MARCH 2007

Associated Press

Published: Tuesday, March 13, 2007

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fears the United States will torpedo his government if the legislature does not pass a law to fairly divvy up the country’s oil wealth by the end of June, close associates of the leader said Tuesday.

The legislature has not even taken up the draft measure, which is only one of several U.S. benchmarks that are seen by al-Maliki as key to Washington’s continued support, a crucial need for the survival of his troubled administration.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Aside from the oil law, the associates said, U.S. officials have told the Shiite Muslim prime minister they want an Iraqi government in place by year’s end acceptable to the country’s Sunni Muslim neighbours, particularly Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.

“They have said it must be secular and inclusive,” one al-Maliki associate said.

To that end, al-Maliki made an unannounced visit Tuesday to Ramadi, the Iraqi Sunni insurgent stronghold, to meet with tribal leaders, the provincial governor and security chiefs in a bid to signal his willingness for reconciliation to end the bitter sectarian war that has riven Iraq for more than a year.

Compounding al-Maliki’s fears about a withdrawal of U.S. support were visits to Saudi Arabia by two key political figures in an admitted bid to win support for a major Iraqi political realignment. Saudi Arabia is a major U.S. ally and oil supplier.

Former prime minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite, flew to the Saudi capital Tuesday, a day after the arrival of Masoud Barzani, leader of Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdish region. Most Kurds are Sunni.

“Allawi is there to enlist support for a new political front that rises above sectarian structures now in place,” the former prime minister’s spokesman, Izzat al-Shahbandar, said.

Barzani spokesman Abdul-Khaleq Zanganah said the two Iraqis met in Kurdistan before the trip for talks on forming a “national front to take over for the political bloc now supporting al-Maliki.”

It appears certain the United States was informed about the Allawi and Barzani opening to the Saudis, who are deeply concerned al-Maliki could become a puppet of Iran.

Washington has been reported working more closely with Sunni governments to encourage them to take a greater role in Iraq, particularly in reining in the Sunni insurgency that has killed thousands of U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi Shiites.

The U.S. administration is believed to be trying to win support for its operations in Iraq among Arab neighbours by assuring a greater future role for the Sunni minority that ran the country until the U.S. invasion ousted the late president Saddam Hussein four years ago.

One al-Maliki confidant said the Americans voiced displeasure with the prime minister’s government, even though he has managed so far to blunt major resistance from the Mahdi Army militia to the joint U.S.-Iraqi security operation in Baghdad. The Shiite militia is loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose political backing secured the premiership for al-Maliki.

“They have said they are frustrated that he has done nothing to oust the Sadrists, that the oil law has not moved forward, that there is no genuine effort on reconciliation and no movement on new regional elections,” said the official, who like the other associates agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name.

Passage of the oil law, which seeks a fair distribution of revenues among all Iraq’s sectarian and ethnic groups, has become a major issue for the United States, which had initially counted on financing Iraq’s post-invasion reconstruction with oil revenues.

But the decrepit oil infrastructure and violence have left the country producing oil at about the same levels as before the war, at best, and those figures are well below production before the 1991 Persian Gulf War that resulted in UN sanctions against the Iraqi oil industry.

The major Sunni bloc in the legislature, along with Allawi loyalists in the Shiite bloc, openly oppose the draft measure. Al-Maliki also has lost the backing of the Shiite Fadila party and independent Shiite members are split on the bill. Those willing to speak about their opposition voice fears about what they see as too much possible foreign involvement and profit-sharing.

The al-Maliki associates said U.S. officials, who they would not name, told the prime minister President George W. Bush is committed to the current government but continued White House support depends on positive action on all the benchmarks — especially the oil law and sectarian reconciliation — by the close of this parliamentary session June 30.

“Al-Maliki is committed to meeting the deadline because he is convinced he would not survive in power without U.S. support,” one of the associates said.

Standing in the way of forward movement is a recalcitrant cabinet, which al-Maliki has promised to reshuffle by the end of this week. So far, however, he is at loggerheads with the political groupings that are threatening to withdraw support for the prime minister if he does not allow the blocs to name replacements for cabinet positions.

