Allawi
shot inmates in cold blood, say witnesses
By Paul McGeough
Sidney Morning Herald - 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
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."