Iranian TV claims Iraq rushed Saddam's execution to thwart alleged US escape plan

David Edwards and Ron BrynaertPublished: Friday January 5, 2007

A report on a 24-hour Arabic-language television channel - based in Tehran and run by the Iranian state radio and TV service - claimed that Saddam Hussein's execution was rushed by the Iraqi government in order to thwart an escape plan, masterminded by the United States.

Al-Alam TV cited an unnamed Iraqi official source who alleges that Hussein had agreed to help quell the Sunni resistance in return for a two-week postponent of his execution, and help to gain passage to Jordan, where a fugitive Iraqi Minister recently escaped.

The source told the television station that Iraqi officials discovered the purported plan at the last minute and "foiled it."

According to Reuters, the US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad (who reportedly will be nominated by Bush for the UN ambassador post vacated by John Bolton) tried to delay Hussein's execution. Khalilzad allegedly "insisted that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki provide certain documents, including a signature from Iraq's president," before hanging the former dictator but was unsuccesful.

"Al-Alam earned a reputation during the war for its gory footage of wounded civilians and soldiers, broadcast under the logo 'War of Mastery,'" the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2003.

Last month, the BBC reported on Al-Alam's coverage of December's international conference on the Holocaust held in Tehran.

"Al-Alam's presenter used terms such as the 'holocaust theory' and 'what is called the holocaust' in his report," the BBC reported. "The report also included a quote from a member of the Jews against Zionism group who attended the conference, expressing doubts about the truth behind the Holocaust."

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