No Teribus, I've never witnessed an execution. Did I imply that I had done so? Did you think that I had done so? If "no" to both of these, why the question, I wonder?

I take your point about American executions. Some of the people involved in the death (such as the guy who signals the go-ahead) are in full view and unmasked, but not the guy who throws the switch, or whatever. So I'd better abandon the US as an example. That still leaves British hangings, which in any case provide a better parallel with Saddam's experience. I can find no mention of a hangman being masked at any UK execution in the 20th century. Pierrepoint alone hanged several hundred people and never wore a mask.

One of the guests challenged your casual assertions about firing squads and you dismissed it in typically snotty style. What you did not do was give any evidence for your implied assertion that the number. or proportion, of those in a firing squad who were issued with blanks changed some time after WW1.

when you demand scrupulous adherence to verifiable facts from others and then skirt around them yourself when you find it convenient to do so, you do begin to look a little bit flaky.