Prime Minister of Iraq personally shoots prisoners

This story has been making the media and blog rounds ever since Paul McGeough reported it in yesterdays SMH.

There are two problems with this story.

For one, an Iraqi blogger Zeyad, blogged about this rumor two weeks ago on 1 July.

Another widespread and preposterous rumour is that Ayad Allawi has been showing up at IP stations and executing criminals himself, and I have heard this one from a very large number of people.

And then we find out from Roger Simon that the reporter for the SMH, Paul McGeough, belongs to an interesting group called, wait or it, Media Workers Against War.

Now I don't know if this story about the Iraqi PM is true or not and I suspect Mr McGeough doesn't either. He is just happy to report on an unsubstanciated rumor to promote his and his organizations cause.

MWAW's website has this on its' aims and objectives page:

Media Workers Against War are opposed to the so called ‘war on terrorism’ and the mainstream media’s support for aggressive action against innocent civilians under the pretence of ‘anti-terrorism’.

And one of their, and thereby one of Mr McGeough's aims, is to " Promote anti-war viewpoints through the media and expose and resist attempts at censorship and disinformation".

Notice the aim is to "promote anti-war viewpoints" not merely report on them.

Seems to me Mr. McGeough's got some explaining to do.
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