Hating to rain on snark, but when the jeering in question -- which was all done by Sadrist Shi'a, reflecting (and gloating over) the fact that it was essentially the Mahdi Army who put the Sunni Saddam to death -- has its basis in a division over which people outside the execution hall are killing each other in large numbers, concern for the decorum of the proceeding isn't just effete sanctimony. Especially when it's inevitable that some joker's going to put it all on YouTube and piss everyone off even further.
Not that I don't think they'd have had such prejudices; I just don't see how giving them evidence confirming those prejudices helped anything. Or failed to hurt -- there's always room for things to get worse, as the U.S. authorities recognized when they scrambled to distance themselves from the way the execution was carried out.
Now CNN has an Iraqi national security advisor pointing the finger at Arab TV stations, saying he suspected that one of them snuck the guy in to videotape the execution. It's a chaotic mess. Still, the people trying in vain to hold down some kind of order have every right to be concerned about further stirring of crap -- not that there's anything they can do about it, of course.
At the end of the day, it's in the best interests of everyone that a public record of the execution exists; as such, the existence of a full and unexpurgated video in the wild is not a bad thing (much as we may deplore those who regard it as entertainment on YouTube).
There can be no question that elements of the Shia sought his death, and celebrated it. All this tape establishes is that some of those people managed to be in the room when the execution occurred.
What, I suppose, this tape does establish, is that the incumbent government cannot present even the appearance of judicial impartiality at the execution, but again, this is something that was well established by the conduct of the trial; that there were anti-Saddam elements at the execution surely pales into insignificance next to the comments of the presiding judge prior to the hearing, that the whole thing was essentially a tedious formality prior to an execution.
Comments 6
Worst concert security since Altamont, if you ask me.
Reply
The existence of bootleg video is going to seriously cut into the DVD sales of that execution.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Now CNN has an Iraqi national security advisor pointing the finger at Arab TV stations, saying he suspected that one of them snuck the guy in to videotape the execution. It's a chaotic mess. Still, the people trying in vain to hold down some kind of order have every right to be concerned about further stirring of crap -- not that there's anything they can do about it, of course.
Reply
There can be no question that elements of the Shia sought his death, and celebrated it. All this tape establishes is that some of those people managed to be in the room when the execution occurred.
What, I suppose, this tape does establish, is that the incumbent government cannot present even the appearance of judicial impartiality at the execution, but again, this is something that was well established by the conduct of the trial; that there were anti-Saddam elements at the execution surely pales into insignificance next to the comments of the presiding judge prior to the hearing, that the whole thing was essentially a tedious formality prior to an execution.
Reply
Leave a comment