Initiation Rite

This just in from the Sydney Morning Herald:

Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.

They say the prisoners -- handcuffed and blindfolded -- were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs. (emphasis added, Paul McGeough, "Allawi Shot Prisoners in Cold Blood: Witnesses," July 17, 2004)

A rite of initiation that Allawi performed to win Washington's trust?