The Iraq government is now faced with yet another probable public relations problem on its hands — this time apparently more a quirk of grisly fate than of execution bystanders seemingly out of control:
Iraqi government officials have shown journalists video of the hanging of two of Saddam Hussein’s aides, during which one of the men was decapitated.
The film shows Barzan Ibrahim – Saddam Hussein’s half-brother – and Awad Hamed al-Bandar hanged side-by-side.
Barzan, former intelligence chief, and al-Bandar, former head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court, were convicted over the killing of 148 Shias in 1982.
The government said Barzan’s beheading was accidental.
The BBC’s Andrew North in Baghdad says the video first shows both men being prepared for execution standing next to each other.
They were both dressed in orange boiler suits.
You can already see the unfortunate symbolism some Iraqis already opposing the government will draw from these descriptive elements or how this is likely to be exploited by them. Reuters reports:
The botched hanging of Saddam Hussein’s half-brother Barzan on Monday aroused Arab suspicions of foul play and malice, deepening the divide between the Iraqi government and Arabs in other countries.
The noose pulled off Barzan al-Tikriti’s head as he fell from the gallows, suggesting that the hangman had misjudged the length of rope needed just to break his neck.
Government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said there was no “violation of procedure” in the hanging of Barzan and fellow convict Awad Hamed al-Bander, Saddam’s former chief judge, for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi’ites.
But from Morocco to Yemen, ordinary Arabs cast doubt on the official explanation. Some recalled the chaotic and abusive treatment of Saddam Hussein when he was hanged on December 30.
Zaid al-Boudani, a shopkeeper in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, said: “I am very sad today, as many other Muslim Arabs are. This execution is part of the revenge campaign going on in Iraq. The way his head was ripped off shows hatred and revenge.”
The president of Morocco’s Human Rights Center described the hangings as a barbaric and vengeful act carried out under external pressure, probably from Iran and the United States.
“We had never heard that the head of a hanged person was ripped from his body, only in this case, which mirrors the hatred and violence,” said the president, Khaled Charkaoui.
Even worse for the Iraqi government — realizing that comments such as these may not inflame people sitting at home reading news on their computers but will have an impact in many parts of Iraq and the Arab world — are these comments:
Azzam Saleh Abdullah, Barzan’s brother-in-law, told Al Jazeera in a telephone call that the Iraqi authorities had not informed the family in advance that the execution was imminent…….
…”As for ripping off his head, this is the Safavids’ rancor. They only came to Iraq to commit revenge and shed Iraqi blood. They did not come for democracy or to build a state. May God curse this democracy,” he said.
If you add the uproar over Saddam Hussein’s hanging and this together two things are apparent:
(1)Saddam has been turned into a martyr due to the poor control exercised during his hanging, the original video released by the government that made it seem as if it was just a routine execution, and then the release of the unofficial cell phone video that undermined the credibility of the government’s first version. Tensions within Iraq were aggravated.
(2)His brother winding up beheaded as he’s in an orange jump suit falls into what Hollywood calls “high concept.” It’s imagery (or sometimes words) that capsualize something. It’s almost irrelevant that he was slated to be executed and that this was an accident. The way it turned out will be used against the government — and more tensions within Iraq are likely.
H/t to WatchYo.tv2007 (a new news/video site)
SOME OTHER VIEWS: Jules Crittenden, Secular Blasphemy, nineme, Ed Morrissey, James Joyner (who has some particularly interesting thoughts), No More Mister Niceblog, Chickenhawk Express, Gateway Pundit
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.