At a news conference in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said leaders of Iraq's main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions had signed off on the bill, and he expected little opposition when lawmakers reconvened today after a month's vacation.
The above is from Alexandra Zavis' "Maliki sees political progress" (Los Angeles Times) and it's always interesting when anyone claims 'political progress' at a time when their legislative body has taken a month off. It's the de-de-Baathification front that al-Maliki's saying there's progress on. Zavis notes the Sadr bloc ("who make up one of the two largest blocs in Maliki's governing Shiite Muslim alliance") have already declared their opposition to any such policy. What's interesting is that Zavis doesn't cover what AFP can and has, the al-Maliki "was head of the de-Baathification commission that booted Saddam's supporters out of public office."
al-Maliki is now attempting to undue what he helped push through? Well, he is the perfect puppet for the US government. Reuters observes, "Iraqi lawmakers reconvened on Tuesday after a month-long summer recess, under mounting pressure to get legislation passed that Washington believes will help heal deep sectarian rifts in the country. . . . Parliament has not yet passed any of the benchmark laws, including measures that would equitably share oil revenues, ease restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party holding public office, and set a date for provincial elections. . . . Parliament reconvened with 164 members and adjourned after about 90 minutes after lawmakers asked for time to read 10 bills that had been presented for their consideration, member of parliament Hussein al-Falluji told Reuters.
The 10 bills did not include any of the benchmark laws."
As the deputy of the de-Baathification Commission, he was following Paul Bremer's orders (such a good puppet) and, in this morning's New York Times, Edmund L. Andrews reports that the former "top Iraq envoy" was not flying solo. Paul Bremer has provided the paper with correspondence which "shows that President Bush was told in advance by his top Iraq envoy in May 2003 of a plan to 'dissolve Saddam's military and intelligence structures'". Andrews writes, "In releasing the letters, Mr. Bremer said he wanted to refute the suggestion in Mr. Bush's comment that Mr. Bremer had acted to disband the army without the knowledge and concurrence of the White House." In one reply, Bully Boy lays it on thick writing, "Your leadership is apparent. You have quickly made a positive and significant impact. You have my full support and confidence."
Enroute to Australia (where he'll try to shore up support for War Hawk John Howard while attempting to box in Kevin Rudd), Bully Boy had a layover in Iraq. Well, as Charlie Daniels once told us, the devil went down to Georgia. The front page of the New York Times, features a photo of Bully Boy & the Wrecking Crew arriving in darkness ("like a thief in the night," as Stevie Nicks would sing it) with a tense looking Bully Boy appearing on the verge of whimpering while US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and US Secretary of State & Anger Condi Rice look closely at the ground in front of them -- probably worried about stepping on an IED. Jason Reed of Reuters took the photo.
David S. Cloud and Steven Lee Myers offer "Bush, in Iraq, Says Troop Reduction Is Possible: Setting the Tone Before a Fight in Congress" which tells you the layover lasted eight hours and Bully Boy is trying "to head off opponents' pressure for a withdrawal by hailing what he called recent successes in Iraq". How do you like that? Between 60% and 70% of the American people (depending on the polling) just got called "opponents". Cloud and Myers obviously support 'democracy of the few'. They also play stupid when Bully Boy talks of a drawdown in the 'coming months' and pretend the fact that the escalation cannot continue past April (short of a draft) hasn't already been widely and repeatedly reported in mainstream, US outlets with quotes attributed to names (not anonymice). Some of the remarks have been made by generals giving briefings to Pentagon reporters. But Cloud and Myers appear to have missed all those reports.
What the steno pool at the Times can't tell you, Ken Fireman and Nicholas Jordan (Bloomberg News) do:
Bush, for all his "stay-the-course'' rhetoric, is constrained by a troop-rotation schedule that requires pulling out some forces early next year -- as well as the need to outline an exit strategy for Republicans eyeing the 2008 elections.
And many Democratic lawmakers now say a quick withdrawal of the 164,000 American troops in Iraq isn't practical, even as they seek a timetable for a smaller force and try to shift the mission away from front-line combat. The likely result will be a debate over when, not if, troops start coming home.
[. . .]
Democrats say they'll keep pressing to enact a binding pullout plan. They face their own political imperative: satisfying party antiwar activists and voters who gave them control of Congress last year in large part because of discontent over the war.
"Congress is going to need to decide whose interests it represents: the president and his efforts to protect his legacy, or the American people who overwhelmingly want to see an end to the occupation,'' says Representative Barbara Lee, a California Democrat.
Bully Boy had his layover in Iraq to pro-long the illegal war and the steno pool at the Times can't be bothered with much more than jotting down his every utterance as he claims 'progress'.
Progress? Let's note again Renee Schoof's "Back from vacation, Congress to renew debate on Iraq" (McClatchy Newspapers) from yesterday:
Statistics that McClatchy Newspapers collected in Baghdad don’t show any drop in violence. Civilian deaths in the capital were about the same in July as in December, before the American troop increase began. U.S. officials in Baghdad declined to provide data to back up their claims of lower violence.
Progress? Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports Monday saw a Baghdad car bombing that claimed 2 lives (two more wounded), a Baghdad tow truck bombing that claimed 1 life (five more wounded), aBaghdad mortar attack on a residential area that wounded four people, a Baghdad mortar attack on a police station that wounded 2 police officers, 15 corpses discovered in Baghdad, a Kirku roadside bombing that wounded four people, a roadside bombing outside of Kirkuk that wounded a truck driver, a roadside bombing "not far away from Tariq Al Saraf mosque" that wounded two police officers, an attack in Beiji that claimed the life of 1 police officer and left another wounded, and a roadside bombing in Falluja that wounded 2 police officers. Reuters reports that today Beiji was the site of a roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 4 Iraqi soldiers and "an Iraqi army major," that today and yesterday "two members of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan" were shot dead ("in separate incidents") in Mosul, that a Baghdad kidnapping took place Monday of 8 "electricity workers" who were then killed, a Baghdad car bombing in a market today claimed the life of 1 Iraqi and left five more injured, and that on Monday Aamir al-Rashida ("cameraman working for a local television channel") was shot dead in Mosul.
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alexandra zavis
the los angeles times
the new york times
david s. cloudmcclatchy newspapers
renee schoof
the new york times
