[Previous entry: "In Terror Cases, Administration Sets Own Rules"] [Next entry: "“Arab Talk With Jess and Jamal” Debuts in San Francisco"]

11/27/2005:

"Iraq abuse 'as bad as Saddam era'"

The former Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has called for immediate action against human rights abuses.

Such abuses are as bad today as they were under Saddam Hussein, Mr Allawi told Britain's Observer newspaper.

Militias are operating within the Shia-led government, torturing and killing in secret bunkers, he said.

His comments come two weeks after 170 detainees were found at an interior ministry centre, some allegedly suffering from abuse and starvation.

Mr Allawi - who was displaced earlier this year by Shia factions - said the militias had infiltrated the police, and warned that their influence could spread throughout the government.
bbc.co.uk

Shiite Urges U.S. to Give Iraqis Leeway In Rebel Fight
BAGHDAD -- The leader of Iraq's most powerful political party has called on the United States to let Iraqi fighters take a more aggressive role against insurgents, saying his country will only be able to defeat the insurgency when the United States lets Iraqis get tough.

"The more freedom given to Iraqis, the more chance for further progress there would be, particularly in fighting terror," said Abdul Aziz Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Shiite Muslim religious party that leads the transitional government and whose armed wing is the most feared of Iraq's many factional forces.

Instead, Hakim asserted in a rare interview late last week, the United States is tying Iraq's hands in the fight against insurgents. One of Iraq's "biggest problems is the mistaken or wrong policies practiced by the Americans," he said.

See the monsters they create. If only the Americans weren't such a bunch of softy humanitarian types...