Another botched execution

Just this morning, I was reading an article by John Burns in the NY Times saying that American officials were refusing to release Saddam's two top aides to the Iraqis for hanging until they were assured there would be no further hanging abuses [note: this article has now disappeared from the NY Times website, but I'm sitting here looking at it in the print copy, page A7]. Then, I read this in the U.K.'s Independent:

Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court were hanged before dawn today, two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was executed in a chaotic scene that has drawn worldwide criticism.

In confirming the executions, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the head of one of the accused, Barzan Ibrahim, had been severed during the hanging in what he called "a rare incident."

Now, it's very hard to see how a hanging would remove someone's head. A guillotine, yes. A hanging, no. Of course, maybe they attached one ton lead weights to his feet before they dropped him through the floor. Who knows?

But, it sounds to me like there's more to this story than we've seen so far. Is this one more way that the Shi'ite dominated government has decided to give the finger to the Americans?