It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but the news reports now clearly show it:
To a segment of Iraqis, and even to some who were happy to see him go, Saddam Hussein has now become something of a martyr. It is not BECAUSE he was executed. It is because of the WAY in which he was executed.
After the dictator’s execution at breakneck (excuse the language) speed this weekend, the initial images surfacing on cable news and the Internet were from official versions. It showed him at the gallows with a rope being put around his neck. Depending on one’s political views, Saddam looked scared or unbowed.
But it looked like an orderly, if hastily conducted, execution.
Enter the Internet and the age of cell phones. Do NOT view this unless you’re prepared to see the graphic image of Saddam tumbling down to his death, but THIS VIDEO on You Tube was apparently taken by a guard on a cell phone.
It has ignited a firestorm because rather than showing an orderly execution as you have in most countries (or in states in the United States), it almost resembles a lynch mob with political catcalls and insults. (Watch the video yourself and leave your reaction in comments).
It’s the conflict between an official version of events versus an unfiltered version of events (where viewers can judge for themselves). It doesn’t really answer the issue of whether Saddam deserved to live after butchering so many human beings of all ages, or whether capital punishment is a no-no regardless of who the convicted monster is.
But the result: a public relations disaster of unmitigated proportions, one that Iraq’s government is already trying to squelch:
The prime minister on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the conduct of Saddam Hussein’s execution in a bid to learn who among the witnesses taunted the former Iraqi leader in the last minutes of his life, then leaked a cell phone video.The video contained audio of some witnesses taunting Saddam with chants of “Muqtada” and of the former leader responding that his tormentors were being unmanly. It surfaced on Al-Jazeera television and the Internet late Saturday, the day Saddam was hanged.’
The taunts referred to Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric who is a main backer of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Shiite leader who pushed for a quick execution of Saddam.
Al-Jazeera said when it broadcast the video that it was exclusive to them. The pictures appeared on the Web at about the same time.
Sami al-Askar, a close al-Maliki political adviser, told The Associated Press that the Iraqi leader had “ordered the formation of an investigative committee in the Interior Ministry to identify who chanted slogans inside the execution chamber and who filmed the execution and sent it to the media.”
The video was particularly inflammatory not only because the disrespectful chanting was clearly audible, but also because it showed Saddam’s death as he dropped through the gallows floor and then swung by his neck, his eyes open and neck twisted dramatically to his right.
AND: The clandestine video portrayed a much different scene than the official tape of the execution, which was muted. That one didn’t show Saddam dropping to his death and didn’t have all the back-and-forth yelling.
How bad was the scene? Bad enough that a top Iraqi official threatened to walk out if it didn’t stop, Reuters reports:
A senior Iraqi court official nearly halted Saddam Hussein’s execution when supporters of a radical Shi’ite cleric and militia leader taunted the former president as he stood on the gallows. Prosecutor Munkith al-Faroon, who is heard appealing for order on explicit internet video of Saturday’s hanging that has inflamed sectarian passions, said he threatened to leave if the jeering did not stop – and that would have halted the execution as a prosecution observer must be present by law.
“I threatened to leave,” Faroon told Reuters. “They knew that if I left, the execution could not go ahead.”
Another Reuters report has something even more damaging to the government’s (Iraqi that is) credibility:
He [al-Faroon] also challenged government claims those who filmed the event were guards, saying they were senior officials. In the video, widely seen on the Internet, observers chant the name of Shi’ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr as Saddam stands on the scaffold, a convicted mass killer appearing dignified in contrast to the uproar below him.
But the government adviser who announced the investigations on Monday into the taunts and filming, accused the opposition of using them to deflect attention from Saddam’s crimes: “This is an artificial uproar,” Sami al-Askari told state television.
“They cannot say this court has been unjust and so they take this mistake and forget Saddam deserved to be executed,” he said. “Saddam was treated well in court and on the scaffold.
“No one beat him or insulted him, yet Saddam tortured many Iraqis, executed thousands and buried them in mass graves.”
The problem: the initial images that were released were a lot more sanitized than the ones that came out later. That leaves the perception that the Iraqi government was trying to keep the true nature of the execution bottled-up. This doesn’t change the gravity of Hussein’s crimes. But the controversy over the speed of the execution and the surfacing of the telephone video showing an unruly scene gives ammunition to anti-government forces and hurts the government’s credibility.
On the other hand, Iraqi’s Prime Minister had vowed that Saddam would not live into 2007. But now, due to the cell phone video being so at odds with the initial version (which implied a tone more than showed the whole event), attempts at national reconciliation may be tougher in Iraq — now the scene of angry Sunni demonstrations.
Meanwhile, this public relations disaster — fueled by the uncensored video being shown around the world and 24 hours a day on the Internet — is likely to be a blow to President George W. Bush as well. He’s soon expected to announce a plan to increase or “surge” the number of U.S. troops in Iraq — a plan not favored by most Americans, according to polls. The somewhat-chaotic tone of the video — even the impact of it on people who don’t see it but hear about it — is unlikely to reassure Americans and boost poll numbers.
At best, Saddam’s execution’s impact in the U.S. will be a wash. At worst, an event that raises American eyebrows. But, most likely, it won’t be the kind of “milestone” Bush had suggested — although it could prove to be another kind of milestone. The drama continues to unfold…
 UPDATE: The BBC reports a big, fat thumbs down on the way the execution was conducted and the cell phone videos by Great Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister:
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has described the circumstances of Saddam Hussein’s execution as “deplorable”. Mobile phone footage showed Saddam being told to “go to hell” by people attending the hanging, while the ex-leader mocks their “bravery”.
Mr Prescott said those responsible for the scenes should be “ashamed”, without saying if that included the Iraqi government which organised the hanging.
Iraq’s government has now begun an inquiry into Saturday’s events.
Mr Prescott told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think the manner was quite deplorable really.
“Frankly, to get this kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable and I think whoever is involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves.”
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.