Wikileaks divulges details about Saddam’s ‘hastily run’ execution

A newly-leaked US diplomatic cable describes in detail the circumstances of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s execution, from guards telling him to go to hell to officials taking mobile phone pictures.

Saddam’s execution in December 2006 sparked international controversy after mobile phone video of the sentence being carried out was published on the Internet showing witnesses taunting him as he was about to be hanged. The controversies led then-US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to comment in the leaked cable that supporters of Saddam would use the poorly-conducted execution as an excuse to condemn what he said was a fair trial.

The cable, dispatched in January 2007 and classified SECRET, was one of several hundred US diplomatic reports that have so far been published by whistleblower website WikiLeaks out of a tranche of 250,000 that it says it has obtained. According to the cable, Iraqi deputy prosecutor Monqith al-Faroun, in a meeting with Khalilzad, described a guard who was escorting Saddam to the execution platform telling the ousted president to go to hell, remarks that Faroun said he admonished.

Faroun said that subsequently, he saw Iraqi officials present at the execution openly taking photographs with their mobile phone cameras, despite the fact that the devices were prohibited. The lawyer added that as Saddam was conducting his final prayer before being hanged, one witness shouted, Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada, in reference to the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who rose to prominence after Saddam’s fall from power.

The mobile phone footage, which spread across the Internet and was being sold on Baghdad streets in the days following the execution, showed an angry but composed Saddam standing on a steel platform in a dark hall, his hands bound and a rough hemp rope around his neck. Several members of the party carrying out the hanging can be heard chanting, Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada before Saddam is seen falling to his death as the metal trapdoor opens below his feet. Commenting on the incident, the cable’s author, whose identity is unclear, wrote, The GOI’s (government of Iraq) lack of a clear and coordinated plan to control the witnesses and conduct the execution resulted in a hastily run and confusing event. The cable noted that the Iraqi witness list for the execution changed several times prior to the execution and at one point included 20-30 personnel.Khalilzad told Faroun, the cable said, that Saddam’s supporters would use the execution as an excuse to condemn what had been a fair and just trial.Asked by Khalilzad what Iraq would change for subsequent executions, it said, Faroun responded emphatically that the only witnesses who will be permitted are those required by law: a public prosecutor, a judge, a religious leader and the prison director.This, he concluded, will prevent unacceptable behavior and unnecessary controversy, the cable said.

Clashes interrupt Kyrgyz trial over April killings

BISHKEK: Relatives of protesters killed in an April revolt clashed with police in a Kyrgyz court on Wednesday, calling for the execution of those accused of killing scores in the uprising that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Dozens of relatives of the dead broke through police lines at the trial held in a Bishkek sports palace, trying to reach the 22 accused, who include Bakiyev’s former defence minister, before the defendants were evacuated.

“They must be shot!” the attackers cried, some grabbing microphone stands and wielding them to fight police a few hours after the start of the first trial stemming from the killings.

“Death for death! We will burn down your homes!” some shouted as the trial began. “You are damned. We will pluck your eyes,” yelled others.

The April uprising in the capital Bishkek triggered a wave of violence in the

Corps Commanders review operational readiness

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani chaired the 128th Corps Commanders” Conference held at General Headquarters today.

The conference took a comprehensive overview of the operational readiness of the Army.

COAS dilated on the upcoming Army Exercise Azm-e-Nau III.

He said that the exercise is aimed at achieving excellence in operational preparedness at conceptual level and high degree of swiftness and proficiency at the execution level.

He pointed out that Pakistan Air Force will be fully integrated in the army exercise.

The conference was a part of regular monthly meetings.

Strike, Security Lockdown Cripple Kashmir

SRINAGAR: A security lockdown and general strike crippled life in held Kashmir on Thursday, on the anniversary of the execution of a prominent Muslim leader.

The day-long strike was sponsored by Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in memory of founder Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, who was hanged in a New Delhi jail on February 11, 1984 for the murder of an intelligence officer. Bhat’s family and supporters say the charges were trumped up.

JKLF urged residents of the Muslim-majority state to hold pro-independence demonstrations on Thursday to commemorate Bhat and press New Delhi to return his remains. Bhat was buried in New Delhi’s Tihar jail.

Indian authorities sealed off neighbourhoods in most parts of Srinagar and deployed thousands of police and paramilitary to prevent protests.

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Strike, Security Lockdown Cripple Kashmir was first posted on February 11, 2010 at 2:32 pm.