LUXOR, Egypt (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that executions of Saddam Hussein and two others were mishandled and said she hoped that those responsible for making cell phone videos of Saddam's execution will be punished. Two top aides to the former Iraqi dictator were hanged before dawn Monday, and the head of one of them—Saddam's half brother Barzan Ibrahim—was severed from his body during the execution, a government official said.
"We were disappointed there was not greater dignity given to the accused under these circumstances," Rice said during a news conference with her Egyptian counterpart.
She said passions are running high in Iraq following the overthrow of Saddam's Sunni-led rule, but she did not excuse the Shiite-led, U.S.- backed government that has taken his place.
"That shouldn't have happened and it did not reflect well on the Iraqi government that it came out that way," Rice said.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh stressed that all laws and rules were respected during Monday's hangings.
Rice also said the executions were Iraqi government decisions, not those of the United States.
"Let me just say that the decision concerning the execution of Saddam Hussein and the two defendants today were made according to Iraqi process and Iraqi law," she said.
Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, had been found guilty along with Saddam in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.
Saddam's Dec. 30 execution drew international outrage over the way his hanging was carried out after a clandestine video, recorded on a cell phone camera, was leaked, showing the former dictator being taunted on the gallows. A second leaked video showed Saddam's corpse, with a gaping neck wound.
"I hope that those who are responsible for the way that came out will be indeed punished," Rice said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered his Interior Ministry to investigate the first video, and authorities have arrested the person believed to have made that recording.
President Bush said he saw part of the Internet-aired video of the execution and, like Rice, said he thought it could have been handled better.
In an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes," Bush said he got no particular satisfaction from seeing Saddam hang. "I'm not a revengeful person," he said.
