There are two videos online depicting Saddam Hussein’s execution which as decided by US and the Iraq government.

The first is the version shown without sound, lasting about a minute. It was the official version disseminated to TV networks.

The second is said to have been taken by cell phone by one of the nearly two dozen witnesses and lasts 2.36 minutes. Timing matters, this execution was timed for the political and religious overtones. LA Times:

The Iraqi government’s push to hang Hussein this morning, when much of the Muslim world was celebrating Eid, drew criticism from Islamic leaders in the Middle East and America.

“Executing any individual during this holiday period indicates poor judgment and a lack of sensitivity,” the Muslim Public Affairs Council said in a statement.

As the Hussein drama played out Friday in Baghdad, millions of Muslims gathered in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage, a pillar of the Islamic faith that every Muslim is required to perform at least once if able.

“Connecting this to a religious occasion will just widen the gap between the factions in Iraq,” said Muhammad Eissa, a University of Chicago professor of Arabic and an Islamic scholar. “This is a time when Muslims in particular are supposed to be forgiving, are supposed to be closer to God. Why are they using this occasion to take revenge? They couldn’t wait one more week?”

The execution time and place was decided by the US and Iraq. AP:

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saddam would be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, or 10 p.m. Friday EST. Saddam and others were convicted of murder in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from an Iraqi town where assassins tried to kill Saddam in 1982.

Also to be hanged were Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, the adviser said.

The time was agreed upon during a meeting Friday between U.S. and Iraqi officials, said the adviser, who declined to be quoted by name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The longer video is graphic and disturbing and show the loss of solemness that we expect to occur in the offical execution, but all too often throughout history does not. ABC News:

There are five men in black face masks who are visible on the gallows platform around Saddam, acting as guards.  As they guide him towards the trap door and put the noose over his head, they start chanting religious slogans with the names of Moqtada al Sadr (the head of the Mahdi army, accused of organizing death squads against Sunnis) and Baqr al Sadr (the father-in-law of Moqtada).  Saddam, a Sunni, is outraged at this last-minute provocation,  and tells them to “go to hell.”  This is generally where the two TV stations cut the video, but on at least one occasion that we saw, Arabiya allowed the video to keep rolling: The cell phone camera is jerked down to the ground, as if the person holding it had to conceal the camera, then it is slowly raised up to Saddam again, and suddenly his body shoots down through the trapdoor.  At this, the Arabiya anchor came on and made a scissors symbol with two fingers with a mischievous grin on his face, as if to say that they really shouldn’t have shown that, but so be it.  A cynical voyeuristic ploy, nudge nudge wink wink…

However, the impact of this video could be quite significant.  First, it may reinforce Sunni suspicions that the execution of Saddam was merely an act of Shiite revenge for decades of repression under Saddam.  The building where the execution took place was expressly chosen because it was once used as a detention center by a division of Saddam’s secret police that was focused on the Shiite Dawa party.  Some of the witnesses whom the government invited to the execution had themselves once been tortured in that same building.  Indeed, Prime Minister Maliki, who signed the execution order the day before the hanging, is a long-term member of the Dawa party and had himself been sentenced to death by Saddam back in 1980 before fleeing the country.

Christian groups around the world have spoken out, including the World Council of Churches and the Vatican.

But what about Iraqi Christians?

Leaders of Iraq’s community living in exile expressed concerns over the possibility of more sectarian violence. Hundreds of thousands of Christians are believed to have fled during and before war broke out in Iraq. There are currently roughly 450,000 Christians still living in Iraq down from an estimated 750,000 three years ago, according to church observers.  

…

In a statement, Joseph Kassab, executive director of the Detroit-based Chaldean Federation of America, said his Christian humanitarian organization is against the taking of human life. Other evangelical Christians have said only God can judge over life and death and that they prefer imprisonment as in their view anyone should have an opportunity to meet Christ as personal Savior and Lord and to repent of sins, including Saddam Hussein. 

But, in published remarks, Kassab also said the world must reflect on Saddam’s execution, “so we never again relinquish our destiny to tyrants like him.”

Human rights groups and organizations such as the Council of Europe have expressed opposition to the death penalty, and some activists suggested that justice was not served as Saddam Hussein had still to be prosecuted for other crimes, including his alleged involvement in massacring Kurdish people.