Saddam aide decapitated in hanging

After the public relations disaster that followed the hanging of Saddam, the Iraqi's were keen for the hanging of his half brother not to repeat the mistakes made at Saddam's execution. To this end, onlookers were made to sign papers promising that they would not make any recording of the event.

As far as we can tell the onlookers complied with this request. Certainly no videos have appeared on YouTube.

Which is just as well, as Maliki's government managed to decapitate Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti as they hung him. You couldn't make this stuff up.

At a time when Maliki's government is supposedly seeking to lessen tensions between the Sunni and Shia populations, the hanging of Saddam's half brother was always going to be controversial. To balls it up to the extent that you manage to decapitate him is unfortunate to say the least.

If one is insisting on carrying out a practice as inhumane as hanging, the least we could ask is that one asks the experts. Surely they would have advised against using any form of synthetic rope? Which is the only thing I can assume has led to this macabre spectacle.

In any case, events that were always going to prove controversial have now become incendiary. Every time you think they couldn't possibly fuck this up any more than they already have, they produce another whopper.

A video tape of the execution of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, once Saddam's merciless intelligence chief, shows his hooded head lying some feet away from his body. The former judge, Awad Hamer al-Bander, was hanged with him.

"The convicts were not subjected to any mistreatment," said a government spokesman who claimed the accidental beheading was an act of God.

"Their rights were not violated. There was no chanting."

Journalists were shown a film of the two men dressed in orange jumpsuits standing on the gallows before they were hooded. Al-Bander could be seen dangling from the rope while Barzan's body fell to the floor chest down with his severed head resting several yards away. The Iraqi government said it would not allow the film to be released to the public.

I bet they won't. Orange jumpsuits? What does that bring to mind? Are they completely unaware of the connotations they are touching upon?

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tag: Iraq, death penalty, death sentence, Saddam, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, hanging,