Meet the new boss...

You know how the rest goes. Back in July I posted about a story in the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald in which two men, both claiming to be eyewitnesses, separately described how interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had murdered six suspected insurgents by shooting them in the head in a police compound just days before the so-called "transfer of power" in June.

The story was almost totally ignored in the US news media and disappeared from the radar. But now it's moving back on. According to the Morning Herald for January 19, this week's issue of The New Yorker will feature a long profile of Allawi by correspondent Jon Lee Anderson that will provide an additional source for the charge.

Writing about his research in Jordan in December, Anderson says: "A well-known former [Jordanian] government minister told me that an American official had confirmed that the killings took place, saying to him, 'What a mess we're in - we got rid of one son of a bitch only to get another one'."

The article will also reveal that Anderson was present during an interview conducted by the Herald's reporter with one of the men who said they saw the event take place.

Well, as FDR once said of Anastasio Somoza Garcia in Nicaragua, "He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." And that is, after all, what's important, isn't it?