Official held in Saddam hanging video

[helderheid]

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The person believed to have recorded
Saddam Hussein's raucous execution on a cell phone camera was arrested Wednesday, an adviser to
Iraq's prime minister said.


A U.S. military spokesman, meanwhile, said the United States would have handled the execution differently had it been in charge.

The adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, did not identify the person. But he said it was "an official who supervised the execution" and who is "now under investigation."

"In the past few hours, the government has arrested the person who made the video of Saddam's execution," the adviser said.

Iraqi state television broadcast an official video of Saturday's hanging, which had no audio and never showed Saddam's actual death. But the leaked cell phone video showed the deposed leader being taunted in his final moments, with witnesses shouting "Go to hell!" before he dropped through the gallows floor and died.

The unruly scene was broadcast on Al-Jazeera television and was posted on the Internet, prompting a worldwide outcry and big protests among Iraq's minority Sunnis, who lost their preferential status when Saddam was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.

"If you are asking me: 'Would we have done things differently?' Yes, we would have. But that's not our decision. That's the government of Iraq's decision," said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman.

MORE

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070103/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_saddam_video

[RB TexLa]

1. guess they got welcomed to the new world of information

Just like the news media. I did have a good laugh over the CNN guy saying that "we will look over the videos and pictures and then we will decide what you mortals can see," it was nice knowing that his pompous words were meaningless as everyone would choose to watch it on google or youtube.

[goclark]

But they let us see "Obama" as Osama

:puke:

[cboy4]

2. My, my, my....listen to the U.S. miltary spokesman saying, "we

would have done things differently."

Go in there and fuck up that country, and then have the nerve to say you'd handle the killing of their dictator differently.

Outrageous.

[Richard D]

3. Scuse me, but . . .

. . . how could one hide making a video with a camera phone? Whoever was doing it was fairly close to saddam and must have been seen by everyone there. Now they arrest him? Odd.

[helderheid]

4. that was my reaction as well.