© Associated Press 2007  

Evidently the Iraq PM does NOT wish his Dirty Secrets to be exposed
Iraqi PM condemns 'illegal' raid

Iraq's prime minister has called for an investigation into Sunday's raid by Iraqi and British forces in Basra on an intelligence agency detention centre.

Nouri Maliki issued a statement calling for those behind the "illegal and irresponsible act" to be punished.

The British military said the raid was part of an operation led by Iraqi counter-terrorist forces who were seeking a "known death squad leader".

It said evidence of torture had been found at the southern Iraqi facility.

"The prime minister has ordered a prompt investigation into the incident of breaking into the security complex headquarters in Basra," a statement released by Mr Maliki's office said.

The British military responded with a statement saying the National Iraqi Intelligence Agency headquarters was not deliberately targeted and was only entered because of information gained in preceding raids.

"During the operation, Iraqi forces discovered around 30 prisoners, including a woman and two children, who were being held, and many of whom showed signs of torture and abuse," the statement said.

It went on to say that Iraqi forces broke down locked doors, which led to the escape of a number of prisoners but rejected reports Iraqi forces deliberately released the prisoners.

Statement by Hana Albayaty, Ian Douglas, Abdul Ilah Albayaty, Iman Saadoon, Dirk Adriaensens and Ayse Berktay (14 February 2007)

Hanging the womb of Iraq

Stop the executions!

Wassan Talib, 31 years old, Zainab Fadhil, 25 years old, and Liqa Omar Muhammad, 26 years old, face imminent execution in Iraq, all charged with “offences against the public welfare” by a government that cannot even provide electricity but fills the streets with dead bodies. All are in Baghdad’s Al-Kadhimiya Prison. Two have small children beside them. The 1-year-old daughter of Liqa was born in prison. All women deny the charges for which they face hanging.

Paragraph 156 of the Iraqi Penal Code, under which they were judged, reads: “Any person who wilfully commits an act with intent to violate the independence of the country or its unity or the security of its territory and that act by its nature, leads to such violation is punishable by death.” Iraq’s “puppet” government charges these women with its own crimes.

None of the three women was permitted to see a lawyer. The trials to which they were subject are illegal under international law. All three are prisoners of war with protected rights under the Third Geneva Convention. Their execution would not only be illegal and summary, it would be utterly immoral. Civilization around the world reviles the death penalty while Iraq’s feudal leaders make a public spectacle of executions.

In a country where it is evident there is no state or judicial system, the occupation and its puppet government use, as all repressive regimes in history, fake tribunals to exterminate those who oppose them. No legal judgement can be issued while there isn’t the civilised conditions of due process, at least the presence and security of lawyers.

Iraqi women are testament to the life of the nation of Iraq. By contrast, the US-installed government, in its backwardness, imposes only a culture of death. Whereas Iraq was the most progressive state in the region for women’s rights, with the US invasion protective legislation was cancelled. The United States and its local conspirators, in creating hundreds of thousands of widows and reducing life in Iraq to a struggle for bare survival, have placed women in the crosshairs and now on the gallows.

Women are always the first and last victims of war. We celebrate the numberless acts of resistance of Iraqi women, whether their resilience in the face of a culture of rape, torture and murder by US and Iraqi forces, their fortitude in continuing to give life amid state-sponsored genocide, their dignity as they try to maintain a semblance of normality for their children and families, their courage in burying their husbands, sons, daughters or brothers, or in direct action against an illegal and failed military occupation.

We demand the release of Wassan, Zainab and Liqa and all political prisoners in Iraq. We call upon all persons, organisations, parliaments, workers, syndicates and states to withdraw recognition from this pro-occupation, sectarian Iraqi government. We call for immediate protest in front of every Iraqi embassy worldwide. There is no honour in murdering women. Occupation is the highest form of dictatorship. It is not these three women who should be prosecuted; it is this government and its foreign paymaster.

