British crocodile tears over Saddam

The recent criticism of the manner of Saddam's execution by members of the British government are nothing short of a politically motivated fraud. Firstly, Britain is guilty of complicit negligence, since Blair implicitly endorsed Saddam's death sentence, when he failed to secure a guarantee off Bush that Saddam would be tried in the Hague as the price for Britain's participation in the invasion of Iraq. In failing so to do, it was not only foreseeable, it was inevitable that Saddam would be executed if captured alive.

The manner of the execution can come as no surprise, Saddam was led to the scaffold, where a noose was put around his neck. Several of the witnesses chanted "Moqtada" and Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowafaq al-Ruba’i, shouted, "Long live Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr," then the trapdoor fell as Saddam was reciting the shahada, his neck broke and he died instantly. If this execution was undignified then it is because execution is undignified.

Secondly, the United States (through its client states Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt) has sought to exacerbate division in Iraq by presenting this as an Iranian Shiite execution of a Sunnite Arab leader. The Saudi media has claimed that the two hooded executioners flanking Saddam were Saadah al-Hakim and al-Sadr. The British criticism has been very much in keeping with this theme of Shia vengefulness.

Thirdly, the execution was brought forward after it was discovered that the United States was trying to ferment a deal with the Saddamis, which would have seen Saddam held in custody outside Iraq. Had Saddam not have been executed before Eid, the Mahdi army would have tried to lynch him in US custody.

Although such an assault would be easily repelled by the United States, al-Malaki's position would have become untenable if he was perceived to have prevented Saddam's execution.

Thus this execution was thrust upon the Occupation forces and signals their inability to control events. The compromise was that only the edited version of the execution be released to the World. Hence the Occupiers anger at the unedited version being put on the Internet, as British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's remarks illustrate "To get this kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable and I think whoever is involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves." He does not express anger at the execution but at those who released the footage.