Iraqi vice-president “caught by surprise” by executions

[sabra]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/January/focusoniraq_January106.xml§ion=focusoniraq

Iraqi vice-president “caught by surprise” by executions
(AFP)

<snip>

Iraqi Vice President Tareq Al Hashemi told British television he had been caught off-guard by the executions, which the multi-confessional Presidency Council had asked be delayed.

“We have not been consulted and I was caught by surprise because the Presidency Council had made an appeal to postpone this execution,” Hashemi told Channel 4 News during a visit to Britain.

...

Officials did not plan to release the images publicly however, hoping to avert the kind of outcry that accompanied bootleg images of Saddam’s hanging that circulated on the Internet.

As in the case of Saddam, the world was shocked Monday more by how the sentences were carried out than by the fact that two feared members of the former regime had been put to death.

“I don’t like the way of being executed,” Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, told Channel 4 News.

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Kind of hard to rescind them, isn't it?

[soothsayer]

2. so who's in charge over there exactly, I wonder?

[babylonsister]

3. Love the communication going on in Iraq.

:sarcasm: What else are the powers-that-be NOT discussing?

[Eugene]

4. Now just about everybody wants to disown this fiasco.

The Iraqi President and Vice Presidents signed the death warrant
and the U.S. handed the men over for execution. They went along
with the executions when it mattered.

The Maliki-led government ignored Khalilzad and even Pres. Talabani
and proceeded with the hangings. The Sunnis are now even more
enraged than before. Despite all this America is counting on Nouri
al-Maliki to stop the sectarian warfare and promote national unity.
Suuure he will. /sarcasm

[Missy M]

5. I disagree with the statement that the world was not shocked...

by the death sentences. Most of the world is against the death penalty, including the Vatican.

[onehandle]

6. Why would he be surprised?

When Bushco wants you dead, he shouldn't be surprised then either.

[damntexdem]

7. Yeah, whatever happened to kinder, gentler execution?

Compassionate execution?

;-)

[Just-plain-Kathy]

8. Weren't we led to believe that Iraqis were in charge?