Bush & Iraqi gov blame messenger, not selves, for "Execution-gate"

Posted by Raed Jarrar at 9:09 AM on January 4, 2007.

Saddam’s execution, or "execution-gate" as some Iraqi and Arabic media are calling it now, has turned into an international debate. The Iraqi government is being criticized directly and indirectly even by the Bush administration itself!

So it seems that the Iraqi government came up with two new excuses to deal with the situation and shift the blame to someone else.

The first one is: Who Filmed the Execution? Get’em!

As if the problem is about who filmed the shameful scene, not about who designed it and participated in it. "Whoever leaked this video meant to harm national reconciliation and drive a wedge between Shiites and Sunnis," said National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, one of a group of 20 officials and other witnesses who were present at the execution at dawn on Saturday.

Is he joking or what?!

Is it really about who had the fancy mobile phone and managed to smuggle it through the U.S. checkpoint? Or is it about who decided to kill Saddam on the morning of Eid and taunt him with sectarian shouts?

"There was an infiltration at the execution chamber."

Give me a break. The guy with the camera-phone was screaming with the rest of the militiamen and he ran towards the dead body of saddam while everyone else shrieked and took pictures. You can see the other cameras flashing in both the leaked and official videos. There was no ‘infiltration’, it was perfectly secure and exclusive.

I heard Mr. al-Rubaie on CNN some few minutes after the execution, this was before the videos hit the fan, and he described the execution as "professional," in accordance with 'Iraqi and international standards’, and in conformity with 'Islamic law'. He said that everyone treated Saddam in a "respectful" way.

But if you think this part is pathetic, wait till you hear the second excuse: It wasn't me!

Echoing those accusations, a senior Interior Ministry official said the hanging was supposed to be carried out by hangmen employed by the Interior Ministry but that 'militias' had managed to infiltrate the executioners' team. 'The execution was carried out by militias and outsiders. They put aside the team from the Interior Ministry that was supposed to carry it out,' the official said.

As if the "team from the interior ministry" is not a gang of militiamen itself! This is not just another pathetic attempt to blame someone else for Al-Maliki and Al-Hakim’s failure and stupidity, it’s another failed attempt to split the anti-occupation coalition by attempting to cause problems between Al-Sadr movement and other Iraqis who were offended by execution-gate.

Tagged as: iraq, saddam, bush administration

Raed Jarrar is an Iraqi architect who writes the Raed In The Middle blog and contributes to numerous others.