Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Allawi esegue

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

 
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true
Allawi shot prisoners in cold blood: witnesses
By Paul McGeough in Baghdad
July 17, 2004
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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.
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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."
In Baghdad, varying accounts of the shootings are interpreted by observers
as useful to a little-known politician who, after 33 years in exile, needs
to prove his leadership credentials as a "strongman" in a war-ravaged
country that has no experience of democracy.
Dr Allawi's statement dismissed the allegations as rumours instigated by
enemies of his interim government.
But in a sharp reminder of the Iraqi hunger for security above all else, the
witnesses did not perceive themselves as whistle-blowers. In interviews with
the Herald they were enthusiastic about such killings, with one of them
arguing: "These criminals were terrorists. They are the ones who plant the
bombs."
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.
The witnesses said the Iraqi police observers were "shocked and surprised".
But asked what message they might take from such an act, one said: "Any
terrorists in Iraq should have the same destiny. This is the new Iraq.
"Allawi wanted to send a message to his policemen and soldiers not to be
scared if they kill anyone - especially, they are not to worry about tribal
revenge. He said there would be an order from him and the Interior Ministry
that all would be fully protected.
"He told them: 'We must destroy anyone who wants to destroy Iraq and kill
our people.'
"At first they were surprised. I was scared - but now the police seem to be
very happy about this. There was no anger at all, because so many policemen
have been killed by these criminals."
Dr Allawi had made a surprise visit to the complex, they said.
Neither witness could give a specific date for the killings. But their
accounts narrowed the time frame to on or around the third weekend in June -
about a week before the rushed handover of power in Iraq and more than three
weeks after Dr Allawi was named as the interim Prime Minister.
They said that as many as five of the dead prisoners were Iraqis, two of
whom came from Samarra, a volatile town to the north of the capital, where
an attack by insurgents on the home of Mr Al-Naqib killed four of the
Interior Minister's bodyguards on June 19.
The Herald has established the names of three of the prisoners alleged to
have been killed. Two names connote ties to Syrian-based Arab tribes,
suggesting they were foreign fighters: Ahmed Abdulah Ahsamey and Amer Lutfi
Mohammed Ahmed al-Kutsia.
The third was Walid Mehdi Ahmed al-Samarrai. The last word of his name
indicates that he was one of the two said to come from Samarra, which is in
the Sunni Triangle.
The three names were provided to the Interior Ministry, where senior adviser
Sabah Khadum undertook to provide a status report on each. He was asked if
they were prisoners, were they alive or had they died in custody.
But the next day he cut short an interview by hanging up the phone, saying
only: "I have no information - I don't want to comment on that specific
matter."
All seven were described as young men. One of the witnesses spoke of the
distinctive appearance of four as "Wahabbi", the colloquial Iraqi term for
the foreign fundamentalist insurgency fighters and their Iraqi followers.
He said: "The Wahabbis had long beards, very short hair and they were
wearing dishdashas [the caftan-like garment worn by Iraqi men]."
Raising the hem of his own dishdasha to reveal the cotton pantaloons usually
worn beneath, he said: "The other three were just wearing these - they
looked normal."
One witness justified the shootings as an unintended act of mercy: "They
were happy to die because they had already been beaten by the police for two
to eight hours a day to make them talk."
After the removal of the bodies, the officer in charge of the complex,
General Raad Abdullah, is said to have called a meeting of the policemen and
told them not to talk outside the station about what had happened. "He said
it was a security issue," a witness said.
One of the Al-Amariyah witnesses said he watched as Iraqis among the Prime
Minister's bodyguards piled the prisoners' bodies into the back of a Nissan
utility and drove off. He did not know what became of them. But the other
witness said the bodies were buried west of Baghdad, in open desert country
near Abu Ghraib.
That would place their burial near the notorious prison, which was used by
Saddam Hussein's security forces to torture and kill thousands of Iraqis.
Subsequently it was revealed as the setting for the still-unfolding prisoner
abuse scandal involving US troops in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad.
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.
The security establishment where the killings are said to have happened is
on open ground on the border of the Al-Amariyah and Al-Kudra neighbourhoods
in Baghdad.
About 90 policemen are stationed at the complex, which processes insurgents
and more hardened offenders among those captured in the struggle against a
wave of murder, robbery and kidnapping in post-invasion Iraq.
The Interior Ministry denied permission for the Herald to enter the heavily
fortified police complex.
The two witnesses were independently and separately found by the Herald.
Neither approached the newspaper. They were interviewed on different days in
a private home in Baghdad, without being told the other had spoken. A
condition of the co-operation of each man was that no personal information
would be published.
Both interviews lasted more than 90 minutes and were conducted through an
interpreter, with another journalist present for one of the meetings. The
witnesses were not paid for the interviews.
Dr Allawi's office has dismissed the allegations as rumours instigated by
enemies of his interim government.
A statement in the name of spokesman Taha Hussein read: "We face these sorts
of allegations on a regular basis. Numerous groups are attempting to hinder
what the interim Iraqi government is on the verge of achieving, and
occasionally they spread outrageous accusations hoping they will be believed
and thus harm the honourable reputation of those who sacrifice so much to
protect this glorious country and its now free and respectable people.
"Dr Allawi is turning this country into a free and democratic nation run by
the rule of law; so if your sources are as credible as they say they are,
then they are more than welcome to file a complaint in a court of law
against the Prime Minister."
In response to a question asking if Dr Allawi carried a gun, the statement
said: "[He] does not carry a pistol. He is the Prime Minister of Iraq, not a
combatant in need of any weaponry."
Sabah Khadum, a senior adviser to Interior Minister Mr Naqib, whose
portfolio covers police matters, also dismissed the accounts. Rejecting them
as "ludicrous", Mr Khadum said of Dr Allawi: "He is a doctor and I know him.
He was my neighbour in London. He just doesn't have it in him. Baghdad is a
city of rumours. This is not worth discussing."
Mr Khadum added: "Do you think a man who is Prime Minister is going to
disqualify himself for life like this? This is not a government of
gangsters."
Asked if Dr Allawi had visited the Al-Amariyah complex - one of the most
important counter-insurgency centres in Baghdad - Mr Khadum said he could
not reveal the Prime Minister's movements. But he added: "Dr Allawi has made
many visits to police stations ... he is heading the offensive."
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."

