The more things change....

[Black Dog]

Allawi performed summary executions

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.

Allawi, of course was a former B'aath party assassin who fell out of favour with Saddam in the '70s.

[Black Dog]

Detainee abuse "widespread": report

raqi security forces have been committing widespread torture and other human rights abuses while US and British authorities turn a blind eye, according to a report.

The accusation that police and soldiers, trained by the occupying powers, are routinely mistreating detainees, including children, is made by the pressure group Human Rights Watch.

The New Iraq?

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear Black Dog,

Allawi, of course was a former B'aath party assassin who fell out of favour with Saddam in the '70s.

I am not surprised to hear of this. It is not dictatorships that so rile the US, it is 'non-pro-USA' dictatorships that they loathe. Just like Manuel Noriega, who was 'just fine', and on the US Army payroll for 30 years, and on the CIA'a for 15. Then, when Noriega ceased to be a 'moderate', for not abrogating the Canal Treaty, he instantly became a 'thug and a drug dealer'.

Allawi is probably much the same. As long as he continues to be pro-US, and allows the USD to be the currency of choice, and not the Euro (as Saddam tried) he will be 'a good guy' regardless of what he does.

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear Black Dog,

Here are a couple of quotes found on Wikipedia about Allawi, including his hand in supplying false information about WMDs to the British to help justify the case for invasion.

Here is the link, and thereby the source,

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

Seymour Hersh quotes former CIA officer Vincent Cannistraro: "[...] Allawi has blood on his hands from his days in London [...] he was a paid Mukhabarat agent for the Iraqis, and he was involved in dirty stuff." A Middle Eastern diplomat confirmed that Allawi was involved with a Mukhabarat "hit team" that killed Baath Party dissenters in Europe.

Allawi channelled the report from an Iraqi officer claiming that Iraq could deploy its supposed weapons of mass destruction within "45 minutes" to British Intelligence. [6] (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1131993,00.html) This claim featured prominently in the September Dossier which the British government released in 2002 to gain public support for the Iraq invasion. In the aftermath of the war, the "45 minute claim" was also at the heart of the confrontation between the British government and the BBC, and the death of David Kelly later examined by Lord Hutton. Giving evidence to the Hutton Inquiry, the head of MI6 Richard Dearlove suggested that the claim related to battlefield weapons rather than weapons of mass destruction.[7] (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/16/1063625031302.html?from=storyrhs&oneclick=true). Nick Theros, Allawi's Washington, DC representative, stated in January 2004 that the claim was a "crock of shit."[8] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1131973,00.html)

[PocketRocket]

Just a few more examples of hypocrisy in the American foreign-policy attitude.

Bush did not originate this kind of outlook, but he's doing a fine job of perpetuating it.

You might even say he's nurtured it to a new high.

[Shakeyhands]

When its announced that Allawi has won the election, will anyone here be surprised? After all, D. Cheney said as much a few weeks back... Its a fix just like the US election, they wouldn't take the chance that one of the others would win, the US couldn't handle that now.