The camera phone video of Saddam Hussein's execution (as I wrote on Saturday) that is circulating around Iraq (as I also wrote) has become a cause celebre around the world as thousands of Muslims protest the taunting of Saddam by executioners and witnesses during his final moments.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation to determine who leaked the video and who among the witnesses to the execution taunted Saddam, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
AP quotes Sami al-Askari, a close al-Maliki political adviser, as saying al_Maliki had "ordered the formation of an investigative committee in the Interior Ministry to identify who chanted slogans inside the execution chamber and who filmed the execution and sent it to the media."
Officials had phones
Although cellular phones were supposedly taken from witnesses before they boarded the helicopter to fly to the execution site, some people did have phones, AP says. Munqith al-Faroon, an Iraqi who prosecuted Saddam during the trial, says "two top officials...had their mobile phones with them."
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