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Saddam's Death To Be Videotaped

CBS News: Final Moments Will Be Recorded, Could Happen By End Of Month

(CBS News) BAGHDAD Saddam Hussein's final moments will be videotaped by the Iraqi government, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. National Security adviser Mouffak al Rubaie says the date of the deposed dictator's execution will not be made public, to avoid possible unrest from Saddam's supporters, but everything from the signing of the final orders by the judge, to the hanging itself will be recorded.

Iraqis, members of the coalition, and international representatives will witness the execution. It's not clear whether the videotape will be broadcast on Iraqi television.

An Iraqi government official says efforts are under way to carry out the death sentence by the end of this month, indicating that they want to do the execution before the Muslim celebration of Eid, which coincides with the New Year.

Saddam's chief lawyer urged the United States on Thursday not to hand over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities before his expected execution because he is a "war prisoner."

A top Vatican official condemned the death sentence against Saddam Hussein in a newspaper interview published Thursday, acknowledging the crimes of the ousted Iraqi leader but reiterating that capital punishment goes against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog group, says Saddam Hussein was certainly a human rights violator, but Iraq's government shouldn't execute him. "The true test of respect for human rights comes when the human rights of someone who has violated in unspeakable ways the human rights of many millions of people comes into play," said the group's Richard Dicker.

Lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi called on international and legal organizations including the Arab League and United Nations to "rapidly prevent" the Americans from handing Saddam to the Iraqis.

"According to the international conventions it is forbidden to hand a prisoner of war to his adversary," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Iraq's highest court on Tuesday rejected Saddam's appeal against his conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

Saddam is being held at Camp Cropper, an American military prison close to Baghdad's airport. The U.S. military has had Saddam Hussein in its custody, on behalf of the Iraqis, since his capture.

An official close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that Saddam would remain in a U.S. military prison until he is handed over to Iraqi authorities on the day of his execution. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Al-Dulaimi warned that turning over Saddam to the Iraqis would increase the sectarian violence that already is tearing the country apart.

"If the American administration insists in handing the president to the Iraqis, it would commit a great strategic mistake which would lead to the escalation of the violence in Iraq and the eruption of a destructive civil war," he said.

Issam Ghazzawi, another member of Saddam's defense team, said there was no way of knowing when Saddam's execution would take place.

"The only person who can predict the execution of the president ... is God and Bush," Ghazzawi said on Thursday.

In a goodbye letter posted on the Internet on Wednesday, Saddam urged Iraqis to embrace "brotherly coexistence" and not to hate the U.S.-led troops.

"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," said the letter.

Saddam is in the midst of another trial, charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation. That trial was adjourned until Jan. 8, and experts have said the trial of Saddam's co-defendants is likely to continue even if he is executed.

Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI's top prelate for justice issues and a former Vatican envoy to the United Nations, said that Saddam's execution would punish "a crime with another crime" and expressed hope that the sentence would not be carried out.

In the interview with Rome daily La Repubblica, Martino reiterated the Vatican's staunch opposition to the death penalty, saying that life must be safeguarded from its beginning to its "natural" end.

"The death penalty is not a natural death. And no one can give death, not even the State," he said.

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