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Saddam's Half-Brother Beheaded by the Hanging Noose

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 02:04:09 PM EST
Tags: iraq hangings (all tags)
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[Illustration, not a photo of this hanging]

Absolutely gruesome:

...as the trapdoors swung open, they dropped and the rope severed the hooded head of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's younger half-brother and former intelligence chief.

Government officials said they had decided not to distribute any part of the film to the public.

Iraq says the beheading was caused by a hangman's error "in setting the noose or the length of the rope."

They showed the video to journalists because there was no possibility of a cover-up...the bodies were being turned over to families for burial.

Here's a video of a BBC journalist describing the hanging video.

Iraq's comments afterwords:

"The convicts were not subjected to any mistreatment," [overnment spokesman Ali ]Dabbagh said describing the beheading by the rope as a rare mishap. "Their rights were not violated. There was no chanting."

No violation of rights or procedures? This is the democracy we are installing in Iraq?

Not only that, the beheaded executionee was suffering from cancer.

Saleem al-Jibouri, a senior Sunni Arab member of parliament, told Reuters Barzan's body may have been weakened by the cancer he was suffering: "But we have doubts and we want to ask experts and doctors if it's possible the head can come off," he said.

Life in prison plus cancer wasn't enough of a punishment?

< Martin Luther King Jr. Day | Iraq: Lessons Learned, Gloating and Projection >

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    Saddam's Half-Brother Beheaded by the Hanging Noose | 20 comments (20 topical)

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    1000 times (1.00 / 1) (#1)
    by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 02:34:18 PM EST

    Too bad about losing his head.  He got at least 1000 times the due process he have his victims.  Good riddance.

    This is just plain disgusting (none / 0) (#3)
    by Al on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 05:13:08 PM EST
    You are sick. Get help.

    [ Parent ]
    Problems with the Noose (none / 0) (#2)
    by YellaDawg TN on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 04:14:43 PM EST
    Back in the days when hanging was the usual punishment, beheadings did occur as result of miscalculations by inexperienced executioners.  The most infamous Old West example is Black Jack Ketchum, hanged ca. 1879, when an error in judgement caused him to be decaptiated as he fell through the trap door.

    I'm no proponent of capital punishment and certainly not a fan of Saddam and his henchmen, but I actually think his half-brother got an easy out.  Quick and easy, no matter how gruesome the result. If his cancer was terminal, he faced a more prolonged and painful death in prison.

    Assumption (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by Al on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 05:22:03 PM EST
    You are assuming that the victim of the beheading is rendered unconscious instantaneously. This is not necessarily the case, and indeed there is some evidence that it isn't. If this is what happened in this case, tell me if you think it's right that Americans are risking their lives in Iraq to support this sort of thing, because that's exactly what they are doing.

    [ Parent ]
    The human brain cannot function ... (none / 0) (#7)
    by narius on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 07:44:10 PM EST
    without oxygen for at most 2-3 min.

    YellaDawg would be technically correct since no matter how long it takes for Saddam's brother to die in the beheading, it is much SHORTER than how long his cancer will take to kill him.

    Furthermore, I bet this is quicker than the "normal" hanging so he indeed got the quicker way out.

    Are the liberals going to come out and condemn the middle eastern way of execution barbaric or are they going to preach the "understanding-of-other-culture" message?

    [ Parent ]

    Narius (none / 0) (#9)
    by Edger on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 08:23:43 PM EST
    You've been around here long enough to know the answer to your own question. What's your understanding?

    I knows it's hard, what with the gruesomeness of the hanging, but take a cold shower and think about the question you asked.

    [ Parent ]

    Incredibly obtuse questions (none / 0) (#12)
    by Al on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 10:52:21 PM EST
    Of course hanging, like any other way of killing a human being, is barbaric. And of course, this ha s nothing to do with culture.

    And this idiotic line of reasoning that getting your head ripped off is somehow more benign than cancer must stop. Understand that your statements are incredibly obscene. If your politics drives you to state that ripping somebody's head off, literally, is OK, then your politics are beneath contempt.

    How long is it going to take before sane Americans take back their country? Surely sanity is not too much to ask?

