Thursday, September 01, 2011

Another prison break

In Iraq, there's been another prison break, this time in Mosul. Bushra Jhui (AP) reports that 35 people ar said to have "tunneled their way out" with 21 being caught and 14 remaining at large. AFP provides this recent context, "Officials said on August 6 that four prisoners and a guard were killed in clashes at a prison in the central Iraqi city of Hilla, during which eight inmates escaped. Six Iraqi police and 11 inmates were killed in a Baghdad jail mutiny in May, while 12 suspected Al-Qaeda members escaped from prison in the southern city of Basra in mid-January. At least two of the Basra escapees have been recaptured." Reuters notes it was "a temporary jail" and that the prisoners are said to have made their way out via "a sewage pipe." Aswat al-Iraq cites Abdul-Rahim al-Shimmary as stating the escapees "were charged according to the Iraqi Criminal Law's Article-4 - Terrorism."

Who was in charge of this facility?

The Ministry of the Interior -- one of three security ministries that Nouri's failed to appoint a minister too. Before December ended, Nouri was supposed to have named a full Cabinet -- all the ministers. Nearly nine months later, he still hasn't done that (Political Stalemate II). How many prison breaks will there be before Nouri's held accountable for refusing to do his job -- his Constitutionally mandated job?

At what point does his inaction result in leaving his reputation in permanent disarray?

It really is something that the Parliament hasn't moved for a vote of no confidence as Nouri has refused to do his job. And his refusal is really something when you consider how Nouri created the nine month Political Stalemate I to hold onto the job he now refuses to do.

In other violence today, Aswat al-Iraq reports that an attempt to dismantle a Baghdad bomb resulted in the death of 1 Iraqi military officer and two soldiers being left wounded, an armed clash in Salahal-Din Province resulted in the death of 1 Iraqi soldier and two more being left injured and, last night, a Baghdad car bombing claimed 3 lives and left twenty-one people wounded.

Yesterday's snapshot included my distaste for Michael S. Schmidt's "Iraq War Marks First Month With No U.S. Military Deaths" which is in today's New York Times and also carried in today's Boston Globe (and I'm sure other papers as well). For how to cover that topic without being offensive (or insular) see Richard Allen Green's piece for CNN. And Jim Loney (Reuters) reviews the deaths of Iraqis in the 12 months since Barack Obama announced the end of "combat operations" in Iraq (announced August 31st) -- a period of time, Loney reports, that has seen "at least 2,400" Iraqis die.

And we'll close with this on the Libyan War from Nick Amies (Deutsche Welle):

There is a new smell of fear circulating under the sweet scent of victory; a fear that the National Transitional Council (NTC) is incapable of uniting and controlling the diverse elements within the rebellion and that the tribal rivals which are beginning to bicker over the spoils of war may soon start fighting each other over them.
With the possibility of Libya becoming a nation governed by a NATO-backed, weak and undemocratic central administration led by a compliant president and besieged by Islamist militants, some commentators have likened the unfolding situation as one akin to Afghanistan.
Others have rejected this, saying that Libya lacks a meddling neighbor like Pakistan, secretly supporting or condoning Islamist militias within the unstable state. Libya's closest neighbors, Tunisia and Egypt, are themselves preoccupied with their own post-uprising recovery.


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