Hana Albayaty

Ian Douglas

Abdul Ilah Albayaty

Iman Saadoon

Dirk Adriaensens

Ayse Berktay

First endorsers:

Dr Lieven De Cauter, initiator of the BRussells Tribunal, philosopher, K.U. Leuven / Rits – Belgium Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, chairman of the Perdana Global Peace Organisation – Malaysia Eduardo Galeano, Essayist, journalist, historian, and activist – Uruguay Ramsey Clark, former attorney general of the United States, founder of the International Action Center – USA Dr Curtis Doebbler, international human rights lawyer, professor of law at An–Najah National University – Palestine Hans Von Sponeck, former UN assistant secretary general & UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, 1998-2000 – Germany Anna Karamanou, former member of the European Parliament, former chairwomen of the Committee of Women’s Rights of the European Parliament Amy Bartholomew, professor of law – Canada Aida Seif El Dawla, founding member and chairperson of the Egyptian Association Against Torture, El–Nadim Centre for the Psychological Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence – Egypt Karen Parker, Attorney, Association of Humanitarian Lawyers – USA Dr Paola Manduca, Professor of Genetics, Anti–war movement – Italy Susan George, director of the Transnational Institute – France Salah Omar Al Ali, former representative of Iraq at the UN, Al-Wifaq – Iraq Nilofer Bhagwat, vice president of Indian Lawyers Association – Mumbai / India Fabio Marcelli, Vice secretary of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers – Italy Saadallah Al-Fathi, former head of the Energy Studies Department at OPEC – IraqMondher Adhami, research fellow at Kings College London – Iraq / UK Wafaa Al-Natheema, founder of the Institute for Near Eastern and African Studies – USA Dahlia Wasfi, Anti-war activist, speaker, Global Exchange – Iraq / USA Eman Ahmed Khammas, former co-director of Occupation Watch, journalist, translator – Iraq Dr Fadhil Bedran, author – Iraq John Catalinotto, International Action Center – USA Sara Flounders, International Action Center – USA Sigyn Meder, member of the Iraq Solidarity Association – Sweden Socorro Gomes, president of the Brazilian Center for Solidarity with the Peoples’ in Struggle for Peace – Brazil José Reinaldo Carvalho, Brazilian Center for Solidarity with the Peoples’ in Struggle for Peace – Brazil Carlos Varea, coordinator and Spanish Campaign against Occupation and for the Sovereignty of Iraq, CEOSI – Spain Corinne Kumar, Secretary General of El Taller International - Tunesia / India Khaled Mouammar, National President of the Canadian Arab Federation – Canada Ahmed Manai, director of the Tunisian Institute for International Relations – France Ali Al-Sarraf, author  – Iraq Hussein Al-Alak, chair of The Iraq Solidarity Campaign – UK / Iraq  Paola Pisi, founder of Uruknet – Italy Dr Esmail Nooriala, Iranian-American writer and Lecturer on Islam University of Denver – USA Dr Chris Busby, Scientific Secretary to the European Committee on Radiation Risk. Expert and author on DU – UK Dr Suhair Abbas, senior lecturer at the University of Sains, Malaysia – Iraq Mona Baker, professor of translation studies, University of Manchester – UK Sarah Meyer, independent researcher – UK Samia Mehrez, professor of Arabic studies – Egypt Petros Constantinou, national coordinator, Campaign Genoa 2001 – Greece Jean Bricmont, scientist, specialist in theoretical physics, U.C. Louvain-La-Neuve – Belgium Yiannis Sifakakis, coordinator, Stop the War Coalition Greece – Greece Maria Ligia Centurion Prieto, member of La Unión de Mujeres Paraguayas (Paraguay-Sud América) – Paraguay Ludo Abicht, University of Antwerpen – Belgium Dr Barbara Nimri Aziz, executive producer, “Tahrir”, Pacifica WBAI Radio, NY – USA Lamis Jamal Deek, attorney, member of Al-Awda New York – Palestine Ceylan Özerengin, journalist – Turkey Jan–Erik Lundström, director of the BildMuseet in Umea, co-organiser of the Iraqi Equation – Sweden Amira Howeidy, journalist, Al-Ahram – Egypt Serene Assir, journalist, Al-Ahram – Egypt Dr Herman De Ley, emeritus professor, Department of Philosophy and Moral Science, Ghent University – Belgium Alison Weir, executive director, “If Americans Knew” – USA  Susan Stout, Vancouver – Canada Judith Karpova, writer, renewable energy consultant – USA Mark Richey, member of Earthlink Gurdial Singh, professor of law, University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia
Organizations
AFFI-Associazione Federativa Femminista Internazionale
Agir Contre la Guerre (ACG)
Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition - NY
Americans Against War (AAW)
Asian Women’s Human Rights Council, India
associaçaõ de favelas em são josé 
Association of Humanitarian Lawyers – USA
BRussells Tribunal CommitteeCampaign Genoa 2001 – Greece
Canadian Arab Federation – Canada
Centre for Development Studies, India
Centro Brasileiro de Solidariedade aos Povos e Luta pela Paz Cebrapaz – Brazilian Center for Solidarity with the Peoples’ in Struggle for Peace – Brazil
Comite de lutte contre la barbarie et l’arbitraire – France
Comité pour l'Annulation de la Dette du Tiers Monde (CADTM)
Coordination des Groupes de Femmes Egalité, France
El Taller International, Tunis
Filastiniyat
Gender Equity Unit, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Gerald and Maas
Institute of Philosophy, Cuba
International Action Center – USA
International Anti-Occupation Network
International Movement for a Just World (JUST)
Iraq Solidarity Association – Stockholm
La Unión de Mujeres Paraguayas – Paraguay
le comité de la femme/cnops  (Maroc)
le comité de la femme/redal, (Maroc)
les organisations de femmes de l'umt/rabat (Maroc)
Lola Kompanyera, Phillipines
l'organisation de la femme du secteur agricole, Maroc
l'organisation de la femme ouvriere, Maroc
l'union des femmes fonctionnaires, Maroc
New Jersey Solidarity- Activists for the Liberation of Palestine
Planète Non-Violence
Radical Women, USA
Resistance & Alternative
Spanish Campaign against Occupation and for the Sovereignty of Iraq, CEOSI
Stop The War Coalition – Greece 
The CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF
AMERICAN BASES - CAAB (website: www.caab.org.uk)
The Women in black of Portland Or
Tunisian Institute of International Relations – France

