The Guardian asked me to comment on the video…

It was not an edifying experience, but the poor quality of the cameraphone video mitigated its ghastliness. It is shot from the stairs below the gallows platform. There’s a lot of jostling and shouting in Arabic. The various pre-execution procedures are shown – the black cloth being placed around Saddam’s neck, then the noose with its (to the uninitiated eye, anyway) ludicrously large knot. The rope has a lot of slack. More shouting. Saddam appears to smile, but given the quality of the video, it’s impossible to be sure. Then he is pushed forward. Nothing happens for a bit, except that the camerawork deteriorates further, sometimes focusing on the stairs. Whoever’s doing this is having trouble keeping their lens on the action.

Then there’s a loud crack, and Saddam disappears. Suddenly, one understands why the rope had so much slack. The shouting increases in volume and intensity. The camera focuses jerkily on the stairs for a time. The cameraman is obviously ascending them for a better view. Then there are a few surreal frames of the executed man’s face, now horizontal, which reminded one, bizarrely, of one of those art-movie sequences of a drowned man under water. Then fade to black.

I was the 811,625th person to view it, according to the YouTube statistics box…