Democracy Now! talks to Param Preet Singh of Human Rights Watch; international law expert Richard Falk; Najmaldin Karim, President of the Washington Kurdish Institute; and Professor John Collins. [includes rush transcript] It was a grisly scene. Just after dawn Saturday, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging in Baghdad. A video released on the internet, filmed on a cellular phone, showed men preparing to execute Hussein. As the men with Hussein argue over how best to tie the noose, others behind the cameraman begin a series of chants including, "Muqtada muqtada," a reference to the Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr. As Saddam Hussein interrupts to mock al Sadr, the men tell him "go to hell." The jeering continues as the noose is placed around Hussein's neck. He says the testimony once, then as he is in the middle of repeating it a second time, the door below him opens and he drops to his death. Afterwards the chants continue. Hours later, the video was shown around the world, drawing massive protest. U.S. President George Bush hailed the execution as "the end of a dark era" for Iraq. Just hours earlier, Hussein had been transferred from U.S. custody to the custody of the Iraqi government. Last week, Hussein lost his final appeal and was sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite Iraqis at Dujail in 1982. Yet while many Iraqis celebrated Hussein's demise, the execution was also met with worldwide condemnation. Egypt, Libya, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and the Vatican protested the hanging. Rallies were held in India and Pakistan throughout the weekend. In the Iraqi city of Samarra Monday, Sunni demonstrators stormed the Al-Askiriya mosque carrying a mock coffin and a photograph of Hussein. Iraqi Kurds protested the timing of Hussein's death--he was killed before hearing the majority of the counts against him. Human Rights groups also criticized the execution.

• Param Preet Singh, counsel for the International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch.
• Najmaldin Karim, President of the Washington Kurdish Institute.
• Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of more than twenty books and was a founding member of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms.
• John Collins, Associate Professor of Global Studies at St. Lawrence University. author of Occupied by Memory: The Intifada Generation and the Palestinian State of Emergency and co-editor of Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War.