Statement by Abdul Ilah Albayaty 

(11 February 2007)

Wassan Talib, 31 years old, Zainab Fadhil, 25 years old, and Liqa Omar Mohammed, 26 years old, accused of belonging to and participating in the Iraqi resistance, summarily judged in a simulacra of a trial, in the absence of lawyers, will be executed 3 March 2007 in Baghdad.

Lawyers, persuaded that your very presence is the guarantee of justice

Syndicates and workers who celebrate the international feast of 1 May in memory of the American workers judged on false accusations

Religious of all religions who carry in you the suffering of Christ, crucified after a false trial

Marxists revolted by the false trials fabricated by powers like the one of Rosa Luxembourg

Militants conscious that this could happen to you whatever is your cause

Defenders of human rights, in particular the right to fair trial

Women who give life and of whom the flesh shakes in front of the atrocity of such executions

Arabs, proud and in solidarity with the sacrifices of the Iraqi people against the barbarity of the occupation and its puppet government

Civilised beings, human beings who refuse the so-called “legal” murders perpetrated by states

ALL, let’s unite ourselves, raise our voices to scream our indignation, refuse the horrors and the regression of our civilisation, and prevent the assassinations of Wassan, Zainab and Liqa.

Abdul Ilah Albayaty 

THE ANGRY ARAB WHO GIVES THE MOST UP TO DATE NEWS AND COMMENT ON THE MIDDLE EAST http://www.angryarab
.blogspot.com/ NOTES :

To prepare the way for the US invasion of Iraq, the Saudi Arab media, provided coverage of the tyranny and oppression of Saddam. To help the US in the current Sunni-Shi`ite conflict, Saudi Arab media are now providing
favorable coverage of Saddam.

annie said...

