Iraq has reportedly hanged Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti and the head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar.
Both were found guilty, along with Saddam Hussein, in connection with the killing of 148 people after a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.
Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, is depicted to the left. He allegedly conducted show trials which led to summary death sentences. Al-Bander passed death sentences on many Dujail residents.
Ironically, al-Bandar received a much fairer, much more exhaustive trial before he was sentenced to death than did the victims of his "court."
Barzan Ibrahim, the former head of Iraqi intelligence, was depicted as the five of clubs in the 52 "personality identification playing cards" developed by the U.S. military to help troops identify most wanted Iraqis of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Known as the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence organization is believed to have tortured and murdered thousands of opponents of the regime. According to a U.S. official quoted by BBC News, during his time in the secret police, Barzan played a key role in the Iraqi regime's execution of opponents at home and assassinations abroad, and was also "known for his ruthlessness and brutality in purging the Iraqi military of anyone seen as disloyal."
Trial Watch reports of Barzan Ibrahim:
Whilst head of Iraqi intelligence, he was responsible for the repression of religious and ethnic minorities including forced deportation, disappearances and murder.
He personally supervised in May 1983 the murder of at least 6 members of the al-Hakim family and was also involved in the arrest of 90 members of the same family.
He further ordered the assassinations of Iraqi dissidents carried out on foreign soil by Mukhabarat agents.
In 1983 he allegedly was in charge of an operation to punish Iraqi Kurds suspected of aiding the Iranians. Eyewitnesses claimed that under his direction, thousands of males aged between 14 and 70 from the Barzani tribe were arrested, held in camps near Irbil, northern Iraq, and then taken away. According to one filed statement, 300-350 men were buried in a mass grave near Kirkuk after being shot, some by Barzan Ibrahim personally. Several other thousands remain unaccounted for.
Barzan Ibrahim reportedly participated in the deportation and mass murder of the inhabitants of the village of Dujail after an attempt on Saddam Hussein’s life.
More coverage and commentary at Jules Crittenden and Gateway Pundit
Update (not recommended reading for the squeamish)
It is being reported that Barzan Ibrahim was decapitated by the hanging:
In confirming the executions, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the head of one of the accused, Barzan Ibrahim, had been severed during the hanging in what he called "a rare incident."
"Those present signed documents pledging not to violate the rules or otherwise face legal penalties. All the people present abided by the government's rule and there were no violations," he said, adding the hangings occurred at 3 a.m. "No one shouted slogans or said anything that would taint the execution. None of those charged were insulted."
According to the same report:
The announcement drew outrage from some in the Sunni community while majority Shiites who were heavily persecuted under Saddam's regime expressed joy.
Khalaf al-Olayan, a leader of the main Sunni bloc in parliament, demanded to see any video taken during the execution. It was not known if the government took an official video, as it did during Saddam's execution.
"It is impossible for a person to be decapitated during a hanging," he told Al-Jazeera television. "This shows that they (the government) have mutilated the body and this is a violation of the law."
"We want to see the video that was taken during the execution of the two men in order for them (government) to prove what they are saying," he added.
We will have to await further details, but in the meantime it suffices to say that it is simply false that, as Sunni Khalaf al-Olayan claims, it is "impossible" for a person to be decapitated during a hanging. It is not only possible, but it has happened many times before. I will not link to the evidence because it is somewhat morbid and graphic. Documented cases of decapitations during hanging exist in American history and no doubt in the history of most other nations of the world.
Suffice it to say that it would be foolish to accept uncritically the factual assertions of outraged Sunnis in this matter. One gets the sense that they would still be complaining and demanding an investigation even if Barzan Ibrahim had died of natural causes.
Further Update 1/15/07: An official video of the hanging shown to reporters and seems to confirm the decapitation mishap.
Sensible Mom finds a moment of levity in the otherwise unpleasant news.
Fox News has a reminder of why Barzan Ibrahim ended up where he did:
Barzan Ibrahim, who served as Saddam's intelligence chief, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of murder, forced deportation and torture relating to the deaths of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail.
As head of Iraq's Mukhabarat intelligence service, Ibrahim was one of the most feared men in Iraq, who had personally supervised torture sessions with electric shocks in Baghdad in the 1980s.
One witness at the Dujail trial said Ibrahim had eaten grapes while the man screamed in agony. Another witness described how he beat her and broke her ribs after she was hung naked from the ceiling by her feet.
By comparison to the torture and murder he inflicted on others, Ibrahim's death was quick and merciful.
Further Update:
Barzan Ibrahim reportedly suffered from spinal cancer, which could help account for his decapitation during the hanging.
In addition, as experts have explained, hanging is a grim balancing act for the executioner. If the length of the drop is too short, depending on the weight of the person being executed, he or she may remain alive for some time and slowly strangle to death -- an extremely unpleasant death. (In Iran, this is how the Islamic regime currently chooses to hang people -- it lifts them with cranes to maximize their suffering before death.) A long, sudden drop is intended to be more merciful to the condemned person, resulting in a broken neck and a quick death, but such a drop can sometimes result in decapitation as occurred with Barzan Ibrahim.
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Key words: barzan ibrahim hanging hanged executed execution decapitation decapitated sadam husain
"It is impossible for a person to be decapitated during a hanging,"
Uh, no. If the condemned drops much more than six feet, if the rope is of a certain weight and the knot placed just so with respect to the condemned's spine, not only is decapitation possible, depending on the circumstances it may be likely.
I offer that as an observation in physics, by the way, not a moral judgment.
Posted by: Lex | January 15, 2007 at 11:28 PM