Talk:Iyad Allawi
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What! no mention of the CIA connection? Wetman 23:06, 28 May 2004 (UTC)
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- Could we get more info on his CIA connections? --Tothebarricades.tk 00:34, 30 May 2004 (UTC)
There is an article at http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=526008 about Allawi. It is only short but it does contain some meat, notably that he is responsible for the 45min launch time for WMD claim.
Is the photo working for other people? It isn't for me. -- Cabalamat 22:49, 30 May 2004 (UTC)
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- Works for me ~Resister 22:56, 30 May 2004 (UTC)
In January 2004, Allawi made the controversial claim to British Intelligence that Iraq could deploy its weapons of mass destruction within "45 minutes." An Allawi spokesman later admitted that the claim was a "crock of shit."
Is this really supposed to be January 2004 and not 2003? That would make alot more sense. ~ Resister 23:36, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC)
I fixed that. Jan 2004 was the date of the "crock of shit" quote (from here) ~ Commodore Sloat 19:08, 12 Jun 2004
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[edit] "His long-standing ties to the CIA are well documented."
Where, exactly, are Allawi's ties to the CIA well documented?
- Nobody really questions those links to the CIA and MI6, e.g. look here [1], [2]. A bit more detail can be found here [3] and here [4] (about 2/3 down). More on INA's relationship with CIA and MI6 can be found on Cambrige professor Glen Rangwala's website [5]. pir 13:12, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC)
[edit] ordered by Iraq's then deputy president, Saddam Hussein.
Does anyone have a source for the claim "It is presumed that the attack was an assassination ordered by Iraq's then deputy president, Saddam Hussein." Having it as an assumed Iraqi ordered assination attempt is one thing but personally attributing it to Hussien who was deputy then seems like a western attempt to blame everything on the "Big Bad Guy" Steven jones 11:54, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)
[edit] 1963: assassin?
Where in the world does it say this guy was an assassin? I know he was attacked by one; but can we get a source for that outstanding claim?
- I guess you'll have to have a look at Talib Shabib's memoirs for that. The allegation is repeated here [6] pir 09:28, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- OK, I e-mailed Glen Rangwala, Cambridge lecturer in Middle Eastern politics and Iraq expert about this. Here's what he says:
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- I haven't seen any evidence of the claim that he was an assassin in 1963.
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- Firstly, the claim in Wiki is unclear. It doesn't specify when in 1963 - a very turbulent year in Iraq's history - that was: before the overthrow of Qasim on 8 Feb (when Allawi was still only 17)? In the Ba'th-dominated interregnum (8 Feb - 18 Nov)? Or in the purges and street fighting following the countercoup? This would be important because it would give some meaning to "assassin" - does it mean (i) Ba'th revolutionary, (ii) agent of the Ba'th state, or (iii) street fighter?
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- Although I've heard that Allawi joined up with the Ba'th in his teens, I would think that it highly unlikely that he knew about the 1963 coup (a secret military-led operation) in advance. So option (i) seems implausible. Option (ii) may though be more plausible - the Ba'th did use its covert wing actively in the interregnum, and it was shoehorning many of its young men into that apparatus. It probably wouldn't make much sense to call option (iii) an "assassin", as the situation of civil disorder and violence was extensive - to call someone an "assassin" presupposes that it was otherwise calm.
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- The second problem though with the claim is the reference Wiki makes - the memoirs of Talib Shabib. Do you know for sure of this? I haven't read these - they, I think, are Ali Karim's account of their conversations about 1963, published 2 years after Shabib died, not a written autobiography as such. Also, would Shabib know if Allawi was an assassin? Shabib wasn't involved with internal security issues at the time - he was foreign minister. Also, Shabib was working with Allawi in coordinating the Iraqi opposition up until his death, so I would be surprised if he was providing material to undermine the credibility of his ally.
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- So my own recommendation would be that unless you have firmer evidence of the claim made about Allawi that it shouldn't be made in this way.
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So let's remove it, it really doesn't hold up. pir 11:35, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)
[edit] What in the... is an MP
It says his father was an MP. Could someone clarify the article to say what exactly an MP is? I'm guessing it means a member of parliment, further I'm guessing it's British terminonlogy that, due to my geography, I'm not familiar with. Thanks.
- Yes, MP means Member of Parliament. -- Anon.
[edit] Al Kader allegations about torturer Allawi
Al Kader is a splinter of the Iraqi Communist Party. Allegations against Allawi are made in [7]
translation (found on internet):
Alawi enetered medical college in Baghdad in 1961, and that was the year he join the Ba’ath party.
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In 1962 he took part in the Student strike, which the Ba’ath more or less had orchestrated, and had his leg broken in a scuffle with Qassim’s security forces. He was also a member of the Ba’athist secret national guad organisation, which was assigned special duties including assassination of Qassimist political figures.
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After the coup of 8th February 1963, Allawi was one of the uniformed guards in the medical college and had guard duties in many important centres including the palace of the end where a special interrogation centre was set up to investigate any forces suspected of being anti-coupe (especially the ICP, and Democratic parties, Qassimists and Nassirist activist and some others). In the palace of the end he was known as the Doctor of the palace as well as other less flattering nicknames, and practiced torture and personal and political violence against hundreds of detainies especially those who were students in the medical college...
He is personally accused of torturing to death a number of activists, notably: Mohammad Al-Wadrdi, Faisla Al-Hajjaj, and Sabah Al-Merza the female medical student, and all three were trade union activists with ICP membership...
end translation
[edit] Article name
Shouldn't this be at "Ayad Allawi"? All the news reports I've read spell his name with an A and not an I. Mike H 20:55, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)
- Actually, now that I see it, non-American sources spell it "Iyad" while American sources spell it "Ayad". Hm. Mike H 08:46, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Personal Execution Allegation
On July 17, two Australian newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald [20] (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true), [21] (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0716-01.htm) and The Age [22] (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694560142.html?oneclick=true), published an article alleging that one week before the handover of sovereignty, Allawi himself summarily executed six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station. The allegations are false. [23] (http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1155990.htm) and the execution is said to have taken place in presence of about a dozen Iraqi police, four American security men and Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib. Mr Allawi reportedly said that the execution was to "send a clear message to the police on how to deal with insurgents". Both Allawi's office and Naqib have denied the report. US ambassador John Negroponte did not clearly deny the allegations. Additionally, the allegations made by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul McGeough went largely unreported by mainstream American media. Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin pledged to investigate the allegations against his PM.[24] (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1156598.htm)
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What the hell is the sentence "The allegations are false" doing in the midst of all this? I checked the link that is supposed to back up that bare assertion, and and it just reports an interview with the Australian journalist who uncovered the story, who reiterates the claim and makes clear that he had reason to believe his sources were reliable. Of course that isn't positive proof, but it certainly doesn't prove that the allegations are false or unfounded. If no-one can justify the inclusion of the sentence in question, I'll delete it in a week or so. ---Dan W
- No need to wait, be bold. That edit was made by an anon user who also removed information from the article without explanation, and made sundry other dubious changes. I've reverted until the user can make a case for the changes here. Thanks for pointing it out, though. Khanartist 19:17, 2005 Jan 31 (UTC)
