NP? moral equivalency

[pynchonoid]

All the blather about moral equivalency between
Michael Moore/other anti-war protesters and
bloodthirsty tyrants pales before this Down Under
investigative report that would seem to indicate that
the US strongman in Iraq continues to share (he was
already known as a terrorist car bomber in the pay of
the CIA) Saddam Hussein's taste for blood:

The Sydney Morning Herald:
 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.

They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded -
were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent
to the maximum-security cell block in which they were
held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's
south-western suburbs.

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.

But the informants told the Herald that Dr Allawi shot
each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi
policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister's
personal security team watched in stunned silence.

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 names of three of the alleged victims have been
obtained by the Herald.

One of the witnesses claimed that before killing the
prisoners Dr Allawi had told those around him that he
wanted to send a clear message to the police on how to
deal with insurgents.

"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."

Re-enacting the killings, one witness stood three to
four metres in front of a wall and swung his
outstretched arm in an even arc, left to right,
jerking his wrist to mimic the recoil as each bullet
was fired. Then he raised a hand to his brow, saying:
"He was very close. Each was shot in the head."

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.

The witnesses said seven prisoners had been brought
out to the courtyard, but the last man in the line was
only wounded - in the neck, said one witness; in the
chest, said the other.

Given Dr Allawi's role as the leader of the US
experiment in planting a model democracy in the Middle
East, allegations of a return to the cold-blooded
tactics of his predecessor are likely to stir a
simmering debate on how well Washington knows its man
in Baghdad, and precisely what he envisages for the
new Iraq.

There is much debate and rumour in Baghdad about the
Prime Minister's capacity for brutality, but this is
the first time eyewitness accounts have been obtained.

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."

[...] The Herald has established that as many as 30
people, including the victims, may have been in the
courtyard. One of the witnesses said there were five
or six civilian-clad American security men in a convoy
of five or six late model four-wheel-drive vehicles
that was shepherding Dr Allawi's entourage on the day.
The US military and Dr Allawi's office refused to
respond to questions about the composition of his
security team. It is understood that the core of his
protection unit is drawn from the US Special Forces
units.
[...]
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 [rumour], we
would have no time for other business. As far as this
embassy's press office is concerned, this case is
closed."

...read it all:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html

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