One of the first reactions came from the editor of al-Quds al-`Arabi, `abdel Bari `atwan, who had a long 'working' relationship with the Iraqi regime: the London-based newspaper was among the staunchest supporters of Iraq's war against Iran, and is commonly believed to have received Iraqi funds at different periods in time. `Atwan wrote an op-ed yesterday entitled 'He will join the ranks of the martyrs', `Atwan argued that Saddam will go down in history as a staunch defender of Arab rights and that his executioners will be seen as sectarian collaborators. Below are some quotes from `Atwan's article: "...when the American occupier hands him over to a hateful sectarian government, that supports the death squads...we should expect the worst for this man who has preserved the unity of his country and made it a feared regional power, and stayed above sectarian and ethnic divisions" "...The execution order came since the first day of the American occupation and...the juridical arrangements were a mere waste of time" "...the Iraqi people will remember its president as a knight who resisted the occupiers, built an unprecedented scientific infrastructure, eliminated illiteracy, and nationalized the oil industry..." "The Iraq of al-Hakeem and `Allawi and al-Maliki and al-Ja`fari and al-Talibani is a humiliated Iraq, corrupt, occupied, devoid of its identity..."

`Atwan's article is part of the creation of a new vision of Saddam Hussein: that of a president loved by the Sunnis and hated by the Shi`as and the Kurds. Such a characterization is historically incorrect, but like the thesis of the 'Sunni state' (which posits that Saddam's Iraq was a tool of 'Sunni' domination that existed through the persecution of 'Shi`as') the mass adoption of this vision makes the 'historical truth' largely irrelevant.

Al-Jazeera reported that the reactions to Saddam's death fell along sectarian lines: celebrations in the Shi`a-dominated provinces and the Kurdish areas versus a sense of loss and humiliation in the Sunni parts of the country. The Maliki government's attempts to make of Saddam's death a national occasion of a rupture with the tyrannical past have largely failed.

In anticipation of the emergence of a Saddam 'cult', al-`Arabiya TV showed documentaries representing Saddam's atrocities in the hours preceding his execution; the mood on al-Jazeera was more somber, the Qatari-based channel hosted several opponents of Saddam but also many guests who attacked the process of his execution, critiqued the trial or even expressed support for the ex-president. The government-owned channel, al-`Iraqiya made a point of captioning the images of Saddam's execution with terms like 'the execution of the criminal Saddam Hussein' or 'execution of the tyrant'.

While Saudi Arabia made an effort not to show any glee for the execution and focused in its official comments on critiquing the timing (the eve of `eid al-Adha), the pro-Saudi media mirrored that position. `Abdel Rahman al-Rashid, writing for al-Sharq al-Awsat centered his article on a critique of the timing of the execution. Al-Rashid said that yesterday was a 'completely wrong day' and added that the execution, as it came, 'provoked the sensibilities of the majority', but al-Rashid conceded that Saddam was a 'criminal who deserved death'. Al-Rashid's colleague, Tariq al-Hameed made the same argument in a pointier way. Al-Hameed said that the execution 'smells of rotten sectarianism', and said that the incomplete trial of Saddam obfuscates his crimes against the Kurds and the Sunnis, making the execution seem like a Shi`a vendetta.

The charges of sectarianism and 'revenge' surrounding Saddam's death have appeared in several versions: street interviews carried by al-Jazeera had several Iraqis accusing the Americans, the Iranians or 'the Shi`a' of being the real killers. The controversial - and incomplete - trial and Saddam's calmness during his last moments are also contributing to the mythology, anti-American forums and publications are praising the 'heroism' of Saddam in his hour of death and discounting the legality of his trial.