VIDEO: President Saddam Hussein was slaughtered after his death

"BAGHDAD, Janaury 8, 2006 - A new video of Saddam Hussein's corpse, with a gaping neck wound, was posted on the Internet early Tuesday, the second leaked release of clandestine pictures from the former leader's hanging.

The video appeared to have been taken with a camera phone, like the graphic video of the hanging which showed guards taunting Saddam in the final moments of his life.

The footage pans up the shrouded body of the former leader from the feet. It apparently was taken shortly after Saddam was executed and placed on a gurney. He was hanged shortly before dawn on Dec. 30.

As the panning shot reaches the head region, the white shroud is pulled back and reveals Saddam's head and neck.

His head is unnaturally twisted at a 90 degree angle to his right. It shows a gaping bloody wound, circular in shape, about an inch below his jaw line on the left side of his neck. His left cheek is marked with red blotches, and there is blood on the shroud where it covered his head.

The newest video leak was likely to increase the angry reaction over the way the execution was carried out. There already has been a global outcry about the undignified manner in which the Shiite-dominated government hanged Saddam, a Sunni."

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To me the lynching and subsequent slaughter of Saddam by the Shiite thugs in Baghdad, with full backing and jubilation by Iran, is a blunder of historic proportions by Tehran. The U.S. couldn't have orchestrated it better than this. At a time when the U.S. is preparing to hit Iran hard and is trying to form an Arab alliance against it, Iran obliged and made this task that much easier. Instead of being a major force for Muslim unity against U.S. aggression, Iran chose sectarianism in Iraq, instead.

If and when Iran is bombed by Usrael, I am afraid that Tehran should not expect the overwhelming support that Hizbullah received last summer from most Arabs and Muslims. Tehran will have itself and its opportunistic and sectarian policies in Iraq to blame. It will stand alone, just as Usrael planned it.

Tony Sayegh