Friday, January 05, 2007

Iraq 'squat-gated' shameful execution affair

So Iraqi PM Maliki has ordered the detention of a guard at the Shiite circus for Saddam Hussein’s execution. There’s worldwide scepticism that he’s being used as a low-level scapegoat. In fact Munkith al-Faroon, a prosecutor at Saddam's trial who was present at the execution, said two Iraqi officials were openly videotaping the event via their mobile phones.

Obviously PM Malaiki is hoping that by directing the world’s disgust at the lowly guard, the sordid shameful and barbaric behaviour of the execution party, which incidentally was ferried to the execution venue by US military helicopter, would be forgotten.

In other words, mask the unmitigated behaviour by offering a cheap sacrifice.

This reminds me of a Malaysian incident, the Squatgate affair, where the unwitting whistleblower, the policeman who took the video clip with his mobile, was supposedly punished (was he?) by the police, in the hope that the disgraceful barbaric punishment of making a detainee do ear-squat in the nude would be overlooked, or its crime diluted..

Refer to my postings Malaysia's Abu Ghraib - Minister Says Police Innocent and Squatgate - Dodgy Police Excuses.

Turn the crime into that of taking video clips rather than the far more horrible crimes that led to the taking of the video clip.

On top of that, the Malaysian newspaper which first published the squating punishment was also punished. As I blogged in Shoot the Messenger! “it’s a newspaper that gets the chop for Squatgate, not the police, the IGP or deputy IGP, or the ministers for the shameful incident including the deliberate concealment of the victim's identity for political reasons (the Pengkalan Pasir by-election).”


I wonder whether the Iraqi government has received advice from Malaysia, on how to Houdini-ed the shameful circus?

2 comments:

  1. tak tidur ke?
    pergi tak anwar's talk esok?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete