The execution reportedly caught the men by surprise:

Two top aides to Saddam Hussein were hanged before dawn Monday, and the head of one of them — the former Iraqi dictator’s half brother Barzan Ibrahim — was severed from his body during the execution, a government official said.

Two weeks and two days after Saddam was executed in an unruly scene that has drawn worldwide criticism, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh stressed that all laws and rules were respected during Monday’s hanging of Ibrahim, the former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court.

Video of the event was shown to reported but will not be released. Barzan Ibrahim was decapitated by the noose:

The silent video showed the trap doors opening. Al-Bandar could be seen dangling from the rope, while Ibrahim’s body in a blur fell to the floor, chest down, his still-hooded severed head resting several yards away.

The government played the video for the reporters apparently to allay any suspicions that Ibrahim’s body was mutilated after death.

“We will not release the video, but we want to show the truth,” al-Dabbagh said. “The Iraqi government acted in a neutral way.”

The man who recorded the cell phone video of Saddam Hussein’s execution has been arrested:

The Iraqi government has arrested the person believed to have recorded Saddam Hussein’s hanging on a cellphone.

An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would not identify the person, but said it was an official who supervised the execution last Saturday.

“In the past few hours, the government has arrested the person who made the video of Saddam’s execution,” the adviser said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

I’m a bit surprised. Despite appearances I assumed the release was intentional.

They say that he died with fear in his eyes but you can’t really tell in this grainy cell phone video:

The deposed leader, 69, shuffled to the gallows about 2pm Melbourne time carrying a copy of the Koran.

Hands bound behind his back and his ankles shackled, he asked guards to loosen his manacles but refused to let authorities cover his head with a black hood.

Then he was led to the trapdoor of the gallows, where, five minutes later, he died in “the blink of an eye”.

Among his last words was a Muslim profession of faith: “There is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet.”

There is an official high-definition version but it still hasn’t been released:

The Iraqi government photographer who filmed this morning’s execution of ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used a Sony High-Definition video camera, according to wire reports.

There was no word when — or if — the execution video would be broadcast in high-def in Iraq and elsewhere. Newsweek reports that the video is 15 minutes long and shows Hussein from “close quarters” during his final moments.

The photographer has commented on the scene.

CNN breaks down the audio:

But a crude cell-phone video leaked less than 24 hours later goes much further — showing bitter exchanges between Hussein and his Shiite guards.

After Hussein offers prayers, the guards shout praise for Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose father is believed to have been murdered by Hussein’s regime.

They chant, “Muqtada! Muqtada! Muqtada!”

Hussein smiles.

“Is this how you show your bravery as men?” he asks.

“Straight to hell,” someone shouts back at him.

“Is this the bravery of Arabs?” Hussein asks.

A sole voice is heard trying to silence the taunts.

“Please, I am begging you not to,” the unknown man says. “The man is being executed.”

Another shout, “Long live Mohammed Baqir Sadr” — referring to Muqtada al-Sadr’s father-in-law and a founder of the Shiite Dawa movement who was executed by the Hussein regime. Dawa is al-Maliki’s party.

The taunts continued, and the trapdoor dropped shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday. Hussein was hanged. (Watch Hussein’s last moments Video)

Immediately after, Shiite witnesses danced around his body, chanting celebratory slogans.

He was buried in Tikrit:

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was buried Sunday in Awja, near Tikrit, according to a CNN journalist who witnessed the ceremony.

About 100 people, including the governor of Salaheddin, clerics, tribal leaders and relatives attended the event, which took place at 4 a.m. (0100 GMT).

Saddam Hussein’s relatives, including sons Uday and Qusay, are buried in the same cemetery. His sons were killed in a firefight with U.S. forces in 2003.

Iraq’s state-run television network, Al-Iraqiya, reported that the Iraqi government formally handed over Hussein’s body to Sheikh Ali al-Nida, leader of the Bou Nasser tribe, and the governor of Salaheddin. It was transported by the U.S. military.

The body was then taken to Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, north of the capital, where members of the Bou Nasser tribe and clerics prayed over it, said a reporter for CNN who saw the body in Tikrit.

Blogs of War reader Greatcanine emails:

I thought you would like to post this. I put it together from the clandestine cellphone video filmed at the execution. The cellphone recorded flash photography during the post-hanging sequence and Saddam’s face is lit up for a second here and there. The sequence is chilling as it shows Saddam closing his eyes for the last time. I can get you larger files

You can see the image here. Shokk.com has one too.

Update 1/3/2006:
The person who recorded this video has been arrested by the Iraqi government.

Hot Air: I don’t know whose bright idea it was to let three punks in leather jackets and balaclavas take care of business instead of the Iraqi army, but the more I watch it, the more it looks like a hit instead of a state execution.

