Al Mada reports that unnamed sources are stating that whether or not to extend the US military stay beyond 2011 will be decided within two weeks by the political blocs. Today President Jalal Talabani hosted another house party for the politcal blocs and they agreed they would discuss the issue of extension for two more weeks, Talabani declared today at a press conference following the house party. Attendees of the Jalal's Latest House Party included Nouri al-Maliki, Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi, Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ayad Allawi. Aswat al-Iraq adds that Talabani declared that all agreed to re-activate the Erbil Agreement. The Erbil Agreement was agreed to early in November 2010 when the leaders of various political blocs met in Erbil (in the KRG) and formed an agreement on what was necessary to end the nine month political stalemate which had followed the March 2010 elections. Nouri -- whose political slate came in second -- was allowed to continue as prime minister and Iraqiya -- the political slate that won -- would see various of their members' names cleared (Nouri's campaign was 'helped' by the Justice and Accountability Commission's Ali al-Lami fingering various political opponents as "Ba'athists") and an independent security commission would be created with Allawi acting as the head of it. Nouri got what he wanted and then he quickly abandoned the agreement. Jalal Talabani has thought that the Erbil Agreement was being re-instated before. It remains to be seen if this time Jalal's hopes translate into reality.
However, Dar Addustour reports that an unnamed Foreign Ministry source states that the Talabani and Nouri met with a US delegation yesterday to discuss an extension and that State of Law's Jawad Albzona predicts that the two governments will sign a memorandum of understanding to extend the military presence.
Earlier we were mentioning the little scamp Ali al-Lami who was killed a few weeks back. A terrorist, in fact. The US military held him for awhile. They held others with the Shi'ite thug group the League of Righteous. They're responsible for the deaths of 5 American service members. Maybe more. But 5 they are known to have killed.
And Barack let their leader and some of his followers go in a deal in the summer of 2009 -- a deal that the families of the 5 fallen soldiers were not consulted on or even given a heads up to -- because Barack didn't want to be president of the United States. That was too small for Barry. He needed -- his ego needed -- a world stage. So when the British needed something to get their 5 citizens kidnapped by the League freed, Barry said, "Screw dead Americans who were killed doing a job their government ordered them to do, I'm going to free the League -- this rag-tag group of killers -- because I don't give a damn about the safety of Iraqis and because I want to get in good with England."
So Barry released them and, as usual from Princess Tiny Meat, his 'grand gesture' fell quickly. Because the addiction to the Kool-Aid was still so high in 2009, let's drop back we'll drop back to the June 9, 2009 snapshot with the realization that some who looked the other way in real time will now be outraged:
This morning the New York Times' Alissa J. Rubin and Michael Gordon offered "U.S. Frees Suspect in Killing of 5 G.I.'s." Martin Chulov (Guardian) covered the same story, Kim Gamel (AP) reported on it, BBC offered "Kidnap hope after Shia's handover" and Deborah Haynes contributed "Hope for British hostages in Iraq after release of Shia militant" (Times of London). The basics of the story are this. 5 British citizens have been hostages since May 29, 2007. The US military had in their custody Laith al-Khazali. He is a member of Asa'ib al-Haq. He is also accused of murdering five US troops. The US military released him and allegedly did so because his organization was not going to release any of the five British hostages until he was released. This is a big story and the US military is attempting to state this is just diplomacy, has nothing to do with the British hostages and, besides, they just released him to Iraq. Sami al-askari told the New York Times, "This is a very sensitive topic because you know the position that the Iraqi government, the U.S. and British governments, and all the governments do not accept the idea of exchanging hostages for prisoners. So we put it in another format, and we told them that if they want to participate in the political process they cannot do so while they are holding hostages. And we mentioned to the American side that they cannot join the political process and release their hostages while their leaders are behind bars or imprisoned." In other words, a prisoner was traded for hostages and they attempted to not only make the trade but to lie to people about it. At the US State Dept, the tired and bored reporters were unable to even broach the subject. Poor declawed tabbies. Pentagon reporters did press the issue and got the standard line from the department's spokesperson, Bryan Whitman, that the US handed the prisoner to Iraq, the US didn't hand him over to any organization -- terrorist or otherwise. What Iraq did, Whitman wanted the press to know, was what Iraq did. A complete lie that really insults the intelligence of the American people. CNN reminds the five US soldiers killed "were: Capt. Brian S. Freeman, 31, of Temecula, California; 1st Lt. Jacob N. Fritz, 25, of Verdon, Nebraska; Spc. Johnathan B. Chism, 22, of Gonzales, Louisiana; Pfc. Shawn P. Falter, 25, of Cortland, New York; and Pfc. Johnathon M. Millican, 20, of Trafford, Alabama." Those are the five from January 2007 that al-Khazali and his brother Qais al-Khazali are supposed to be responsible for the deaths of. Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert H. Reid (AP) states that Jonathan B. Chism's father Danny Chism is outraged over the release and has declared, "They freed them? The American military did? Somebody needs to answer for it."
Agreed. Not only did Barry betray the fallen, he demonstrated yet again no one should trust him at the adult table by himself. His 'big' deal resulted in only one living British citizen released. Three corpses were released.
The fifth kidnapped victim?
Though Barry's 'big' deal was supposed to free all five, the League, years later, is now insisting they want a new deal (and figure Barry's just the pushover to give it to them?). Al Mada reports they have issued a statement where they savage the US government for not honoring -- and quickly honoring -- the agreement made with them. As a result, they say Alan McMenemy will not be released.
Peter Moore, the only one released alive, was a computer tech working in Iraq. Four British bodyguards were protecting him. The bodyguards were McMenemy, Jason Swindlehurst, Alec MacLachlan and Jason Cresswell. The families of the four have continued to publicly request that Alan McMenemy be released.
They condemn the "procrastionation" of the US government after the deal was made and state that a promise was also broken when "US forces did not stop attacks" -- apparently Barack made very grand promises -- so now Alan McMenemy will not be released. The statement is credited to Akram al-Ka'bi.
What the statement really does is demonstrate what many condemned in 2009: The US government, the administration, entered into an agreement that did not benefit the US or Iraq. They freed known killers from prison. Killers of Iraqis, killers of American citizens. There was nothing to be gained by that act for Iraq or the US. At some point, history will ask how Barack Obama thought he was fulfilling his duties of commander in chief by making such an ignorant move?
Republican's taking control of the House this year, of course, could mean that he was forced to answer immediately. But I doubt they'll want to take up this issue.
Reuters notes today's violence includes a rocket attack on the Green Zone and a Baquba car bombing -- the latter left ten people injured.
And we'll close with this from Samantha Goldman's "This Summer: Step up and Sustain World Can't Wait" (World Can't Wait):
Announcing a two-part sustainer drive that humanity needs you to be a part of!
We have a goal of 50 more sustainers, collectively giving $1,000 monthly by July 31st, and another round doing the same in September so that we can continue and expand the mission of World Can’t Wait. By the end of the month, with you as a sustainer, we can gain the footing to take on the mounting crimes. We could not exist without our 60 current sustainers, but with this plan, by September 31st our shoe-string operational budget can be met.
This month marks six years since our first action where we distributed thousands of copies of the "Call to Drive Out The Bush Regime" at the Live 8 Concert in Philadelphia, puncturing an atmosphere of paralysis. World Can't Wait has continued to be the voice trumpeting the moral and political imperative of mass visible action to stop the crimes of this government. We have heard from many readers on this list how important it was to see us stick to our principles when Obama came on the scene.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
al mada
aswat al-iraq
dar addustour
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
