Brown 'deplores' death of Saddam

Published on Sunday 7 January 2007 00:54

GORDON Brown has placed himself at odds with Tony Blair by labelling the execution of Saddam Hussein "deplorable".

In the first hint that a Brown premiership will adopt a radically different stance over Iraq, the Chancellor criticised the conduct of witnesses during Saddam's last seconds after they taunted him and filmed his death on a mobile phone.

Brown's comments sparked dismay from Blair's closest aides, who say the Prime Minister has deliberately kept silent in order to appease the struggling Iraqi government.

There is concern that it could provoke diplomatic tensions with under-pressure Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Yesterday Maliki insisted the execution was a "domestic affair" and Iraq's government would "review its relations with any country that does not respect the will of the Iraqi people".

Amid fears of spiralling sectarian violence in Iraq, the defiant administration is preparing to hang a number of senior Saddam allies as early as today, including the former dictator's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and a former judge.

Brown has offered an outspoken verdict on the execution last week, echoing Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's criticism of the event.

In an interview for this morning's Sunday AM on BBC1, the Chancellor said: "Now that we know the full picture of what happened, we can sum this up as a deplorable set of events.

"It is something, of course, which the Iraqi Government has now expressed its anxiety and shame at. It has done nothing to lessen tensions between the Shia and Sunni communities. Even those people, unlike me, who are in favour of capital punishment found this completely unacceptable, and I am pleased that there is now an inquiry into this and I hope lessons in this area will be learnt, as we learn other lessons about Iraq."

Downing Street has pointedly refused to endorse Prescott's view, while Blair, who returned from holiday late last week, rejected requests for comment during a hospital visit on Friday.

The Prime Minister will now face pressure in the wake of Brown's comments and is likely to be brow-beaten over the affair during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

"It is not helpful, no," a Blairite aide said of Brown's intervention. "If Tony is not passing comment yet, he is doing it for good reason and he will give his views when the time is right."

Blair said he would speak this week about "all those other issues". On a tour of a heart hospital in London last week, he said: "I'll find a way to talk about it, but not today."

Brown has never been as committed to the Iraq campaign as the Prime Minister. But he is now understood to believe that the government has found itself "in a rut" over the conflict - and that the continuing deployment is overshadowing his main foreign policy aim of ensuring every child in the developing world has access to education.

Although the Chancellor is less committed than Blair to maintaining the Coalition line on the continuing deployment, he has not so far used his position to offer an alternative view. Allies maintain that, if he succeeds Blair, he will use the opportunity to launch a fresh review of the Iraq campaign - but he will not "cut and run" from the country.

A spokesman for Tory leader David Cameron said Brown's intervention hinted at a wider dispute between Blair and his most powerful colleague. "It is only at times like this that we get an idea of the real chaos at the top of the Labour Party," he added.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said Brown's outburst had betrayed the government's concerns about the "shameful" conduct of Saddam's execution.

But Maliki said Saddam had received a fair trial and that his execution was for the benefit of Iraq's unity.

The renewed tension between the Iraqi administration and 'allies' around the world came as President George Bush's new plan to pacify the country by sending more troops to Iraq was already running into trouble on Capitol Hill.

Bush, who yesterday met his national security team, has appointed new military commanders and will disclose a new strategy as early as Wednesday. The military solution will probably call for an increase in US troops, possibly 9,000 additional soldiers for Baghdad alone.

But Democratic house speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid shot down the suggestion within a day of gaining control of Congress.

Even Republican senator John McCain, who advocates sending more troops to Iraq, said he would not support extra forces unless it was enough troops to stop the violence.

Vehicle failures 'risk lives of troops'

BRITISH soldiers' lives are being put at risk because they are being let down by their equipment on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Figures obtained by Scotland on Sunday reveal that military vehicles, from tanks to reconnaissance vehicles, failed British forces almost 450 times in just six months up to the end of October. On at least eight occasions, the equipment failures left military personnel in mortal danger.

Military sources said patrols in Iraq had been left stranded and exposed to ambush after vehicles had broken down in the heat and dust of Basra.