There are rumors – as yet unconfirmed – that the reason those black-masked thugs who hanged former U.S. puppet-dictator Saddam Hussein on December 30th were chanting “Moqtada! Moqtada!” was not just because they were members of his Mahdi Army, but because they were cheering one of the hangmen – Sadr himself.

Earlier there had been claims that Sadr was in possession of the noose. Now, Nir Rosen at the blog IraqSlogger, points to Al-Jazeera who has a source claiming the entire execution crew had been replaced by the Mahdi Army and this “pro-Ba’athist” site which claims one of the masked men is Sadr since his mustache “matches.”

The Turkish site Zaman.com adds:

It has been also alleged that Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was in the room during the execution, and even that a masked al-Sadr hanged the ousted leader. The Saudi daily Al- Mokhtasar claimed that one of the masked men who took Saddam to the room of execution was Moqtada al-Sadr. In the news reported by a witness in the room, he added al-Sadr’s father was killed by Saddam Hussein.