Saddam Aides Hanged, Outrage Ensues [Update: Unsatisfying Videos Added]

Hussein aides Awad Hamed al-Bandar and Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (who was also Saddam's half-brother and the 5 of Clubs) were hanged yesterday and wouldn'tcha know it, the execution was botched, a further blight on Iraq's tyranny disposal methodologies.

The hangman might've underestimated Barzan's weight, because as the rope pulled taut, his head was liberated from his body.  What an outrage.  Thank goodness the condemned wasn't verbally taunted before he swung or this would've been a truly heinous episode.

Honestly, this can hardly be called an unsuccessful execution.  He was set to be hanged and hanged he was.  The fact that his remains require some assembly is gruesome, but then again, this was an exeuction.

The bulk of the indignation is limited thus far to Sunnis, but the execution was not only filmed, but later shown to journalists, so we should expect it to show up online, perhaps by the time I finish this post.  When it does, brace for wider spread, equally unfounded, and frequently feigned outrage to blossom. 

Khalaf al-Olayan, a prominent Sunni member of the Iraqi Parliament, teed up the inaccurate talking point.

"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."

Train robber Tom Ketchum disagrees.

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Update:  Video of a first-hand account of the execution video by the BBC's Andrew North:

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Update:  Video of the henchmen's burial: