July 16, 2004


The Allawi Story...The Stragery of Secure Freedom

Over at Atrios they're flogging this story, and it needs more attention. I googled for it, yahoo'd for it and came up empty. Both the Sydney Morning Herald and Bloomberg have picked it up. Saddam might have been a bad man, is Allawi worse?

Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.
...
They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death".

The Prime Minister's office has denied the entirety of the witness accounts in a written statement to the Herald, saying Dr Allawi had never visited the centre and he did not carry a gun.
...
Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, is said to have looked on and congratulated him when the job was done. Mr al-Naqib's office has issued a verbal denial.
...
"The prisoners were against the wall and we were standing in the courtyard when the Interior Minister said that he would like to kill them all on the spot. Allawi said that they deserved worse than death - but then he pulled the pistol from his belt and started shooting them."
...
A former CIA officer, Vincent Cannisatraro, recently told The New Yorker: "If you're asking me if Allawi has blood on his hands from his days in London, the answer is yes, he does. He was a paid Mukhabarat [intelligence] agent for the Iraqis, and he was involved in dirty stuff."
...
Before the shootings, the 58-year-old Prime Minister is said to have told the policemen they must have courage in their work and that he would shield them from any repercussions if they killed insurgents in the course of their duty.

What was that refrain from the famous Who tune? "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss...we won't get fooled again". Wrong. More Banana Republicanism in Action.

If this story is in the least bit true, there goes the 1600 Crew rationale for "Saddam Bad Man...Must Go", I mean hell, we have pictures of SH and Rummy back when they were almost kissin' cousins. Now, we're seeing the genesis of another dimension of yet another Persian Gulf Disaster...no thanks, I think it's time for the Neocons, Warfloggers and CongressCriminals to start sending their kids over for a taste of the Persian Gulf Paradise.
posted by Jo Fish on 07.16.04 at 09:17 PM





Comments:

The report I saw said Negroponte was asked about it and kind of said something like "It's nothing, never happened, don't sweat it."

Why am I not surprised that Herr Death Squad is untroubled by summary executions sand law?

 posted by: dean on 07.16.04 at 11:38 PM [permalink]

That was meant to be "sans law".

 posted by: dean on 07.16.04 at 11:40 PM [permalink]
"Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss...we won't get fooled again".

Well, guess what? We did, didn't we.

 posted by: Rook on 07.17.04 at 12:12 AM [permalink]

This story paints a picture that is eeriliy reminiscent of the famous photo of the Saigon chief of police executing the VC suspect with a .38 shot to the head during Tet back in '68.

We all remember how that turned out.

posted by: Route66Kid on 07.17.04 at 12:44 AM [permalink]

R66K, I was going to include the picture in the story, because that was my first thought as well. My internet connection here is so bad, that I'd be here until Sunday waiting to upload.

Great minds...eh?

 posted by: Jo on 07.17.04 at 08:44 AM [permalink]

What about the witnesses? Surely, someone is the source for this eyewitness account. Do you know if the Australian media has come forward with a full account that has been confirmed by interviews, etc.?

posted by: C. Grove on 07.17.04 at 12:11 PM [permalink]

I'm sorry about answering my own question, but Steve Gilliard and Juan Cole have excellent posts on the Allawi incident.

posted by: C. Grove on 07.17.04 at 12:21 PM [permalink]

The Australian journalist who did this story is well respected, I believe it.

 posted by: Cloned Poster on 07.17.04 at 10:36 PM [permalink]

Funny enough this plays to the entire "peace with honor" mantra. Can't leave until the leaders are not killing people...

Flush Limpballs was one of the first USA media goons to report it. Murdoch rags. take this stuff with salt- it was already on foreign press a half day early. By the end of the day Murdoch sources are all over it to get the "lead" and somehow try to regain a modicum of credibility.

The disturbing information is that the initial timing was like the start of last month. It took that long to verify, or perhaps for confirmation to get out of Oilraq to verify without facing a hitman.

The main reporter is still there. Fucking machismo and gravitas dude.

Nephew was kinda jumpy on the 4th, said those firwaorks spooked him a bit. Just get inside, lay real low, drink more beer...

Told him "back to the fire base..." We've seen this kind of troop rollback until election time. Kerry has a solution, so did Nixon.

Too bad I saw either Dean or Clark getting the nod, with Clark as SoS if he didn't make ticket. Nobody expected a Dr. to push a war. Perhaps Dean would have only acted with a justified risk/rewards ratio, his former career being about the respect of life and all... Clark's downfall was when he answered a queation from Kerry's perspective, based on what Bush told Congress.

They took it out of context and painted it as a flip-flop.


posted by: Mr.Murder on 07.19.04 at 02:59 AM [permalink]


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