(Reuters) Iraq says Saddam video meant to stir trouble

[StrictlyRockers]

Iraq says Saddam video meant to stir trouble
Wed Jan 3, 2007 1:33pm ET

By Ibon Villelabeitia

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Facing outrage over a video showing Shi'ite witnesses mocking Saddam Hussein on the gallows, Iraqi officials said on Wednesday the execution chamber had been infiltrated by outsiders bent on inflaming sectarian tensions.

An aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Sadiq al-Rikabi, said a number of guards had been taken in for questioning and that one person had been identified as a suspect in filming the illicit video, which has caused demonstrations among Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs and sparked international condemnation.

The images, showing a composed Saddam subjected to sectarian taunts as a noose is slipped on his neck, have discomfited the United States, which kept physical custody of the ousted leader for three years, partly out of concern for his treatment at the hands of his Iraqi enemies who put him on trial.

"Whoever leaked this video meant to harm national reconciliation and drive a wedge between Shi'ites and Sunnis," said National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, one of a group of 20 officials and other witnesses who were present at the execution at dawn on Saturday.

<...>
snip

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-01-03T183244Z_01_IBO352016_RTRUKOT_0_TEXT0.xml&src=010307_1349_TOPSTORY_iraq_says_video_meant_to_stir_trouble

Cui bono?

Who would benefit from stirring up more violence?

SR

[xultar]

1. So, the person who took the video told them to yell the taunts as art direction?

[ixion]

2. BS

nice try. thanks for playing.

[StrictlyRockers]

3. What's BS?

Oh, I see. Reuters is BS now because you don't like the news?

[maddezmom]

4. not your post, but the excuse coming from the Iraqi gov't

some other threads with some background of how the story has developed:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2673454&mesg_id=2673454
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2673382&mesg_id=2673382

[ixion]

7. yeah, the excuse, not your post, or Reuters

sorry for the miscommunication. ;-)

[maddezmom]

10. sorry to you, too

didn't mean to speak for you. :)

[ixion]

14. lol... no problem at all

you were spot on. I should have elaborated more in my original post. :-)

thanks for coming to my defense, in any case. :yourock:

[StrictlyRockers]

9. Oh ok, my bad. - signed Mr. Overly Defensive

[MrCoffee]

5. someone SNUCK IN to the execution chamber?

what kind of operation are they running over there. oh, right...

[Supersedeas]

8. spontaneous shouts from outside the chamber

[burythehatchet]

6. Have these scumbags ever accepted responsibility for ANYTHING

They are just such poor victims...always trying to do the right thing but getting upended by evil-doers.

[StrictlyRockers]

11. No, no responsibility here. Pass the buck to the evildoers.

"We tried so hard to provide this former head of state his dignity while we hung him. It was the evildoers who snuck in and taped the WHOLE thing. We were only going to broadcast PART of it."

[Demeter]

12. Freedom of the Press, Anyone?

These clowns (Iraqi and American) simply aren't ready for any kind of representative, democratic government yet. Probably never will be, either.

Now that anyone with a couple hundred dollars has a free press, it is revolutionary!

[ck4829]

13. Executing a man the Sunnis liked while there is civil war going on WON'T harm reconciliation?

:shrug:

[InvisibleTouch]

15. In a way I'm glad this video exists.

No, I haven't watched it, and I don't think I want to. I was creeped out enough by the version that ended with the noose around his neck. (And I've seen people die, and I'm actually pro-death-penalty in unambiguous cases, and feel that there are people who deserve it - and I was creeped out anyway.) But in a strange way I'm glad the video was made, because now we know exactly what happened. It may have stirred up even more trouble (though is that even possible at this point?), and it may have been painful for his family who did no wrong (though wouldn't they rather know he died with dignity than rely on someone else's reports?), but now no one can spin it to their own nefarious benefits or lie about what really went down. Er, no pun intended.