How Saddam died on the gallows

The death of Saddam on the gallows was always going to inflame sectarian tensions in Iraq, but this is likely to be made worse with the news that Saddam was taunted as he faced death by the masked men who surrounded him.

While Saddam was professing Muhammad as God's prophet, he was interrupted by shouts. One of the people observing the execution chants "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada". Saddam dismissively repeats the name Moqtada. The noose around his neck, he appears to smile and shoots back: "Do you consider this bravery?"

Another voice shouts at him to "Go to hell". Saddam, seemingly accusing his enemies of destroying the country he once led, replies: "The hell that is Iraq?"

A Shia shouts "Long live Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr," a member of Moqtada's family thought to have been assassinated by Saddam's security services. Another onlooker pleads for dignity: "Please don't, the man is facing execution. Please don't. I beg you, no!"

As Saddam continues with his prayers, saying "I profess that there is no God but God and that Muhammad ...", the executioners release the trapdoor. There is a shout: "The tyrant has fallen."

The fact that he was hung whilst in the middle of prayers will now become part of the legend of Saddam Hussein. And the Sunnis seem determined to avenge what they see as the hijacking of Saddam's death by "Persians".

A man from Mosul, a mixed city in the north, told Reuters: "The Persians have killed him. I can't believe it. By God, we will take revenge." He was referring to Iraq's new leaders' ties to Shia Iran, and the Shia in general.

Accusations that the government had mishandled the execution were not confined to Sunni regions. In the Kurdish region, there was also criticism. "This execution should have been for all of Saddam's victims, and instead they have hijacked it and turned it into a sectarian event," said Anwar Abdullah, a student at the technical institute of Sulaymaniyah.

Rebwar Suliman, 21, whose uncle and grandfather were killed by Saddam's secret police in Kurdistan in the 1980s, said: "It does a dishonour to the Kurds."

It now becomes obvious why the first footage released of the execution was released without sound. But in this age of YouTube and digital cameras it was only a matter of time before the truth came out. Indeed, the footage that shows this exchange appears to have come from a mobile phone camera.

The news of this exchange seems to highlight all that was wrong with the trial and execution of Saddam. When one considers the crimes that he committed it should have been fairly easy to conduct a fair trial against him and ensure a guilty verdict, the fact that this didn't happen is one of the most staggering acts of incompetence in an invasion already marked with many acts of staggering incompetence.

However, to send the man to his death surrounded by people mocking him seems to me to be a particularly shoddy way to herald "democracy" and a better way of living into Iraq. I, of course, know that neither of those things is remotely a reality in Bush's Iraq, but that is supposedly the ambition.

How can either of these things ever be achieved if people cannot even be sent to their deaths without being mocked?

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.

His execution was always a scabby affair, but few of us could have imagined that it was half as scabby as it now appears to have been.

I'm sure many on the right will argue that Saddam did not allow his victims dignity at the time of their deaths, however, they seem to be missing the point.

The hope was that the US invasion would herald a new democratic Iraq where the rule of law was sacrosanct. What we are witnessing is a form of mob rule that would not have been permitted even under Saddam's rule.

I've always argued that Bush's greatest crime and greatest failure is the fact that he has failed to ensure the order in Iraq on which all other elements of a civilised society depend. It's scandalous that this lack of order has also permeated into the act that will define - more than any other - the toppling of Saddam.

The US couldn't ensure order even as they hanged him.

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tag: Saddam Hussein, execution, hanging, Iraq war, Bush, death penalty