"Anyone can now capture history"

The image is grainy, but it's clear: Saddam Hussein plummets through the trapdoor and dangles in death, his vacant eyes open and his snapped neck almost at a right angle to the line of his shoulders.

By now, the illicit video of Saddam's execution, reportedly recorded on a camera phone, has spread throughout the Internet and aired internationally, including on American television stations.

It alternately has caused outrage, celebration and offense, and led to the Iraqi government arresting two guards and a supervisor who were present at the hanging, as part of an investigation into how Saddam's death was filmed.

But it also marks a cultural truth: Anyone can now capture history.