 
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true
La solita puttanata senza nulla a sostegno e dove gli "informatori" non
sono manco concordi.
-Stefano

embassy's press office is concerned, this case is closed."
Risposta piu' che doverosa.  Dopotutto l'Herald non ha la minima prova e
le sue fonti anonime non sono nemmeno concordi tra di loro.
-Stefano

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:41ACA225...@people.it...

Intanto l'ho inviata a qualche deputato.
Tanto per sapere chi invitiamo a pranzo. 

 Risposta piu' che doverosa.
Certo. Riportare i punti di vista fa parte del buon giornalismo.
Questo perņ non implica che bisogna credergli, perņ. 

Certo. Riportare i punti di vista fa parte del buon giornalismo.
L'ambasciatore USA non e' un giornalista.  E si stava parlando della
risposta dell'ufficio dell'ambasciatore USA :)
-Stefano

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:41ACA426...@people.it...

Risposta d'ufficio.
Risposta esatta. 

)
Rileggi ciò che hai affermato o fattela spiegare da qualcuno dotato di
cervello.

 Azz.... Sempre peggio in Italiano
Non riusciresti a capire nemmeno le istruzioni dei Lego, figuriamoci un jeux 
de mots. 

un jeux de mots.
Non usare il francese che gia' fai cagare con l'italiano :)
*LOL*


 Non
Sei inutile qui.
Fatti una tua gerarchia sul pianeta Plutone. 

 Sei inutile qui.
...disse Aber Rock, l'essere non "dotato di cervello" .... :)


 Puoi specificarmi la differenza tra prove e chiacchiere?
Lo potrei fare solo se fossi "qualcuno dotato di cervello".
Stefano De Cesari 
news:4173F981...@people.it