FROM CNN:

2 MORE ARRESTS EXPECTED AMID HUSSEIN EXECUTION PROBE, IRAQI OFFICIAL SAYS
They taunted him as a tyrant, screaming that he go “straight to hell” in the final minutes before he was put to death. And someone even recorded scene with a cell phone. Now Iraqi official want to know who tormented Saddam Hussein at his execution. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered an investigation. Today, it appears three people could be arrested in connection with the probe. At least two arrests are expected soon, Iraq’s national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie tells CNN. This after Iraqi officials said that a security guard present at the execution had been detained for questioning. “He is being questioned to see what his motives were,” says Sadiq al-Rikabi, who’s Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s adviser. The suspect is “the same person that leaked the footage to Internet sites and television stations,” al-Rikabi said. The release of the video has sparked anger among moderate Sunnis and other Iraqis, and prompted criticism for the way al-Maliki’s government handled the former Iraqi leader’s execution, which took place Saturday morning.

http://www.cnn.com/situationreport

1) Have you all noticed the spin being put out now by the U.S. media — including NBC reporters I heard today — that the U.S. was reluctant about the execution but the Maliki gov’t insisted.

Uh, just a few days ago, wasn’t the meme that the U.S. insisted?

2) Then there’s the spin re the cell phone video. Surely the cell phone holder was seen by others. Now the big focus in the media — including the CNN report this afternoon — is on an investigation into who took the cell phone video. Not what the video actually showed.

And, most critically, what the cell phone picked up that the “official” video completely omitted: THE AUDIO.

So now they’re going to investigate who took the video, and blame the messenger? And U.S. news orgs. like CNN are compliantly making that the focus, rather than what the video/audio exposed?

This a group of ratfuckers, the same statue topplers and flower throwers who met our photo op needs.

The supposed “Hands cut off” crew had several people seen in pro CPA events and the Saddam statue scenes.

Dollars to donuts the same crew staged this.

Would that it were so, but the Keystone cops level of organization and dignity is a hallmark of OUR SAD NATION thanks to Bush. From heckuva job Brownie to best defense secretary evah, to the swinger in the UN, the Bush administration has systematically stolen all honor and respect from the USA.

Lynching the Dictator: On Saturday morning, the United States helped to officiate at a human sacrifice.

http://slate.com/id/2156776/fr/rss

“The disgusting video of Saddam Hussein’s last moments on the planet is more than a reminder of the inescapable barbarity of capital punishment and of the intelligible and conventional reasons why it should always be opposed. The zoolike scenes in that dank, filthy shed (it seems that those attending were not even asked to turn off their cell phones or forbidden to use them to record souvenir film) were more like a lynching than an execution. At one point, one of the attending magistrates can be heard appealing for decency and calm, but otherwise the fact must be faced: In spite of his mad invective against “the Persians” and other traitors, the only character with a rag of dignity in the whole scene is the father of all hangmen, Saddam Hussein himself. …”

Sorry, Chris, but that precise scenario was posited by many in the Arab “street” and in the Arab and non-Arab activist community as a likely method the U.S. would use to dispatch him before he could “spill the beans”, “let the cat out of the bag”, “spill his guts”, or some other creative American expression for talk too much. Therefore, that would have merely served to convince us that the U.S. had murdered him in order to silence him.

>>>Since when has the US ever cared about what the Arab street thought? Everyone knows what the Arab street thinks of US support for Israeli policies, yet it has never had any effect. Why should killing an Arab dictator be any different?
>>>If the US had any intelligent policymakers, they would have declared “Mission accomplished”, saying that “We have captured the dictator, and he died while trying to escape justice like a coward.” Then the withdrawal would begin…
>>>Unfortunately, they couldn’t even do this right.

“This is standard MO in the Middle East.”

Be fair now! Not only in the Middle East. }

>>> You’re right. I did not mean that it was done exclusively in the ME and not anywhere else; I was just using that for illustration purposes.

“Furthermore, he would have been executed in a professional non-partisan manner. As the former commander-in-chief of Iraq, this was something SH would understand and appreciate.”

Oh, I believe he appreciated what happened a lot more! After all, it allowed him to go out feeling like a heroic martyr of an obviously illegitimate trial and lynching, and allowed him to end it all by questioning the manhood of his executioners.

>>>Let’s face it, in death Saddam won. He was able to outwit all the US politicians and policymakers, as well as the Sadrists. He showed them to be the thugs which they are.

