SADDAM’S HANGING — UNCUT

Here’s an article that describes the hanging with some details that wasn’t really reported.  For instance, his last words are ‘Go to Hell.’

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. 

Interested in the video of the actual hanging?  You can watch it here.  The quality is poor and shaky, probably taken via a cell phone.  You see him drop and briefly hang with flashes from cameras.  The sound of the drop is a little disturbing.

On another note, the execution seemed a bit unprofessional, if that makes sense.  I would have expected the executioners to all be wearing some type of government/official/military uniform, or at least all of them to be dressed the same, and for their to be more lighting.  Instead, it looks like a bunch of people from the streets dressed as everyday working class citizens performing the execution in a basement.  But then again, maybe that was what they wanted.

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Lincoln Catafalque Talk

For some reason, I always thought that after Lincoln was laid to rest, the catafalque used to hold his coffin wasn’t used again until Kennedy died – but I was wrong!

As a matter of fact, President Ford will be the 12th president and 28th person overall to have laid in state on the catafalque.

Here’s a list of everyone that has been on the catafalque, and here’s a little more info on the Lincoln catafalque, a little dated from the Reagan funeral, but still valid.

Also, here’s two bits of information I found interesting about the Lincoln catafalque:

  • Abraham Lincoln’s catafalque, hastily designed and built in 1865 by Commissioner of Public Buildings Benjamin Baker French, is a nailed-together platform of rough pine boards about 7 feet long, raised about 3 feet off the ground and covered with a black cloth drapery. After Lincoln’s funeral, the catafalque was permanently stored in Washington’s Tomb. This space, a tiny cell two floors below the Rotunda, had lain vacant since 1832, when plans to disinter the first president from his resting place in Mount Vernon fell through.
  • It was used in the Supreme Court building to support the casket of former Justice Harry Blackmun—just before his ashes were driven to Arlington Cemetery in a Volkswagen Beetle.
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