Was it right for BBC News 24 to actually ......................

[Big J R]

.......... show Saddam being led into the execution chamber, then being led onto the gallows by his four executioners and then onto the trap.

 

Thoughts anyone ?

[Ian_W]

my view is that we are being shown western propaganda - okay I have been drinking and slightly intoxicated - but I don't think we shouyld have interfered in the first place.

 

All we see is locals celebating - we are not shown those who are angry and protesting.

 

Why also were the executionors wearing masks - very strange...

[Big J R]

Drinking ? A bit early in the day, young Sir !

 

The masks were obviously for their anonimity. Saddam still has many hundreds of supporters, as I'm sure the Western world will find out within days !

 

I can't wait for the Arabic lip-reading experts to translate what Saddam was saying to No 1. executioner.

[cantos]

Evil as the man is,i am still not a supporter of the death penalty.

[Ian_W]

Originally Posted By: Big J R

Drinking ? A bit early in the day, young Sir !

maybe... maybe not...

I am still not sure why we interfered in this country...

[dr gas]

it may nave been the oil reserves?

[Barry Scott]

Originally Posted By: Big J R

.......... show Saddam being led into the execution chamber, then being led onto the gallows by his four executioners and then onto the trap.

Thoughts anyone ?

Should have shown him swinging. While the war is being fought over the wrong things, this evil c*** slaughtered thousands of people while he was in power and deserves what he got. Though I perhaps would have drawn it out a bit more

[Stu M]

Originally Posted By: Barry_Scott

While the war is being fought over the wrong things, this evil c*** slaughtered thousands of people while he was in power and deserves what he got.

Agreed. Unfortunately, because of the bungled mess in Iraq, we're linking that issue with Saddam's fate, but let's separate the two and remind ourselves he did indeed deserve it, whatever the mess the West has created by being there.

[Man From Mars]

Originally Posted By: Big J R

.......... show Saddam being led into the execution chamber, then being led onto the gallows by his four executioners and then onto the trap.

Thoughts anyone ?

No ,it was cruel and inhumane to taunt him as he was led to the gallows .The Man will now be a Martyr for the islamic world and this will just breed more islamic fundamentalists.His Grave /Tomb will now be a shrine to every young man /Woman who wants to strap a suicide bomb to themselves . sooner or later the yanks are gonna pay for it again .Its just a matter of time .And yes Us the 51st U S state will undoubtably get ours as well. A life sentence would have been better and after a time he would have been pretty much forgotten . Remember Hess ,Mandela , hidden for years and almost forgotten .It would have been the best way to deal with him.

[pabird]

Lets get away from the question of how the hanging/killing was degraded by sadist assistant hangmen and consider that it is now 2007 and surely we should not sanction killing by a state any more than killing by an individual.

However you judge the method to have a state system of killing people you determine that we have hardly moved away from the slime that humans originated from.

Lets be simple minded and ask a question or two of those that support state murder:

1. Would you be prepared by lottery to be the killer of a convicted man or women?

2. How would you explain to the family of a man or women that their father-mother-brother or sister was state executed by mistake?

Many people have been executed by mistake (proven after the event) and even DNA can be planted.

I accept that if I knew who had carried out certain crimes on my grandchildren, my wife or sons then revenge would be uppermost in my mind and I would have the ability at that time to take the law into my own hands. That does not excuse the state from planning a killing.

By this time in our progression from the slime the killing of fellow human beings is surely out dated in human development.

 

[Yellow Bungle]

Irrespective of whether the execution was right or wrong, the media has a duty to report the news. However, it also has a responsibility not to be a mouthpiece for propaganda.

 

Media independence is essential to democracy , but difficult to govern. I've noticed recently whilst abroad that the BBC World Service is funded by corporate and government advertising.

 

I would have thought that the one part of the BBC where it was key to avoid the intrusion of corportae or government influnce would be the World Service, otherwise where is it's integrity? For example, ther Government of Taiwan takes significant advertising airtime on the Far East World Service. What message does this put out to viewers in China seeking impartial reporting?

 

If the World Service is compromised then the whole argument about independent financing for the BBC through the licence fee falls apart and we may as well have another channel funded by advertising.

[chilled out entertainer]

chinese people should look at their own media before they could even contemplate looking at any outside resource. they are the most down trodden people in the world. blackout beijing.

[chilled out entertainer]

chinese people should look at their own media before they could even contemplate looking at any outside resource. they are the most down trodden people in the world. blackout beijing.

[pabird]

Tony Blair has yet to comment on the savage manner in which Saddam was executed and in fact refuses to comment other than to suggest that justice ran its course.

This is the same Blair who begged an audience with the Pope. This is the self-projected “straight talking sort of guy” Strange but his comment reference the sadistic manner of the hanging mirrors that of the Bush administration?

There has never been a more cynical lying self-preserving waste of space in the PM role in living memory.

 

[chilled out entertainer]

i have a link to the footage that was leaked if anyone would like to view it. it is not nice but not as bad as was described on news etc. pm me and i will send you a link, rather than posting it on here direct.

[Yellow Bungle]

COE, that's my point. The Chinese can't trust their own media so they must look elsewhere. Over the years the World Service has built up a reputation for impartiality and unbised reporting. Advertising undermines this in the perception of the viewer whether or not it affords the advertisor any influence.

[chilled out entertainer]

to the person who pmmed me regarding the footage, i have tried to reply to your message, even start a new pm to you, bnut with the new layout, keep messing it up! pm me your email and ill send it from my hotmail account.

[Big J R]

I've got it, thanks, Chilled.

 

Not exactly a dignified execution, was it ?

[chilled out entertainer]

not really, a bit bizarre. all the shouting and stuff. i would like to know the translation of all the abuse (im guessing) that was flying around

[Mitchurchin]

Iraq is in complete chaos.....Saddam ruled with an iron fist, possibly the only means by which a united Iraq could have possibly existed. We propped him up and then toppled him when it suited us. The Iraqi people have not united behind the 'new government', because there isn't one with any form of mandate that could be respected by the masses.

 

So, we, the West decide to have Saddam tried and convicted. Fair enough, he was a brute and killed thousands through his savage control methods. But to sit idly by whilst he is made into a martyr is astonishing. He was aligned with the Sunnis and murdered by the shia. Work out what will happen next?

 

Then Bush sends in 25,000 innocent young men and women to oversee yet more death and destruction. Oh and in the meantime, they are building the biggest US embassy in the Middle East...in Baghdad and will almost inevitably station the largest number of troops in the region....in Iraq.

 

The sheer number of lies being told is baffling, but always the key is to look behind what is being said and done and see who benefits the most. Then the truth will rise, like a dark and hellish fog.

 

To answer the original question, it shows the Iraqis to be savages and despots.....just like the man they have killed. And we keep on swallowing the pills, and hopefully for the government, keep on believing the crap they peddle.