NEWSWEEK: New Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi Reportedly Cut Off Suspect'

[Zorra]

NEWSWEEK: New Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi Reportedly Cut Off Suspect's Hand With Ax, Shot Captive Terrorists, According to Stories Circulating in Baghdad

NEW YORK, July 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Since Ayad Allawi became prime minister
of Iraq's interim government last month, stories circulating on the streets of
Baghdad include reports that he ordered two suspected insurgents shot in front
of him, shot seven captive terrorists himself and personally chopped off the
hand of a suspect with an ax, report Correspondent Babak Dehghanpisheh and
Middle East Regional Editor Christopher Dickey in the July 26 issue of
Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, July 19).

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/07-18-2004/0002212240&EDATE=

Here is something interesting, and this is a perfect example of RW and American media spin :

Reports: Iraq interim PM executed six prisoners
The interim Prime Minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi, executed a number of detainees at a Baghdad police station, shortly before the American-led occupation handed over power to the new Iraqi administration, reports said Saturday.

Now, the foreign press article from Australia states that this incident took place <b>before Allawi was installed as dictator.</b>

Allawi shot prisoners in cold blood: witnesses
By Paul McGeough in Baghdad
July 17, 2004

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.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true

However, this article from Newsweek makes it appear that Allawi is denying that he shot 6 people. But he does not. He simply states that he did not shoot these Iraqis after he took office,

NEWSWEEK: New Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi Reportedly Cut Off Suspect's Hand With Ax, Shot Captive Terrorists, According to Stories Circulating in Baghdad
NEW YORK, July 18 /PRNewswire/

U.S. officials in Washington tell Newsweek they've heard the amputation
story but have no details. White House officials dismiss it as "urban legend."
The Australian newspaper The Age reported last week that two anonymous
witnesses saw Allawi shoot seven suspected insurgents as his American
bodyguards looked on. Asked by Newsweek if he had killed anyone since taking office Allawi chuckled and said, "This is a big lie, this is not true, I deny it categorically, No. 1. No. 2, we will spare no effort to secure our people."

<A TARGET="_blank"HREF="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/07-18-2004/0002212240&EDATE=">ALLAWI IS A HIT MAN</A>

Allawi is not denying the allegations that he murdered 6 Iraqi citizens citizens in cold blood by shooting them in the head. All he is saying is that he did not do this after he took office.

Do you see?

Paraphrased: "Ha Ha, no, I didn't shoot them after I was installed into power. Just don't ask me if I shot them before I was installed into power. And we will do anything, no matter how immoral, to achieve our goal."

The Bu$h administration, and their "cabin boy" US RW media, are as diabolical and corrupt as the government and press of the Third Reich.

[Ernesto]

1. Huh? Allawi is the perfect "strongman" for the job !n Iraq.

Remember the "Frog-man of Panama", Pinochet, The Shaw of Iran, Marcos, etc.... It takes a tough guy to be a right wing US lacky dictator that will not flinch when it comes to oppressing his own people to "promote freedom".

[yardwork]

2. We just replaced Saddam with.....another Saddam.

Surprise! Not.

[fortyfeetunder]

7. No surprise

This one the administration will blame on Iraq.

[Zorra]

3. A main point of my post was to bust Newsweek for shameless spin.

Newsweek only asked Allawi if he shot these Iraqis after he took power. So, he could answer the question truthfully, and truthfully deny that that he shot the 6 Iraqis after he took power.

Because he shot them before he took power.

Newsweek is, in a very Machiavellian way, trying to make it appear to the American public that Allawi did not shoot these Iraqis.

It's a RW mass media snowjob on the American public.

[Beetwasher]

4. Meet The New Boss

Yadda yadda...

[Snellius]

5. Has Ozzy says: Same s***, new a******

Civil war isn't so civil.

[JNelson6563]

6. Shit rolls downhill

Welcome to the valley. :-)

Julie

[Cheneys_former_heart]

8. Why would that reporter include the caveat

"after you took power". Seems like a more straightforward question would be "Did you shoot the 6 prisoners as the Austrailian press is reporting?"
It's almost as if the reporter knew Allawi killed people before he took power; like he knew this guy murdered people before. Strange.