>>>This makes one thing clear: there is no relationship between the number of people a dictator or politician murders, and how he will be remembered. I doubt that George W will be remembered fondly even though he did not kill as many people as Saddam. Even though there are two years left in his term, most Americans already believe that he is the worst president in US history. (It was so painful for his father George HW that he broke down crying that his smart son, Jeb, would never have a shot at the US presidency. That is the Bush family definition of “pain”.)

>>>In my mind’s eye, I can see Saddam having one of his shoulder-shaking laughs with a cigar in his hand. He must be thinking “Those idiots thought they won, and I lost. Hahaha… The Sunnis will be singing of my glory for a thousand years.”

The shoe-shopping, Bush flatterer Condi’s state department qualifications include being an expert in a country that no longer exists, calling the Aug. 2001 PDB titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US” a historal document, plus her name graces an oil tanker. She really looks great in a pair of Manolo Blahniks.

“The simplest and most straightforward way was to have had SH die shortly after capture. After positive identification had been made, he could have been shot in his prison cell, and a press release would have been put out that he had been shot while trying to escape.”

Sorry, Chris, but that precise scenario was posited by many in the Arab “street” and in the Arab and non-Arab activist community as a likely method the U.S. would use to dispatch him before he could “spill the beans”, “let the cat out of the bag”, “spill his guts”, or some other creative American expression for talk too much. Therefore, that would have merely served to convince us that the U.S. had murdered him in order to silence him.

“This is standard MO in the Middle East.”

Be fair now! Not only in the Middle East. }

“We really couldn’t have sent him to the World Court…”

That is the only way his trial and/or execution could have had any legitimacy.

“…because all sorts of embarrassing things like how the Reagan administration provided Iraq with satellite photos during the Iran-Iraq war, turned a blind eye to German firms which sold chemicals to make chemical weapons which were used to kill the Kurds, etc. would have come out.”

Yup!

“It would have been better to have SH tried and executed in a US military tribunal. Although it would largely have been a show trial with the fate and sentence pre-ordained, at least the US armed forces have legal professionals who know the US military code of conduct.”

They probably thought it would be better to hold their American kangaroo court using Iraqi proxies. If they had used an American military tribunal, it would have been too clear that it was really an American affair. In addition, there would be the question of whether the United States even has standing to try the matter. I am not an expert in these things, but based on what I do know I think that would be a potential problem.

“Furthermore, he would have been executed in a professional non-partisan manner. As the former commander-in-chief of Iraq, this was something SH would understand and appreciate.”

Oh, I believe he appreciated what happened a lot more! After all, it allowed him to go out feeling like a heroic martyr of an obviously illegitimate trial and lynching, and allowed him to end it all by questioning the manhood of his executioners.

“Instead, he was lynched by Sadrist thugs who are in charge of Maliki’s police forces and army.”

A dream come true for the old narcissist!

“This is the Iraqi government President Bush, in all his wisdom, has chosen to support. You call this a “democratic government”?”

Hey, this is liberation, buddy – American style, and that’s the best!

“Condi Rice said that this was part of the “birth pangs of democracy in the Middle East.” So far there have been 600K+ human casualties on all sides.”

Condi Rice is a…..oh, don’t get me started.

An excerpt:

“SADDAM HUSSEIN met his death on the scaffold in Baghdad yesterday with fortitude and calm. It was an extraordinary, melodramatic end to a life of confrontation and defiance — a final performance to launch himself as a martyr.

[...]

At the end, as he was taken out of the courtroom, he passed within a couple of feet of me. I could see a little smile of triumph on his lips. He must have known then that he had begun to create the legend of Saddam the martyr.

His last moments, face to face with death, were part of that same strategy. He knew Iraqis very well, and he knew what they liked in their leaders. The Saddam legend is only just beginning.”

I hope this is wrong, but the Rule of Bush is that whatever he touches turns to crap. Only Dubya could turn a two-bit tinhorn dictator into a nationalistic martyr.

Well, he got Saddam. Mission Accomplished, again.

sheerah- the new secdef Gates has come down heavily against war with Iran. I doubt bush will over rule him. certainly not with a democratic congress

I think Saddam knew what his eventual end would be, whether it be by the hangman, or by a relative of a family member killed under his regime. He was a dead man, and has been for several years.
All dictators know that in the back of their minds that their time is limited, and all they can do is prolong their existence a little while longer.
I now wonder what will happen in the ME.
Will the Arab street rise up in anger?
Or, will they mutter their opinions over tea?
Will Bush invade Iran?
Or, will America leave Iraq?

We are at the crossroads of the future, and there are a lot of potential outcomes from the many decisions that have been made.
All we can do is do what we can to make things better.
Good luck to us all.