The Newsroom

Hanging Of Saddam's Aides "not filmed"... really?

(January 2007)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
LL
Larry the Loafer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6263787.stm?ls

Just looking on this page again, and in the corner is a video link. Following my disturbed viewings of what I would only watch of Saddam's footage (which wasn't the mobile video) and reading what happened to these aides, it doesn't surprise me that the footage won't be shown to the public. When that page above was first published, it included an audio link with a BBC reporter explaining what happened.

Now I look to see a video link, with "some viewers may find this disturbing" next to it. I am definately not prepared to watch this as I am afraid to see any possible footage of what happened to these two men. But if the video was only released to journalists, what "disturbing footage" could have been released on this link?

Any explainations?
NB
NerdBoy
Dunno what was graphic about it, just had Saddam shuffling around on the gallows again. Don't think this one is gunna get released unfortunately
GS
Gavin Scott Founding member
NerdBoy posted:
Dunno what was graphic about it, just had Saddam shuffling around on the gallows again. Don't think this one is gunna get released unfortunately


"Unfortunately"?

What kind of ghoulish person are you?
NB
NerdBoy
Gavin Scott posted:
"Unfortunately"?

What kind of ghoulish person are you?


I am unclear as to the veracity of the news. I would like to see the footage to confirm it. Oh, and it's quite entertaining as well
PH
phileasfogg
I have to say I only half agree with the "ghoulish" comment.

On the one hand, most people who end up watching these awful videos have a weird and morbid curiosity about death. A few are mentally unbalanced. (I say this without accusation towards anyone in particular.)

However, since our governments not only condoned but recommended capital punishment for Saddam Hussein et al., we have a duty to promulgate it. As citizens of the nations involved in Iraq, we can't just ignore the parts of the war that we don't like. And the sooner the media gives us the full story, and makes us take note of it, the sooner we'll have better decisions about what to do.

For example, in America most the coverage of the "war on terror" consists of White House commentary and other political back-and-forth by members of Congress. There are no "man in the street" interviews in Arab countries, and there are no documentaries examining the impact the "war on terror" is having on Arabic societies. Or, in other words, we're given this self-absorbed view of ourselves...as we try to convince ourselves and sell these actions to ourselves...without seeming to care that there are others affected by them.

Even though these hanging videos are disgusting, they provide us with emotionally charged evidence that life and death are truly in the balance. Then death becomes something more than a set of statistics about casualties.
LL
Larry the Loafer
I'm pretty glad it isn't being released, so I don't accidently come across another video, like Saddam's. One example was when reading a Wikipedia article on what happened, some idiot replaced the picture of when Saddam was either sentanced or on the gallows, I can't remember, to a picture of Saddam hanging from the noose. I think it was probably part of that mobile video.

It's kinda weird the way that if I saw someone's head coming off in a horror firm or something, I could cope with it. It's something about this situation within the past few weeks which just disturbs me.
GS
Gavin Scott Founding member
phileasfogg posted:
However, since our governments not only condoned but recommended capital punishment for Saddam Hussein et al...


That wasn't the position of the British Government.
PT
pthurst Founding member
Hmmm, I blogged about this whole thing quite heavily.

I think that its a bit rich to call the YouTuber's ghoulish for watching it without asking the wider question about the state of those who carried it out in the first place.

There are lots of reasons why this hanging video has come to epitomise the current state of affairs in Iraq itself. We see unrest, mob rule up to the highest levels of government and there's a whiff of corruption too. All in all, not much has changed. The old dictator was hanged on the old gallows that he built by order of a new government...

In my opinion, it will take much more than these executions to settle the country, in fact, they may make things much worse...

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