Iraq abuse 'as bad as under Saddam'

Although this statement is being made two weeks before the election and Allawi is running on a secular slate, I still think this is a pretty big statement.

From The Scotsman

Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and could become even worse, the country's former interim prime minister has said.

"People are doing the same as Saddam's time and worse," Ayad Allawi told the Observer newspaper. "It is an appropriate comparison."

Allawi accused fellow Shiites in the government of being responsible for death squads and secret torture centres and said the brutality of elements in the new security forces rivals that of Saddam's secret police.