January 5, 2007
Mobile phone captures Iraq's cruelty
The phone camera footage of Saddam Hussein's execution may prove to be the most controversial media disclosure from Iraq since snapshots of US guards abusing prisoners inside Abu Ghraib were published in 2004. The BBC reports.
"... The mobile phone, that symbol of freedom and independence, had come into its own in Iraq in the most dramatic way.
... On the day after Saddam's hanging, a trader in a Shia part of Baghdad told AFP news agency that his mobile phone shop was selling the gallows phone camera footage for 500 dinars (40 US cents) a time.
And for those without a mobile, video of Iraq's death squads and their victims is available to buy on DVD.
... Simon Henderson suggests that the desire of some Iraqis to see footage of Saddam's execution owes much to the brutalisation of society under his rule.
This, after all, was a man who used to take his own sons Uday and Qusay to witness torture sessions. "
Related:
-- Official held in Saddam hanging video
-- Iraq PM orders probe into Saddam cameraphone video
-- Cameraphone footage of Saddam’s Execution made its way to video sharing sites
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