you haven't seen it/read it, how can you criticise?" I think this was an incident where the leak of the unofficial mobile phone video was very useful.

The world of politics has far too much spin; in the UK we have also had leaks which have exposed the spin by government as a very distorted version of the truth. In this information age the more information we have from both sides of an argument as well as unbiased reporting the better we can make a judgment for ourselves.