Another controversial hanging in Iraq

January 15, 2007

After Saddam Hussein’s execution went so well, it was time for a return trip to the gallows today. How’d it go? Don’t ask.

Iraq hanged two of Saddam Hussein’s aides early Monday, and one of the condemned was accidentally decapitated.

The official video of the hangings shows Hussein’s half-brother lying headless below the gallows, his severed head several yards away, The Associated Press reported.

The executioner’s noose severed the head of Barzan Hassan, the former chief of Hussein’s secret police, according to a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office.

“It was not like a very pretty scene,” said Basam Ridha, who was one of the witnesses.

Can we not get through a simple hanging anymore with controversy? It seems as if they can’t even perform executions properly anymore.

Of course, in case the sectarian conflict couldn’t get worse, today didn’t help. In Tikrit, a black banner was raised on the main mosque, named after Hussein, saying, “The people of Tikrit mourn the two martyrs … killed by sectarian hands.”

“There is no way a head would be ripped off the body during a hanging. I’m sure they mutilated the bodies after they hanged them,” said Ahmed Mustafa, a 30-year-old student in the northern city of Mosul, accusing Iraq’s Shiite-led government of “sucking the blood of the people.”

The AP noted reference works on judicial killings explaining that decapitation is a possibility during hangings, but it appears that Sunnis on the streets on Tikrit are convinced this is the latest move to stoke the fires of the conflict.

Great.

Next Stop- IRAN!!!!!

  • they can’t even perform executions properly

    Depends which side you’re on. From the Shiites point of view it was like a lopsided victory in Friday night highschool football. Or a Protestant march through the Catholic section of Ulster. Party down, dude!

  • Decapitation … isn’t that they way terrorists kill their captors? With black hooded henchmen, chanting of sectarian mottos during executions and prisoners loosing their heads, we’ve elevated Iraqi justice to the level of al Quaeda. Isn’t our occupation just the best thing?

  • I presume these hangings are what Cheney was refering to when he said Iraq is improving. Only in Cheney’s mind….

    What can stop the folly of the escalation and probable attacks on Iran? Bush keeps stating he won’t heed the Congress, won’t heed public opinion. Who will he listen to? (To whom will he listen?) This just seems surreal.

  • From the transcript of Shruby’s flatulent utterings on 60 Minutes:

    PELLEY: I’m curious. How did you see the video?

    BUSH: Internet.

    PELLEY: You called it up on the internet and watched it?

    BUSH: Somebody showed me parts of it. Yeah. I didn’t wanna watch the whole thing.

    PELLEY: Well, you keep saying “parts of it.” What do you mean you didn’t wanna watch the whole thing?

    BUSH: I wasn’t sure what to anticipate beyond the yelling and stuff like that. And I didn’t . . .

    PELLEY: You didn’t wanna see him go through the trapdoor.

    BUSH: Yeah. Yes. I didn’t.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/14/60minutes/main2359119.shtml

    What a complete wuss. What a despicable little tyrant. He’s perfectly comfortable with starting wars and sending people into battle and calling for executions. But he doesn’t want to mess up his perfect little mind with grotesque images like that.

    Like Mommy like Shruby: ‘Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?’

    Shruby would probably throw up if he had to see the results of his acid reign.

  • Decapitation occurs when the hanged body falls too far, gains too much velocity, and the force severs the neck. This is why hangmen are experienced professionals: they calculate the weight of the condemned and figure the velocity needed to break, not sever, the neck, and adjust the length of rope accordingly. (Too short a rope results in agonizing strangulation.)

  • PELLEY: You didn’t wanna see him go through the trapdoor.

    BUSH: Yeah. Yes. I didn’t.

    At least not while other people were in the room. The Deciderator has enough decency (just) to wait until he is alone to whack off to snuff films.

    Sure, a hanging CAN pull someone’s head off, but as grumpy points out this raises questions about the hangman’s competence. Lynching? Why no, not at all.

  • Burro #6

    Let’s not forget this is same W who issued the fewest pardons of any Gov in Texas while putting th emost people to death. Whadda tool!

    I think W should have to personally attend these executions. He wants to “deal” with terrorists, well as the Commander in Chief he shold get some trigger-time, so to speak.

    For such a tough guy he seems to ahve a lot of wimp in him. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?

  • From Wikipedia:
    Tucker Carlson interviewed Bush for Talk Magazine (September 1999, p. 106). Excerpt from this interview is quoted below:

    “In the weeks before the execution, Bush says, a number of protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Karla Faye Tucker. “Did you meet with any of them?” I ask. Bush whips around and stares at me. “No, I didn’t meet with any of them,” he snaps, as though I’ve just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. “I didn’t meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with Tucker, though. He asked her real difficult questions like, ‘What would you say to Governor Bush?'” “What was her answer?” I wonder. “‘Please,'” Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, “‘don’t kill me.'” I must look shocked — ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel — because he immediately stops smirking.”

  • 010406 – “Bush wishes Hussein execution ‘more dignified'”

    Obviously the Iraqis then did everything the could to make the next one more dignified.

    011506 – “Hussein’s half-brother decapitated during hanging”

    Like they say, third time’s a charm….

  • Wait a second – I’m confused (ok, won’t be the first time) – During the brouhahah over the timing of Saddam’s execution, wasn’t there a big deal made over the fact that Saddam’s execution violated a religious law banning executions (specifically, elective bloodshed) during the month of Dhu al-Hijjah? Saddam’s execution was at the very beginning of the month, which goes until something like January 27. What gives?

  • Ethel-to-Tilly (#12),

    The Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice commemorates Abraham’s decision to kill his son as a sacrifice for God. Sunni Muslims generally never execute prisoners — and frequently pardon criminals — on this holy feast day. As you can imagine (though the MSM apparently can’t) It was a very deep insult to the Sunnis for the Bush Crime Family’s friends in our puppet Shia government to execute Saddam on this day, not to mention hooting him down through the trap door. Even greater was the insult of unnecessarily decapitating his brother-in-law. Some friends we’ve got over there.

  • i’ve long been opposed to the death penalty, but it seems pretty candy-assed to be shocked about a guy’s head coming off when you’re executing him by breaking his neck!

  • This must be the deciderer’s plan for victory—let the shia and the sunni kill each other off—until they’re easily outnumbered by the mercenaries of corporate America.

    Oh—wait—was I supposed to call them “contractors?”

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