NationStates Jolt Archive

Sydney Morning Herald

US official confirms Allawi shot six dead

January 19, 2005



A former Jordanian government minister has told The New Yorker that an American official confirmed to him that the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, executed six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station last year.

The claim is in an extensive profile of Dr Allawi written for this week's issue of the magazine by an American journalist, Jon Lee Anderson, the author of The Fall of Baghdad and a regular Baghdad correspondent for The New Yorker.

Writing about his research in Jordan in December, Anderson says: "A well-known former government minister told me that an American official had confirmed that the killings took place, saying to him, 'What a mess we're in - we got rid of one son of a bitch only to get another one'."

The New Yorker also revealed that Anderson was present during an interview conducted by the Herald's chief correspondent, Paul McGeough, in late June, with a man who said he witnessed the executions by Dr Allawi.

Dr Allawi denied the allegations when they were published in the Herald last July.

Anderson writes: "The man ... described how Allawi had been taken to seven suspects, who were made to stand against a wall in a courtyard of the police station, their faces covered. After being told of their alleged crimes by a police official, Allawi had asked for a pistol, and then shot each prisoner in the head. [One of the men survived.] Afterward, the witness said, Allawi had declared to those present, 'This is how we must deal with the terrorists.' The witness said he approved of Allawi's act, adding that, in any case, the terrorists were better off dead, for they had been tortured for days."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald.

Did he actually pull the trigger or did he just tell others to shoot them? That changes the story.

Did he actually pull the trigger or did he just tell others to shoot them? That changes the story.
What? Too lazy to actually read the half page story?

"After being told of their alleged crimes by a police official, Allawi had asked for a pistol, and then shot each prisoner in the head."

Answer the question?

Given that there's at least one person between the journo and the supposed incident, the article isn't that credible.

Well as per one of the last lines of the story:

Allawi had asked for a pistol, and then shot each prisoner in the head.

Bush's cabinet is simply planning ahead for the Next Great Distraction he'll need to divert people's attention from his domestic performance. Allawi becomes Saddam 2, and then he gets to "Re-liberate the Iraqi People" or "Re-introduce Democracy to Iraq."

he never intended to establish anything other than an American-friendly dictatorship there in any event. Job done, I'd say.

I really cannot find any sources to back this up besides some blogs...

The witness said he approved of Allawi's act, adding that, in any case, the terrorists were better off dead, for they had been tortured for days."
Anyone else find this morbidly amusing?
What a great rationale!

Hmm. As long as Allawi's doing it justifiably.

That the terrorist he did shot really are terrorist.

I am not saying that he did or did not execute those 6 people nor do I condone that style of retribution but in this instance and many others it seems that it is always someone told this reporter or others have been witness to, there is always a reporter or photographer on hand to record the things that they want to keep quiet so I say show me the pictures and expose the documents. *


* was that Elvis I saw hand him the pistol

Anyone else find this morbidly amusing?
What a great rationale!
I find it...very disturbing...

Anyone else find this morbidly amusing?
What a great rationale!Sounds pretty normal for a country desensitized to such things. It's probably not the first such act the witness had seen.


And sadly probably not the last.

But it also could come with the culture.

That the judge is also the executor? Or probably they don't have the tact to hire someone to execute them. :D

I mean, the inaccuracies in the way the article is presented here. The headline starts off saying that a US official confirmed the fact that Allawi did the shooting, but there is nothing about a US official in the article. Just something about an unnamed Jordanian.

This is one of the most tenuous pieces of crap I've ever read. It wouldn't last a second in any court of law in any civilized society. I was told by an unnamed person that he was told by yet another unnamed person that yet a 3rd person executed people? utter rubbish and hearsay within hearsay. Where is the so called "survivor?" of this execution, why wasn't he interviewed? I call BS! and give this story as much credibility as the claim that Iraq had WMD's

Of course we improved the quality of ruthless butcher, our last model the Saddam had problems.

There are just way too many problems with this article, even keeping the facts in-line inside the article for me to take it seriously.

well the allawi shotting prisioners story has alot of legs both in iraq and in the world press. it may well be a credible as the saddam gassing the kurds story.
both have problems with documentation, both may well have happened. neither is a conclusively proven fact, believe what you want, documentation doesn't always make things true and a lack there of certainly doesn't make them false.