Tele-Technologies, Control, and Sousveillance: Saddam Hussein — De-Deification and the Beast

Abstract

This paper examines two disturbing, post-2003 Iraq War representations of Saddam Hussein – the televised inspection of his disheveled body on his capture (December 2003) and television and internet footage of his execution (December 2006). These representations epitomize two very different examples of government control of information within the emergent tele-technological environment of Web 2.0. The portrayal of Saddam Hussein as a captured beast was controlled by the U.S. military, while sanitized footage of his execution was staged by the Iraqi government and intended to demonstrate that Saddam Hussein died “like all tyrants, frightened and terrified” (in the words of the Iraqi Prime Minister). While both official images intended to draw a line under the continued insurgencies in Iraq by depriving insurgents of their leader-in-hiding and leader-under-trial, the official version of his death was subverted through the distribution of illegally captured mobile phone video footage, which was subsequently retransmitted in mainstream news media. This raises questions about the nature and limits of strategic political communication in the context of Web 2.0 technologies where shocking but popular “sousveillant” content can reframe the ethical boundaries of mainstream news.

Notes

¹BBC News 24 footage can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZYF3_8Tgk&feature=related (Retrieved January 7, 2008).

²For instance, this phrase was used in the reportage of the capture in online versions of British national broadsheets the Guardian and the Telegraph, and US broadcasters CNN and MSNBC.

³For instance, this point was made in reportage of the capture in online versions of the Guardian, The Times, the Telegraph, The Sun, and the BBC.

⁴Saddam Hussein was found guilty on November 5, 2006, of the massacre of 148 people in Dujail in 1982 and sentenced to die by hanging (Santora et al., 2006).

⁵Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) is celebrated by Muslims around the world at the climax of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

⁶Saddam Hussein's appeal against the death sentence failed on December 26, the court instructing that he should be hanged within 30 days (Tweedie, 2007). In fact, he was hanged within five.

⁷For footage from Al-Iraqiya, see BBC (2006).

⁸For further details see FoxNews (2006) and Tweedie (2007).

⁹For instance, see Live leak and Militant Islam Monitor.org.