Where is the Fox News cut to the White House with George Bush in tears softly saying "This ones for you Pop"?

I'm glad he's dead.

More:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5180363859656567013

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-531590107320554134


I guess we won't be seeing the actual hanging part. CNN has a video of the dead body wrapped.

Snuff.

i do find it very strange that there were men in hoods ... are we back in the 1800's now?? is there some reason the executioners can't show their brave faces to the world??

saddam also looks like one cool cucumber as he's being prepped for his hanging. no visible diaphoresis, shakes, flushed face, facial distortion, etc ... why do i get the feeling that he's been moved to some remote location of this planet with enough funds to live out the remainder of his days? too contrived for me ...

doesn't matter ... most american citizens will be more than pleased to hear of his death, because it will satiate their need to fill some void after 9/11.

sad fact is ... bush has caused the death of more iraqi's than saddam ever did. over half a million deaths to be more accurate ... funny how bush won't be tried and convicted for his war crimes.

"Deaths are occurring in Iraq now at a rate more than three times that from before the invasion of March 2003."

The executioners are masked because there alot of Saddam loyalists who would love to get their hands on them.

"Before the hanging was carried out in Baghdad, Mr. Bush went to sleep here at his ranch and was not roused when the news came."

to say this is snuff is ignorant. not only do you not witness the death itself, but it's a piece of history.

personally i don't care whether he's alive or dead. he's not even the man who was involved in 9/11, he's just an excuse to go to war. now that bush has fulfilled his destiny as president, i wonder what he'll do now. continue killing iraqi's and americans i suppose.

9/11 has jack shit to do with this man and his crimes, but the american public just doesn't realize that. hell, this man's crimes has nothing to do with the american public, for that matter...

One of the best analysis about this was written by Juan Cole in Salon today.

"most american citizens will be more than pleased to hear of his death, because it will satiate their need to fill some void after 9/11."

"but the american public just doesn't realize that."

Which american public are you guys talking about? Sure isn't the one I know. You've got to read a bit more of freely spoken word and watch a bit less Fox news.

If that's too taxing, you could just drive down our streets and see the anti-Bush placards everywhere, damning the man for ~3000 dead and an unjustified war no one wanted.

My take on it (typed up earlier today for a different forum): I'm pretty firmly against the death penalty, and that kind of stance demands, to me, that one be against it for anyone, no matter what their crime or relationship to you. Still, Saddam was pretty near the top of worth-killing-if-I-thought-that-were-right list. So, yeah. I'm sorry that he died in that he was a human being and it perpetuated violence, but that's about all the sorrow I can muster up for his passing. I hope something good will come of it, although I'm not sure that much (other than perhaps some happiness from those oppressed by him and his regime, etc) will.

So if I posted the video up to the moment of Daniel Pearl's beheading, you wouldn't call that snuff, either?

Innocent reporter or despotic dictator, it's close enough.

I am somewhat surprised that Al Jazeera or Iraqi TV didn't have the full snuff film available. Yet.

We all know that American TV is reluctant to show the filthier aspects of war (because the advertisers hate that crap), but if you can show contractors mutilated in Fallujah, then you can certainly show a mass murderer swinging by his neck and surrounded by people in Halloween costumes.

Juan Cole does nail it. The Bush Administration's negligence, malfeasance, and simple boobery in Iraq is really breathtaking.

> ... are we back in the 1800's now??

Even during lethal injections in the USA, the executioners wear suits to completely obscure their identity.

+1 @brendotroy

And @LadyBug, +1 @fardhad's explanation - not being masked would be their own death sentence.

If you didn't load the whole Salon article because of the stupid ad mechanism, I direct you to this:
The tribunal also had a unique sense of timing when choosing the day for Saddam's hanging. It was a slap in the face to Sunni Arabs. This weekend marks Eid al-Adha, the Holy Day of Sacrifice, on which Muslims commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for God. Shiites celebrate it Sunday. Sunnis celebrate it Saturday –- and Iraqi law forbids executing the condemned on a major holiday. Hanging Saddam on Saturday was perceived by Sunni Arabs as the act of a Shiite government that had accepted the Shiite ritual calendar.

Wow - that's just plain stupid and perhaps uber-childish. Not only do you insult ~20% of your countrymen (the childish part), but you do it with a holiday ABOUT MARTYRDOM/SACRIFICE (yeah, the stupid part).

They need some Semiotics Majors in Baghdad. Now.

Among many other things, anyway.

The writer seems to agree

The timing also allowed Saddam, in his farewell address to Iraq, to pose as a “sacrifice” for his nation, an explicit reference to Eid al-Adha. The tribunal had given the old secular nationalist the chance to use religious language to play on the sympathies of the whole Iraqi public.

The political ineptitude of the tribunal, from start to finish, was astonishing. The United States and its Iraqi allies basically gave Saddam a platform on which to make himself a martyr to Iraqi unity and independence -- even if by unity and independence Saddam was really appealing to Sunnis' nostalgia for their days of hegemony.

Here's another way to look at it: was this, in the end, just another of the 500 daily deaths, or will it have lasting impact?

The egomaniac in Saddam was, I figure, no doubt be afraid of the former outcome.

BTW, welcome back deathcow, you've been quiet for a while.

I heard there is a phone cammed of the actual hanging part. CNN didn't show that part though. Anyone have it?

There's a lot of copies on Google.

Swampgirl: Which one? I don't see any of the hanging scene with the floor removed.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7532034279766935521&q=saddam

*dead

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by nibiyabi.

Awarding Krupo with one star point for fixing this video's dead embed code.

*dead

This video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by jonny.

Awarding Barseps with one Power Point for fixing this video's dead embed code.