Abuse worse than under Saddam, says Allawi

[KipWellsFan]

Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam's regime.

 

'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.'

 

In a damning and wide-ranging indictment of Iraq's escalating human rights catastrophe, Allawi accused fellow Shias in the government of being responsible for death squads and secret torture centres. The brutality of elements in the new security forces rivals that of Saddam's secret police, he said.

 

...

 

'We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated,' he added. 'A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them.'

 

He said that immediate action was needed to dismantle militias that continue to operate with impunity. If nothing is done, 'the disease infecting [the Ministry of the Interior] will become contagious and spread to all ministries and structures of Iraq's government', he said.

 

In a chilling warning to the West over the danger of leaving behind a disintegrating Iraq, Allawi added: 'Iraq is the centrepiece of this region. If things go wrong, neither Europe nor the US will be safe.'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/internation...1651789,00.html

 

more at link

 

This probably has more to do with his political aspirations.

[Balta1701]

Just remember...Allawi is in campaign mode...and he's campaigning against the party he's aiming at here. Just because he says it doesn't mean it's totally true.

[southsider2k5]

Just remember...Allawi is in campaign mode...and he's campaigning against the party he's aiming at here.  Just because he says it doesn't mean it's totally true.

 

 

See also Congressman Murtha.

[Texsox]

Plus he's probably relying on media reports.

[The Critic]

See also Congressman Murtha.

See also every politician alive at one point or another.

[southsider2k5]

See also every politician alive at one point or another.

 

That's kinda my point. You can't just dismiss one politician's words off hand as politicing, but then invest in the words of another one. Its kinda silly.

[sox4lifeinPA]

I guess it's the ol' "once a crazy mother f-er, always a crazy mother f-er"

[Balta1701]

That's kinda my point.  You can't just dismiss one politician's words off hand as politicing, but then invest in the words of another one.  Its kinda silly.

Can we apply that same standard to all of Bush's rosy assessments of Iraq?

[southsider2k5]

Can we apply that same standard to all of Bush's rosy assessments of Iraq?

 

Its done here everyday. I just found an irony in blowing off that particular statement for that exact reason.

[Balta1701]

Its done here everyday.  I just found an irony in blowing off that particular statement for that exact reason.

Well, the reason I would do it specifically with that statement by Allawi is actually slightly more complicated than just the ol' "He's a politician". He's a politician campaigning for an election only a few weeks away trying to reach out to a specific constituency.

 

Allawi is a Shiite, but he's not part of SCIRI, the main ruling party among the Shiites which currently has Jafaari as the PM.

 

SCIRI has a power base among the Shia. Allawi is a Shiite, but he's from a party less openly religious than Jafaari. However, most of the Shia voted for SCIRI last time, and they're likely to do so again even with Allawi's party being better organized.

 

This means that if Allawi wants to expand his power base, he needs to look elsewhere. Where is another untapped source of votes in Iraq? The Sunni population. They basically didn't vote in the first parliamentary campaign, so their strength is basically unknown. However, we know for a fact that the Sunni strength isn't enough to break the Shia majority in the electorate.

 

So, we have both Allawi and the Sunnis not having enough strength to overturn SCIRI. However, if Allawi could convince the Sunni population that he's not their enemy, and they'd stand a better chance with him than they would with SCIRI...then he might have a shot, if he were to combine votes from the less-religious and less Pro Iran Shia with a large number of Sunni votes.

 

How would he go about reaching out to the Sunni population? Well, that's a population that's been repeatedly driven from its cities, that's probably had a member or two of every single family detained or disappeared by the government, and that's suffered significant torture at the hands of the ruling party. Furthermore, the Sunnis were largely spared the direct torture, gassings, etc. that Saddam gave to the Shia. Therefore, by saying things like this, Allawi is playing up their situation in an effort to secure some of their support.

 

He has a motive to exaggerate and the opportunity. Therefore, in this particular case, I judge his words to be those of a politician campaigning, and not necessarily an honest assessment of the conditions in Iraq (although they may very well be one).

 

As with almost anything, it's hard to find a firm rule, and each statement should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. In this case, I would judge Allawi to be speaking as a candidate reaching out to a constituency, such as Bush when he made his "Guest worker proposal" in January of 04.