Three Arab states in the Persian Gulf would be willing to allow the Israel Air force to enter their airspace in order to reach Iran in case of an attack on its nuclear facilities, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyasa reported on Sunday.

According to the report, a diplomat from one of the gulf states visiting Washington on Saturday said the three states, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, have told the United States that they would not object to Israel using their airspace, despite their fear of an Iranian response.

This is a story with a caution. Eighteen teenagers were killed on Monday at a football field east of Baghdad. On Sunday, equally young students of Mustansiriya University - the oldest in Baghdad - were blown up by a suicide bomber. It has become a routine, at one and the same time more horrible and more normal each day. Only two years ago, a suicide bomber drove into an American convoy in Baghdad, killing 27 civilians, half of them children taking sweets from American soldiers. What price innocence? Well, as usual, nothing is as it seems in Iraq. Within hours of the mass deaths in Ramadi yesterday came a disturbing statement by the US military. They knew of no deaths in Ramadi, although - and here was the sinister part of the whole thing - it was true, the Americans said, that 30 people had been "slightly wounded" in Ramadi when US troops set off a "controlled explosion" near a football field. "I can't imagine there would be another attack involving children without our people knowing," an American officer announced. Quite so.R.Fisk The Independent 28th Feb

Anonymous said...

If you examine the mass media, the statements from political commentators to senior politicians, they are the ones who have been promoting the idea of a civil war; it has been constantly on their lips, and constantly amplified by the media. From the onset of the invasion the occupational forces have tried to inflame the sectarian violence to ignite a civil war. It was they who constantly talked about dividing Iraq into the three regions, by constantly alluding to Sunni-Arabs and Shi’ites-Arabs and Kurds (note majority Kurds are also Sunnis). To incite the Shi’ites, they kept reminding them of how the minority Sunni-Arabs have dominated the country for centuries.

Likewise, to incite the Kurds, they kept reminding them of their rights over the Kirkuk oil fields and the domination by the Arabs for centuries. Indeed, divide and rule has always been a very effective colonial tool.

Accordingly, the US began to appoint people on the basis of promoting a sectarian conflict. They filled the military, police and other influential positions largely with the Shi’ites and the Kurds. The US forces used these sectarian based militias to attack the Sunni dominated town of Fallujah and other similar towns; this naturally incited the Sunni-Arabs. Then, elections were held under US occupation, which clearly favoured the groups that provided the least resistance to the US occupational forces. Only recently dead bodies of Sunnis were discovered, tortured to death by the Shi’ite dominated regime.

The US hoped that Shia-Sunni schisms would eventually surface - when this did not occur they tried to ignite it themselves. The bombings of Shi’ite Mosques and other similar places were never carried out by the Sunni-led resistance, and no genuine group came forward to admit this. In fact, most of the killings and kidnappings have been blamed on a particular community with little or no evidence in order to incite sectarian feuds, hoping that it would culminate into a full scale civil war. This was largely part of the counter-insurgency activity; and clearest evidence for it was shown by the capture of the two British soldiers last September, who were dressed as Arabs armed with explosives and remote detonations.

Can anyone explain how it would server the interest of any Iraqi group by killing so many Iraqi academics, which the main stream press have kept quiet about? Not surprisingly, many of Iraq’s senior nuclear scientists have been eliminated. Is this the work of the Sunni-led resistance? Nuclear scientists are an asset to any nation. Another clear proof of the coalition forces engaged in terrorism and counter-insurgency activities.

Another pertinent point is that, in its entire history, Iraq’s sectarian-based conflict never took place, so why should it erupt now? If it does, it cannot be down to coincidence but directly related to the designs of the foreign occupational forces as they have the most to benefit from a civil war.

Some of the Shi’ites are angry towards Sunnis as they are the prime suspect in their eyes, but most have started to blame the US and Israel. Even it is found that some extreme Sunnis were behind the bombings, primary blame still lies with the US, because there were no such attacks prior to the war. The war and the subsequent occupation created the climate for such types of attack.

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