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GUESTS: Erik Leaver, a Carol and Ed Newman Fellow, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Policy Outreach Director at the Foreign Policy In Focus Project, George A. Lopez, Senior Fellow and Professor of Political Science at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame

Yesterday an advisor to Iraq’s Prime Minister announced that the person believed to have recorded the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been arrested. Though the advisor would not name names, he acknowledged that the person apprehended was an official who had supervised the execution. The cell phone recorded video was leaked onto the internet and showed Saddam Hussein being taunted in his final moments before he was to be hanged as his executioners chanted the name of the influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Bush Administration refused to condemn the taunts. White House press secretary Scott Stanzel stated that, “Prime Minister Maliki’s staff have already expressed their disappointment in the filmings, so I guess we’ll leave it at that.” Despite international criticism, President Bush described Saddam Hussein’s execution as “an important milestone on Iraq’s course to becoming a democracy.” Bush is poised to announce an increase in troop deployments next week in an effort to reduce sectarian violence. News of the expected move comes soon after the number of U.S. forces killed in Iraq recently topped 3,000.