Two more hangings in Baghdad ... including one with a severed head. Here are the gory details:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq hanged two aides to Saddam Hussein before dawn on Monday but government efforts to avoid a repeat of uproar over the ousted leader's rowdy execution were thwarted when his half-brother's head was severed by the noose.
Many of the government's Shi'ite Muslim supporters rejoiced at the death of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's once feared intelligence chief who was accused of sending people to death in a meat grinder. But voices in Iraq's Sunni Arab minority saw the decapitation as a deliberate sectarian act of revenge.
Government spokesmen said the severing of Barzan's head was a rare hangman's blunder. Critics said it may have been partly a result of Barzan's illness with cancer.
Officials showed journalists film of Barzan and former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander standing side by side in orange jumpsuits on the scaffold, appearing pale and trembling with fear as the hangmen placed black hoods over their heads.
As the two trap doors swung open, the force of the rope jerked Bander's head off. The head fell to the floor next to his body in a pool of blood as Bander's corpse swung above it.
The officials said they had decided not to distribute any part of the film to the public -- unlike footage shown of Saddam standing on the gallows.
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters the hanging of the two men was "an Iraqi decision, an Iraqi execution." But some countries in the European Union, to which Iraq is looking for economic aid, expressed disgust. The United Nations had appealed for mercy.
The government film was silent but officials said there was no disturbance in the execution chamber like the taunting that occurred at Saddam's hanging. The chamber was apparently the same one where Saddam was hanged on December 30. Apparently, Iraqi officials had made all of the witnesses sign documents pledging to behave with a sense of decorum. How nice.
Meanwhile, Jawa has new details ... and new pics ... on the new video of Saddam's lynch-like hanging. By the way, this is what the aftermath of a hanging looks like, when the head doesn't pop off:
Also courtesy of Jawa (long time, no link...) is a link to ye old Saddam fellow travelers hanging coverage. It oughta make you proud to be an American... where we make the world safe for sectarian lynching.
More on the continued Iraqi parade of carnage and indignity from the BBCLabels: Bush administration, Iraq, Iraq war, Saddam |
