The Common Ills: Nouri's Iraq: Candidates home bombed, rally grenade attacked

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Nouri's Iraq: Candidates home bombed, rally grenade attacked

Osama al-Nujaifi is the Speaker of Parliament in Iraq and the head of the Mottahiddon list. NINA quotes him declaring today:

Our former attitude of patience that we committed to,was motivated to the preservation and unity of the nation and the people for fear of plans of sectarians who carry out a well-known regional and international schema . But today we will firmly repeal and strongly deter the hand that turn the executive power to merely sentences of mass executions of innocent citizens , as well as the hand that transform army’s sacred tasks of defending people and nation’s boarders to a force to crush the people , to dispersion and humiliate citizens , violate the sanctity of the Iraqi family and imprison innocent women in detention and rape them stressing the necessity to detain such a hand in accordance with the will of the whole people,the will of the constitution and the will of the right.

Osama al-Nujaifi is the brother of Nineveh Province Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi (one of the many politicians Nouri al-Maliki loathes and has attempted to have removed). With Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi in exile, Osama al-Nujaifi is the highest ranking Sunni politician in the Iraqi government.

And let's clear a detail up with regards to that.

Some say Saleh al-Mutlaq is the most prominent Sunni politician. No. He's Deputy Prime Minister.

Nouri's not letting him do a thing and doesn't have to. Saleh has no real power.

As Speaker of Parliament, Osama is part of the three presidencies -- as defined in the Iraqi Constitution. The three presidencies are the people holding these posts: (a) president of Iraq, (b) prime minister of Iraq and (c) Speaker of Parliament.

Nouri tried to push a bicameral system mid-way through his current term. That was an effort (a failed one, it didn't pick up steam) to derail Osama. Had Nouri's scheme been popular, a new legislative house would have been created and Parliament would become the low ranking one. (To use the US as an example, it would be the House of Representative.) This move would have allowed the representative of the newly created and higher body to be seen as part of the three presidencies and not Osama al-Nujaifi.

You'd think news outlets and observers would grasp that the leader of Parliament had more (legitimate) power than a glorified vice president.

Not only does Osama al-Nujaifi outrank Saleh al-Mutlaq in terms of their positions, al-Nujaifi is also much more popular than Saleh.

Saleh is a lackey and that's why he's jeered and people -- Sunnis -- demonstrate against him.

Even without being the highest ranking Sunni politician in Iraq, Osama al-Nujaifi's remarks would be news worthy.

The remarks may be seen as campaign fodder and they very well may be just that. They're also news. As is NINA reporting the home of Shiekh Saeed Hammoud Derwish was blown up in Ramadi. He's running for Parliament with the Unity of Iraq Coalition. Parliamentary elections are supposed to take April 30th. Already, it's been announced Iraqi refugees in Syria will not be allowed to vote -- as well as Iraqis in parts of Anbar. This targets Sunni voters as thug and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki well knows. (Though the western press is so very kind to Nouri and avoids noting this or even addressing the issue of the refugees -- who will be voting in other countries.) Alsumaria reports a grenade attack on a Mahmudiya (south of Baghdad) rally of Ahmed Chalabi supporters which left 1 child dead. And the violence comes eight days before elections are supposed to be held.

AP notes that a voting center in Daqouq Village was attacked late last night and 10 guards killed. Is AP leaving out something? They quote the deputy police chief Tothan Abdul-Rahman Youssef stating that the assailants had stated "they were there to carry out a search." They stated that to the people they killed, guards in Kirkuk Province.

Kirkuk knows all about searches and all about who's allowed. Kirkuk has their own forces, they have Nouri's forces and they have the Peshmerge. In good times, that's all they have. In bad times, they have much more including the military.

So if a group of men showed and stated they were there to conduct a search and the guards initially believed it, isn't it likely that the assailants were wearing some form of uniform?

It's funny because they used to provide that detail -- western outlets -- and scoff at the notion that it was security forces. And this isn't new. This has been going on so long that we were making jokes here in 2006 that the greatest 'terrorist' in Iraq must be a seamstress since all these uniforms were being used by fakes.

No, they weren't.

Many times, the uniforms worn in an attack are the uniforms the assailants wear every day.

We'll probably go into more of that in the snapshot and the recent press insisting of 'they were militants in stolen uniforms' which bit the press in the ass.

In the meantime, Alsumaria reports that the Wasit Provincial Council is publicly calling out Nouri's forces for arbitrary arrests in the province.

Again, elections are supposed to be held in 8 days.

In other violence today, National Iraqi News Agency reports a Mosul roadside bombing left 1 police member dead and five more injured, a Tabaj roadside bombing left six Iraqi soldiers injured, Nineveh Operations Command state they killed 2 suspects, 1 person was shot dead in Tarmiyah, an Edhem roadside bombing left "four government employees" wounded north of Baquba, 2 Mosul bombs left fourteen members of SWAT injured, and 1 corpse was discovered in Mosul (the man had been kidnapped two days earlier). All Iraq News reports a Balad bombing left 3 farmers dead.

The following community sites -- plus Antiwar.com and Black Agenda Report -- but minus Mike's "The nutless Robert Parry " which isn't showing up -- updated: