The Common Ills: Illegal raid of a protesters home

Nouri al-Maliki can't stop attacking the protesters. Citing Sheikh Abdul Razzaq al-Shammari, National Iraqi News Agency reports that Nouri's forces "stormed the home of one member of the organizing committee for Anbar sit-ins" and quotes al-Shammari stating, "The force that raided the home arrested his eldest son as he was out of his home, after broke doors and tampering the furniture" and took the man's passport. There was no arrest warrant, no search warrant, no legal authorization for the raid. Alsumaria reports on the illegal raid here. Remember that the next time the US government wants to pretend they care about protesters in another country being attacked.

In other violence, NINA notes a motorcycle drive-by left 3 people dead and another injured, a northern Baghdad bombing left 2 people dead and eleven more injured, Lt Shihab Ahmed shot was shot dead in Anbar Province (officer with "the anti terrorism force"), a Tikrit tanker bombing left 15 people dead and twenty-two injured, 1 teacher was shot dead in Mosul, a Mosul roadside bombing claimed the lives of 2 Iraqi soldiers and left two more injured, a Mosul shooting left five police officers injured, and a Mosul roadside bombing left four police officers injured.

Through Thursday, Iraq Body Count counts 144 violent deaths in Iraq so far this month. One reason so many die is due to bombs and one reason so many die due to bombs is because Nouri al-Maliki has the police using magic wands that aren't magic and don't detect bombs. Don't detect anything. Just waste time that could be used to search for bombs or do other duties.

Dropping back to Friday's snapshot:

Alsumaria reports that cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr declared his sympathy for the Iraqis who've lost family members as a result of the purchase and use by Nouri's government of 'magic' wands -- which have been known not to work since 2009. Moqtada urged the families who lost loved ones and those who were injured as a result to sue the person who purchased the items. (That would be Nouri.) April 23rd (see the April 24, 2013 snapshot), James McCormick, the man who made and sold the wands, who was on trial for those wands, was pronounced guilty on three counts of fraud. And still Nouri has allowed -- no, insisted that the wands be used. May 2nd, McCormick was sentenced to a maxium of 10 years. Jake Ryan (Sun) quoted Judge Richard Hone stating, "The device was useless, the profit outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the highest category. Your profits were obscene. You have neither insight, shame or any sense of remorse." And yet last Friday, Ammar Karim (AFP) reported that the 'magic' wands to 'detect' bombs (and drugs and, no doubt, spirits from the other world) are still being used in Iraq. He spoke with a police officer in Baghdad who admits that everyone knows that they don't work but that the police are under orders to use the wands.

Last Saturday, NINA reported, "Leader of the Sadrist Trend, Muqtada al-Sadr, demanded Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to apologize and stand before Parliament to answer about the deal of the explosives detection instruments." Moqtada suspects some Iraqis were bribed in this deal and wants names he also demands that the 'magic' wands stop being used immediately stating that they are "an insult to the Iraqis' intelligence." Moqtada and Iraqiya have called for Nouri to appear before Parliament and explain why the wands were purchased, who profited from them and the various details of the deal that was made for them.

Al Mada reports that the Ministry of the Interior claimed today that they would recover all the money spent on the magic wands. Ministry of the Interior Inspector General Aqeel Turaihi states that they have known and acknowledged since October 2010 that the magic wands do not work.

Regardless of whether money is recovered for the purchase, as Moqtada al-Sadr points out, lives have been lost and people have been injured.

So in 2010, it was known that the magic wands were not working? No. It goes back further. Alsumaria reports today that the new documents from the Ministry of Interior (reproduced with the article) demonstrate that a Ministry committee said the wands were not working and, in 2009, recommended that they not be purchased anymore. There are calls for Nouri to appear before Parliament to answer questions. He needs to. But he has refused all calls so far -- despite the Constitution on this issue. He continues to violate and ignore the Constitution.

Kitabat covers the revelations about the 2009 recommendation at length here.

In spite of Nouri's proven and demonstrated incompetence (and we haven't had time to touch on the electricity issue this week), NINA reports that State of Law MP Salmand al-Mosawi announced today that they will nominate Nouri al-Maliki for a third term as prime minister.

Now we could point out that the Prime Minister is elected by Parliament and based on which party gets the most seats in Parliament. But why would we?

In 2010, the US government brokered The Erbil Agreement to go around the Iraqi Constitution and declare Nouri prime minister despite the fact that State of Law came in second to Iraqiya in the 2010 parliamentary elections?

John Barry's "'The Engame' Is A Well Researched, Highly Critical Look at U.S. Policy in Iraq" (Daily Beast) notes:

Washington has little political and no military influence over these developments [in Iraq]. As Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor charge in their ambitious new history of the Iraq war, The Endgame, Obama's administration sacrificed political influence by failing in 2010 to insist that the results of Iraq’s first proper election be honored: "When the Obama administration acquiesced in the questionable judicial opinion that prevented Ayad Allawi's bloc, after it had won the most seats in 2010, from the first attempt at forming a new government, it undermined the prospects, however slim, for a compromise that might have led to a genuinely inclusive and cross-sectarian government."

We will note that Nouri promised not to seek a third term. Let's go ahead and note that when the press was treating this as reality we noted it was a lie. 24 hours later when the lie collapsed, the lie continued for weeks.

The following community sites -- plus Antiwar.com, Pacifica Evening News, Adam Kokesh, Liberal Oasis and On the Wilder Side -- updated last night and today: