Saddam's death leads to investigation

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi authorities reported the arrests of two guards and an official in the investigation into who taunted Saddam Hussein as he stood on the gallows and took cell-phone pictures showing his body dangling at the end of a rope.\nThe unauthorized video has ignited protests by Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs in various Iraqi cities and threatens to make a martyr out of the ousted dictator. Saddam was shown never bowing his head as he faced death and asking the hecklers if they were acting in a manly way.\nThe Bush administration sent conflicting signals Wednesday about the conduct of the execution, with the White House declining to join criticism and the State Department and U.S. military publicly raising questions about it.\nThe second-guessing over the conduct of the execution came as a video turned up of four Americans and an Austrian abducted in November in southern Iraq. The hostages spoke briefly and appeared uninjured in a video believed to have been recorded nearly two weeks ago and delivered Wednesday to The Associated Press.\nThe men -- security contractors for the Crescent Security Group based in Kuwait -- appeared separately on the edited video, and three of them said they were being treated well. They were kidnapped Nov. 16 when suspected militiamen in Iraqi police uniforms ambushed a convoy of trucks being escorted by Crescent Security on a highway near the southern border city of Safwan.\nIraq Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said anyone involved in the taking of cell-phone video of Saddam Hussein at his hanging will be punished.\n"The case of the filming of Saddam's execution is very critical," al-Bolani said at a news conference. "We made arrests and the investigation is going on. ... We'll punish them."\nHe did not give details on the suspects, nor say what punishment they might face.