Execution sparks support for Saddam in Arab world

CAIRO, Egypt -- Another leaked video from Saddam Hussein's execution carried fresh adulation Monday of the fallen dictator, who in death has become a martyr and hero of Arab nationalism for some in the Middle East.

Saddam's stature has grown since his execution -- when he answered insults and taunts with disdain -- overshadowing the memories in much of the Arab world of the massacres and other atrocities committed by his regime.

The new video, showing Saddam's corpse with a gaping neck wound, was posted on the Internet early Tuesday. It was apparently shot with a camera phone minutes after he was hanged Dec. 30.

"A new film of the late immortal martyr, President Saddam Hussein," the web site said in a headline over a link to the video.

The independent Egyptian newspaper Al-Karama splashed Saddam's photo over a full page Monday, with an Iraqi flag behind him, declaring him an "Arab martyr."

The empty seat of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is seen during the Operation Anfal trial, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 8, 2007. The trial of Saddam and his six co-defendants for the killing of 180,000 Kurds in the 1980s resumed Monday and the court's first order of business was to drop all charges against Saddam. Saddam was sentenced to death for the killing of 148 Shiites and hanged on Dec. 30 in a chaotic execution that has drawn global criticism for the Shiite-dominated government. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, Pool)

"He lived as hero, died as a man," another Egyptian opposition newspaper, Al-Osboa, proclaimed in a headline, showing a photo of Saddam at the gallows.

The praise has angered the governments of Iraq and Kuwait, which Saddam's soldiers invaded in 1990. On Monday, Kuwaiti lawmakers denounced Arab countries where Saddam has been lauded as a hero and demanded the government reconsider ties and financial aid to them.

Indignation over the execution in the Sunni Arab world has increased resentment of the United States and Iraq's Shiite-led government. It could fuel support for Iraq's Sunni insurgency and complicate U.S. efforts to enlist Arab nations in efforts to reconcile Iraq's warring Sunni and Shiite communities.

In large part, it was the unruly scene at the gallows that catapulted Saddam to hero's status. In video footage smuggled out of the execution room, Shiite executioners are heard shouting curses at Saddam -- who stands erect, and smiles contemptuously. "Is this manly?" he retorts.

The latest video seems only to have aggravated the anger provoked by the earlier video.

Members of the UTT, the Tunisian Workers Union, put up on a wall of the UTT headquarters a poster of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, as part of a rally to condemn his execution, Friday, Jan. 5, 2006 in Tunis. Writing on poster reads : "Whoever honors the martyr must follow him". (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)

Saddam's iconic exeuction has, it seems, come to symbolize dignified Arab resistance in the face of humiliation at the hands of a Shiite government.

Some Arabs regard that government as illegitimate because it is backed by the U.S. military and closely allied to mainly Shiite Iran.

On Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki denounced other governments for criticizing the execution, accusing them of meddling in Iraqi affairs.

On Friday, hundreds in the Egyptian capital demonstrated after prayers at al-Azhar Mosque, chanting against the United States and allied Arab governments, expressing support for the Iraqi insurgency.

In Jordan, columnist Ibrahim Jaber Ibrahim lashed out at the Iraqi prime minister, deriding him as "Emperor al-Maliki, standing on a precious Persian carpet" -- a reference to the Iraqi Shiites' close ties Persian Iran.

Talal Salman, publisher of the Lebanese daily As-Safir, warned that the al-Maliki government's "vindictiveness, political blindness and shortsightedness ... are establishing divisions that will spare no one, whether in Iraq or in the territories around it, including all the Arabs."

Still, some voices in the Arab media insisted Saddam's crimes should not be ignored.

"One can't but be surprised at shameful Arab weeping (for Saddam) ... glorifying him and considering him a hero and martyr," wrote Palestinian writer Khaled al-Horoub in the United Arab Emirates daily Al-Itihad on Monday.

He warned that other Arab dictators will manage "to hide (their) crimes behind volatile speeches that stir up people's feelings but destroy their present and future."

Sami Moubayed wrote in the daily Oman Times, that he "tried hard" to sympathize with Saddam while watching the execution. "But I could not find a single thing worth praising about Saddam."

"However, the fact that he was executed under the watchful eye of the United States, at a time when Iraq is occupied, makes him a national hero to the Arabs," he wrote.