Will There Be an Iraqi Cover-Up?

Joe has already reported that the Iraqi government has ordered an investigation into the goings-on at Saddam’s execution. This post, which relies on information published by the New York Times, should be viewed as an addendum to his.

A three-member committee of the Interior Ministry will conduct the inquiry. There have been numerous reports that the Interior Ministry has been infiltrated by members of Shi’ite militia groups, making it more than likely, in my view, that the investigation will either amount to a whitewash or never be concluded. If I’m right, the slide towards full-scale civil war will accelerate.

According to the Times, the Maliki government’s representatives at the hanging included a judge and a prosecutor from the special tribunal that condemned Mr. Hussein to death. Also present was Maliki’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, and he was identified today by another of those who was present as one of two people — both Maliki government officials — who had held up cellphones towards the gallows to record the hanging.

Rubaie was identified by Munqith al-Faroun, who was the deputy prosecutor at Saddam’s trial. He said he had recognized Mr. Rubaie, a physician who spent years in exile in London under Mr. Hussein, but that he knew the other official only by sight and could not name him. Faroun said he was puzzled as to how the two officials managed to get their cellphones into the execution block, since the American who flew the official party to Khadamiyah and maintained outer security at the execution block had demanded that all those attending the execution surrender their phones before entering.

As to the American role and viewpoint, the Times reports the following:

• One report circulating among senior Iraqi officials today, which no American official would confirm, was that the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, had appealed in the last hours before the execution for a delay of 14 days to provide time for all the constitutional and legal questions surrounding the hanging to be resolved, and for detailed planning of the execution to take place.
• American officials say privately that the Maliki government, by allowing the Hussein execution to be conducted as it did, signaled more powerfully than ever before that it was unwilling or incapable of surmounting the deep sectarian divisions here.
• According to the account given by the United States military command, the American role in the hours leading up to the execution ended when Mr. Hussein stepped off the Black Hawk helicopter that carried him to the Khadamiyah prison at about 5.30 a.m. local time on Saturday and was handed over, at the doors to the execution block, to Iraqi officials. There were no Americans present at the execution itself.