There is a report out of Baghdad that Dr. Iyad Allawi, Bush’s hand-picked puppet prime minister in Iraq, personally shot as many as six suspected insurgents without trial or review. The new Iraqi government is denying the story, broken by the Australian Sydney Morning Herald.

According to the report:

One of the witnesses claimed that before killing the prisoners Dr Allawi had told those around him that he wanted to send a clear message to the police on how to deal with insurgents.

“The prisoners were against the wall and we were standing in the courtyard when the Interior Minister said that he would like to kill them all on the spot. Allawi said that they deserved worse than death – but then he pulled the pistol from his belt and started shooting them.”

Re-enacting the killings, one witness stood three to four metres in front of a wall and swung his outstretched arm in an even arc, left to right, jerking his wrist to mimic the recoil as each bullet was fired. Then he raised a hand to his brow, saying: “He was very close. Each was shot in the head.”

Witnesses said that this happened before the “handover” of power, and that there were several Americans in civilian clothes present at the time of the shootings.