Allawi the Executioner, Where's the SCLM, part II

When an Australian newspaper, The Sydney Mourning Herald had a story saying that the new Prime Minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi, had personally executed up to six Iraqi prisoners shortly before being given the reigns of power by the US it was published all over the blogosphere staring with Professor Juan Cole. This was followed by questions as to why there was virtually no mention of it in the U.S. media.

James Conachy has the best discussion yet on the accusations and lack of press coverage in the U.S.

Thus far, no major American newspaper or television network has reported the allegations, which were considered credible enough to publish by two of Australia’s leading dailies and which, if substantiated, should result in the immediate arrest of Allawi on murder charges. The censorship is continuing despite calls over the weekend by figures such as former British foreign secretary Robin Cook for an independent inquiry headed by the International Red Cross.

The same American media that promoted last year’s invasion with stories of murder, torture and rape-rooms under the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein is displaying no interest in the growing evidence that the US-installed regime of Allawi will rule in essentially the same fashion.

Allawi has a particularly unsavory past, which is well known in Washington. He was an alleged spy and hit-man for the Baathist dictatorship until 1975, an agent of British and American intelligence agencies from the 1980s, a collaborator with the US ambitions to conquer Iraq in the 1990s, and a supporter of the American invasion of his country in 2003.

We all should be outraged by the lack of coverage and outrage of this story.