- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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'."
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- 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.
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- Dr Allawi denied the allegations when they were published
in the Herald last July.
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- 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."
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- http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/01/18/1105810916006.html
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