Oh, Give Me A Break
John Hinderaker

CNN Europe reports that Italians are shocked--shocked!--by the cell phone video of Saddam Hussein's execution, and are calling for a United Nations ban on all capital punishment:

Italy will campaign at the United Nations for a global ban on the death penalty, Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Tuesday, after graphic images of Saddam Hussein's hanging shocked people around the world.

Italian politicians of all political parties expressed disgust at Hussein's execution, with even former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi calling it a "political and historic error."

Pressured by a week-long hunger strike by a 76-year-old campaigner against Hussein's execution and the death penalty in general, Prodi said Italy would push the U.N. for a "universal moratorium" on capital punishment.

Iraq's government made the obvious rejoinder: ...

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Moon Puts Saddam Death Penalty In Perspective
Ed Morrissey

This change promises a return to common sense at Turtle Bay, and will likely drive Kofi Annan fans up the nearest wall. Newly-inducted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon defended Iraq's imposition of the death penalty as a question of sovereignty and reminded protestors around the world about the nature of the man whose death they lament:

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said Tuesday that Iraq and other countries have the right to impose the death penalty, adding that the world should never forget Saddam Hussein's "heinous crimes."

Ban's first public reaction to Hussein's execution signaled a sharp break from his predecessor, Kofi Annan, ...

I'm no fan of the death penalty, but I am a proponent of national sovereignty over governance through the UN. This statement from Moon suggests that he has the same outlook, and it should serve as a reversal of thought among Turtle Bay power elites. For too long, the UN bureaucracy and leadership have taken for granted the notion that the UN represents some sort of supergovernment ...

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Video: New UN SecGen hints Saddam got what he deserved

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Iraqi Official Arrested Over Saddam Execution Video

BAGHDAD, Iraq  —  The person believed to have recorded Saddam Hussein's execution on a cell phone camera was arrested Wednesday, an adviser to Iraq's prime minister said.

The adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, did not identify the person. But he said it was "an official who supervised the execution" and who is "now under investigation."

"In the past few hours, the government has arrested the person who made the video of Saddam's execution," the adviser said.

Iraqi state television broadcast an official video of Saturday's hanging, which had no audio and never showed Saddam's actual death. But the leaked cell phone video showed the deposed leader being taunted in his final moments, with witnesses shouting "Go to hell!" before he dropped through the gallows floor and died. ...

Allahpundit has more here.