Thursday, May 12, 2011

Continued stalemate

Xiong Tong (Xinhua) reports Iraq finally has vice presidnets, three of them, in fact. Adel Abdul Mahdi and Tariq al-Hashimi became vice presidents of Iraq in 2006 and they have been voted back into their posts.

This despite Adel Abdul Mahdi stating most recently that he would not seek the position. Presumably al-Hashimi's re-election means that the lawsuits and compalints against him disappear. (President Jalal Talabani asked both to continue in their roles until the Parliament could elect 'new' vice presidents. Both continued in their roles. Complaints arose against Sunni al-Hashimi for presenting himself to foreign countries as a vice president.)

The new vice president is Khudair al-Khuzaie. There had been talk of a third vice president creating the opportunity for Iraq to have a woman in a high level (but ceremonial) post. There had been talk of it going to a Turkman (Jalal Talabani planned originall for it to go to a Turkman female). There was also talk that it might go to a Kurd. In the end, it went to a Shi'ite giving Iraq two Shi'ite vice presidents (the other being Adel Abdul Mahdi).

Elections took place in Iraq March 7, 2010. But as Nouri fought to retain the post of prime minister, a stalemate emerged. In November, the stalemate allegedly ended. Were that the case, Iraq would have named vice presidents in November and not six months later.

Ned Parker, Raheem Salman and Salar Jaff (Los Angeles Times) report:

Six months after agreeing to form a national unity government, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and his secular rival Iyad Allawi are again exchanging insults and cannot agree on such basic issues as who should run the nation's police and army.
The rift, though unlikely to send Iraq back into sectarian violence, does have Iraqi and Western analysts concerned that the country will continue on a dysfunctional path as American troops move to complete their withdrawal by year's end, nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Two members of Nouri's State Of Law have been sent out to the press to chat up the line that 'differences will be resolved.' (By the way, Jalal Talabani is in the US. He'll be having his artery work as usual. I'm not seeing any reports on Talabani's arrival.) While they claim the differences will be resolved, AP reports that Iraqiya's Arshad al-Salehi was targeting in a bombing this morning. Iraqiya is Ayad Allawi's political slate and the slate that won the most votes in the 2010 elections. Possibly this is Nouri's way of 'resolving' the conflict? Alsumaria TV reports:

Al Maliki cautioned once again of forming a majority government instead of the present national government. Maliki had warned of dissolving the government along with the Parliament and to call for early elections. This does not serve Iraqiya’s interest, he said.
Iraqi Prime Minister rebuked Allawi saying that those calling for consensus want the country to be led by many leaders at a time when rows between Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki and Iraqiya leader Iyad Allawi keep on escalating.

Nouri al-Maliki became prime minister-designate in November. To move from prime minister-designate to prime minister, the Constitution required him to nominate his Cabinet and have each member voted on in the Parliament. As usual, the US government ran interference for Nouri and the Constitution was not followed. Which is how, six months later, Iraq still has no Minister of National Security, Minister of Interior or Minister of Defense. The security ministries remain headless. And that may be the strongest indictment of Nouri's 'leadership' yet. Laith Hammoudi and Roy Gutman (McClatchy Newspapers) report on the prison riot this weekend:



A weekend attempted jailbreak at Iraq's Interior Ministry that led to the deaths of six police officers and 11 al-Qaida in Iraq suspects involved inside "connivance and collaboration," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday.
Investigators are trying to determine who smuggled grenades and other weapons to the prisoners for the effort, the second time in four months that al-Qaida in Iraq operatives have infiltrated the police in a bid to free prisoners, al-Maliki said. The incident raised new questions about the competence of Iraq's security forces as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw completely from the country by the end of 2011.

Dar Addustour reports that Iraqiya is questioning Nouri's decision to open closed streets in Baghdad and to take down the city's barricades at a time when violence is on the rise.

Meanwhile Hassan Al-Azzawi (Al Rafidayn) reports that exams are resulting in death. An 18-year-old student took his own life (hanging) over them and a 13-year-old boy was killed by his father for 'failing to study.'


The following community sites-- plus Antiwar.com, War News Radio and Military Families Speak Out -- updated last night and this morning:





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thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends

















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