Not a suprising comment from the man who defended him and whom Salon called “the war criminal’s best friend“:

The former U.S. attorney general has become the tool of left-wing cultists who defend Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and Rwandan torturers as anti-imperialist heroes.

…Those who know him will be less surprised that the inspiration for this circus is former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, whom one long-standing colleague described as “a good man gone ga-ga — at least 25 years ago.” Many liberals and leftists cut Clark a considerable degree of slack. For a start he is almost the only person the American left has had in high public office since World War II, even if it was a retrospective success, since his long march leftward only began afterward. His views as the former attorney general are listened to with a respect that would be accorded to few others with such eccentric opinions. As a revered spokesman of the left, he is a perfect symbol for its near-impotence in American politics today.

Everyone who has dealings with Clark uses the word “nice” to describe him. But he often sides with people whom no one with a full deck would call nice. (Clark did not respond to a Salon News interview request.) Many former friends, more in sorrow than in anger, trace his present positions to the company he keeps: the International Action Center, which proclaims him its founder but seems entirely in the thrall of an obscure Trotskyist sect, the Workers World Party. Whoever writes his scripts, there is little doubt what Ramsey Clark is against now — any manifestation of the power of the state he once served at the height of the Vietnam War.

There’s surprisingly little of value (but tons and tons of garbage and fakes) concerning Saddam Hussein’s execution on YouTube but hopefully that will change over time.

I also posted an Iraqi blogger roundup in the hours leading to Saddam Hussein’s execution.

Healing Iraq: I hope the execution of the tyrant brings relief to the families of his victims. There are still many dark days ahead in Iraq.

Thoughts From Baghdad: On the subject of Saddam Hussein, I still can’t believe that they hung him on the first day of Eid. Quite distasteful, quite blood-thirsty, very wrong. Like they’re handing him over on a gold plate to one group of Iraqis, and completely throwing the plate in the faces of the others. Making Eid a double Eid for some, and a bloody Eid for the others. So wrong.

A Star From Mosul: Saddam’s death won’t lead to anything good, as did his arrest, and trial.. As I’ve said before, he was a dectator, but now, to me, he was not but a leader who made things work! Never have we had better times after the war than the worst before.. truly.

Hammorabi: Saddam Hussein was the most tyrant dictator in the recent history of mankind. In no way that a simple article like this may be able to describe how ruthless he was. His tyranny and ruthlessness were not only against the Iraqis though they were the most sufferers but it involved so many other peoples. Now and after he was executed for only a drop of his crimes which is the Dijeel issue in which he killed and tortured many Iraqis from Dijeel in 1980s, after this Saddam will face three trials.

Roads to Iraq: Saddam dies, they executed Iraq before they executed Saddam, the resistance continues, I think that the Iraqi resistance tomorrow can show the world that Al-Hakim, Al-Maliki, Al-Chalabi, and the rest of the gang and everybody sold himself to the Americans will never escape justice. Long live Iraq occupation-free. Long live Iraq, US puppets-free.

Truth About Iraqis: When will Sharon go on trial for his butchery in Sabra, Shatila, Jenin, Beit Hanoun and others?

Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial — the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime.

Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical rule. It is a testament to the Iraqi people’s resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. This would not have been possible without the Iraqi people’s determination to create a society governed by the rule of law.

Saddam Hussein’s execution comes at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops. Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq’s course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the War on Terror.

We are reminded today of how far the Iraqi people have come since the end of Saddam Hussein’s rule - and that the progress they have made would not have been possible without the continued service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.

Many difficult choices and further sacrifices lie ahead. Yet the safety and security of the American people require that we not relent in ensuring that Iraq’s young democracy continues to progress.

Source: WhiteHouse.gov

His death, unlike the countless others he was resposible for, was quick and painless:

Ali Al Massedy was 3 feet away from Saddam Hussein when he died. The 38 year old, normally Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s official videographer, was the man responsible for filming the late dictator’s execution at dawn on Saturday. “I saw fear, he was afraid,” Ali told NEWSWEEK minutes after returning from the execution. Wearing a rumpled green suit and holding a Sony HDTV video camera in his right hand, Ali recalled the dictator’s last moments. “He was saying things about injustice, about resistance, about how these guys are terrorists,” he says. On the way to the gallows, according to Ali, “Saddam said, ‘Iraq without me is nothing.’”

Ali says he followed Saddam up the gallows steps, escorted by two guards. He stood over the hole and filmed from close quarters as Saddam dropped through—from “me to you,” he said, crouching down to show how he shot the scene. The distance, he said, was “about one meter,” he said. “He died absolutely, he died instantly.” Ali said Saddam’s body twitched, “shaking, very shaking,” but “no blood,” he said, and “no spit.” (Ali said he was not authorized to disclose the location, and did not give other details of the room.)