    [ Parent ]

    No more barbaric than strapping a man... (none / 0) (#17)
    by Bill Arnett on Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 01:10:16 PM EST
    ...to a gurney, then injecting him with noxious and deadly chemicals with such inefficiency that he visibly suffered, sustained chemical burns up his arms, and then had to be injeced again to make him die in great agony.

    Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?

    [ Parent ]

    Narius (none / 0) (#18)
    by Edger on Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 01:19:41 PM EST
    The human brain cannot function... without oxygen for at most 2-3 min.

    Breathe deeply, Narius.

    [ Parent ]

    The Magnificent Hanging (none / 0) (#5)
    by Fredo on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 07:06:41 PM EST
    I think it is rather facile to say that Americans risking their lives in Iraq are doing so to support "this sort of thing," any more than those who risked their lives in World War II did so to "support" Jim Crow laws.

    It is unseemly for the gentlepersons of the Left to be so quick to criticize a method of execution that has a long and storied tradition in other cultures.  Are you suggesting that the prohibition of hanging in certain Western countries means that they are somehow "superior?"  This would seem to fly in the face of every hallowed principle of multicultural orthodoxy.

    The last public beheading in France took place in my lifetime.  While I was of college age they were still hanging 'em high in London.  Can it possibly be that, after all these millenia of capital punishment for capital crimes all over the world, a select few have somehow lately discovered that such punishment is morally unacceptable?  How was this discovery revealed to them?  (Certainly not by their God.)  Is it coincidence that the discovery seems to have occurred precisely in those places that, at the very same time, have lost their influence in the world, and indeed have suffered a profound spiritual collapse?  Is it coincidenc that the discovery has occurred in places with declining birthrates, the hallmark of societies that have lost confidence in themselves?

    A truly excellent hanging has occurred.  Rejoice!  Shout Hosannas!  Hosanna in the highest!  Excelsior!

    Come good, Fredo? (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by aw on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 07:18:42 PM EST


    [ Parent ]
    Just a few (none / 0) (#8)
    by Edger on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 07:53:44 PM EST
    too many mic's there, Fredo? Peaking Yet?

    [ Parent ]
    LOL! (none / 0) (#11)
    by Sailor on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 10:50:48 PM EST
    Seriously Edger, I laughed out loud!

    Now we just have to determine whether it was microdot or sunshine. Dognose it wasn't Mr. Natural!

    BTW, why do all the reprobates have the same hallucination!?

    [ Parent ]

    Peruvian Torch maybe??? (none / 0) (#15)
    by Edger on Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 12:49:49 AM EST


    [ Parent ]
    Dude (none / 0) (#13)
    by Al on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 11:06:58 PM EST
    You are one ugly drunk.

    [ Parent ]
    Magnificent BS to justify barbarism. As to (none / 0) (#19)
    by Bill Arnett on Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 01:19:44 PM EST
    your historical references alleging that only countries with savage death penalties survive - your clear implication - defies credulity.

    Didn't seem to do Caligula any good, did it? I would in fact aver that the more brutal and barbaric a society becomes the sooner that country gets erased from the world.

    Edger? Scribe? Whatcha think?

    [ Parent ]

    I think he od'd. (none / 0) (#20)
    by Edger on Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 01:23:59 PM EST
    And I don't see Genghis around much these days...

    [ Parent ]
    On this day above all others (none / 0) (#10)
    by Sailor on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 09:28:04 PM EST
    It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

    Martin Luther King Jr.
    American instant gratification (none / 0) (#14)
    by Che's Lounge on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 11:17:00 PM EST
    Fredo, I think I have more respect for the militia that hanged them than I do for the catcallers in the peanut gallery at this site. You realize, of course, that in the chaos created by your Fearless Leader those executioners would rather have you or me in that noose than SH's brother. As soon as they are done with feeding their (and your) bloodlust revenge, they will turn on our own troops.

    So party on Wayne. For now.

    geez! (none / 0) (#16)
    by cpinva on Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 01:08:36 AM EST
    these clowns can't even hang someone competently, and it isn't like they're a moving target or anything!

    don't mind fredo, he still hasn't recovered from nov. 7th. the discovery that the majority of the population really, really doesn't like him came as something of a shock. though, i would sorta like to know what drugs he's on, and where i might acquire same. lol

    Saddam's Half-Brother Beheaded by the Hanging Noose | 20 comments (20 topical)

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