[Zorra]

9. Yep. But not so strange, considering our corporate media. n/t

[daleo]

10. True, it does sound like a set-up question.

If this was a trial, the other lawyer would catch that on cross-examination and ask the more relevant question, dropping the "after you took power" clause. A good example of the media shilling for the war criminals.

[felix19]

11. Of course the writer knew Allawi had killed people before

He was a hitman for the Devil Saddam before he turned on the Devil.

Here from Wikipedia:

Early Political Career

According to the memoirs of Talib Shabib, Iyad Allawi began his political life around 1963, as an assassin. Allawi was an active supporter of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party in its early days. In 1971 he moved to London in order to continue his medical education. Some have reported this as an exile, but some of Allawi's old counterparts have claimed that he continued to serve the Baath Party, and the Iraqi secret police, searching out enemies of the regime. However, he fell out of favor from the Baath party for undisclosed reasons in 1975<1> (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040628fa_fact).

While Allawi was living in Surrey in 1978, he was awoken in bed one night by an intruder who proceeded to attack the former Baathist assassin with an axe. The intruder left, convinced that Allawi was dead. He survived the attempted murder, and spent the next year in hospital recovering from his injuries. It is presumed that the attack was an assassination ordered by Iraq's then deputy president, Saddam Hussein.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyad_Allawi

Whether the stories of him cutting off hands and shooting prisoners are true remains to be seen. They've had their effect though: showing everyone how tough he is, and how he's just as much a thug as Saddam ever was.

Supposedly, it's the only thing those people understand, dontchaknow.

[Zorra]

17. Thank you so much for your post. IMO, Allawi is a hit man. The perfect

former, and current, mindset and profession necessary for a PNAC dictator.

Quote: "Whether the stories of him cutting off hands and shooting prisoners are true remains to be seen."

OK. As far as I know, the cutting off of the hand thing was not reported by anyone but Newsweek. So, personally, I am skeptical about that. But I am not skeptical about the executions.

This is what the infamous John Negroponte, current US ambassador to Iraq said:

US officials in Iraq have not made an outright denial of the allegations. An emailed response to questions from the Herald to the US ambassador, John Negroponte, said: "If we attempted to refute each , we would have no time for other business. As far as this embassy's press office is concerned, this case is closed."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true

Notice that Negroponte did not say "These allegations are not true."

Encyclopedia info on John Negroponte:

He is a controversial figure because of his involvement in covert funding of the Contras and his covering up of (and possible involvement in) human rights abuses carried out by CIA-trained death squads in Honduras in the 1980s. He is accused of sponsoring terrorism for supporting the Contra insurgency against the left wing Sandinistas, the first ever democratically elected government of Nicaragua. He is also accused of inciting Contra attacks on civilians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Negroponte

IMO, they cannot outright deny the allegations against Allawi, because if they do, they will easily get caught in a lie.

Also, IMO, the Sydney Morning Herald would not have published this story if they did not have significant evidence that these allegations are true.

[tom_paine]

12. Sounds like Ambassador of Death Squads Negroponte is teaching

his newest monstrous pupil.

Saddam-ism is making a comeback in Iraq in a BIG WAY, with a nice Imperial Amerikan label.

[agincourt]

13. If there is any doubt,

That this war was about bush and freeper swagger,this removes it.
All the pointy eyed crawford rat wanted was to avenge poppy, and install a haliburton friendly saddam. Freedom , rape rooms , gassed his own people ,my ass.

[Jack Rabbit]

14. So why are we afraid of an Islamic Republic?

Are we afraid that Islamofascists will do horrid, brutal things like cut off the hands of thieves?

Saddam showed us that one didn't need to be an Islamofascist to be brutal. Allawi looks no better.

No wonder Bush admires Allawi.

[quaoar]

15. What's next?

Stoning adulterers?

[Pachamama]

16. Allawi = Saddam Lite n/t