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!important;}</style> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240js_/http://gorillasguides.com/wp-content/plugins/advancedsearch/advancedsearch.js"></script><link rel="stylesheet" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240cs_/http://gorillasguides.com/wp-content/plugins/advancedsearch/advancedsearch-lite.css" type="text/css" media="screen"/> </head> <body> <div class="container"> <div id="navigation"> <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/">Home</a></li> <li class="page_item page-item-6"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/gorillas-guides-for-the-perplexed/" title="Gorilla’s Guides For The Perplexed">Gorilla’s Guides For The Perplexed</a> <ul> <li class="page_item page-item-3589"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/gorillas-guides-for-the-perplexed/fatwas/" title="Fatwas A Brief Guide">Fatwas A Brief Guide</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="page_item page-item-2066"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/cholera-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%83%d9%88%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a7/" title="الكوليرا Cholera">الكوليرا Cholera</a></li> <li class="page_item page-item-759"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/scenes-from-an-iraki-childhood-march-16th-2007/windowslivewriterscenesfromanirakichildhoodmarch16th2007-fd1720070316-crying-children-kirkuk-morgue-waiting-to-collect-fathers-body-250x325-72dpi6jpg/guide-to-the-samarra-bombing/" title="Guide To The Samarra Bombing">Guide To The Samarra Bombing</a></li> </ul> <div id="subscribe"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/feed/">Subscribe to RSS</a> </div> </div> <div id="header"> <h1><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/">Gorilla’s Guides</a></h1> <h2>“The only thing these sand niggers understand is force and I’m about to introduce them to it.”</h2> <div id="search"><form method="get" id="searchform" action="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/"> <div><input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s"/> <input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search"/> </div> </form> </div> </div> <hr/> <div id="content" class="span-13 append-1"> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-13852"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/10/29/warning-shots/#respond" title="Comment on Warning Shots">No Comments</a></span> Posted on October 29th, 2011 by markfromireland</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/10/29/warning-shots/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Warning Shots">Warning Shots</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/analysis-briefings-commentary/" title="View all posts in Analysis Briefings Commentary" rel="category tag">Analysis Briefings Commentary</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baathists/" rel="tag">baathists</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/federalism/" rel="tag">Federalism</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/former-army-officers/" rel="tag">Former army officers</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ministerial-council/" rel="tag">ministerial council</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/nouri-al-maliki/" rel="tag">nouri al maliki</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-legitimacy/" rel="tag">political legitimacy</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/resistance/" rel="tag">Resistance</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/salah-ad-din-governorate/" rel="tag">Salah ad Din (Governorate)</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/salah-al-din/" rel="tag">Salah al-Din</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/samarra/" rel="tag">Samarra</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <div style="text-align: left; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr"> <p>To nobody’s surprise Nouri al-Maliki <a title="Aswat al Iraq" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=145456&l=1" target="_blank" class="external">denounced the vote by Salah al-Din council</a> for the governorate to become an autonomous region. In terms of the Constitution Maliki is right, constitutionally the council has no right to declare autonomy — that can only be done by the people of the governorate in a referendum. Far more revealing and ominous is that Maliki denounced the region as "a safe haven for Baathists".</p> <p>Salah ad Din has been a hotbed of resistance to the American invaders and their GZG allies. It’s been subjected to one crackdown after another and has been starved of development funds. Over the last few months the GZG government egged on by the Americans has engaged in a particularly heavy handed crackdown on officials, academics, and former army officers. For many in the governorate the last straw came with the demotion of 140 professors and university personnel over the last few weeks. This comes on top of compulsory purchasing of property and forcible removal of inhabiatants around the Shrines in Samarra. </p> <p>Last Thursday the Governorate’s council voted for autonomy which they have followed up by saying they will approach the ministerial council in order to activatie the constitutional and legal procedures to set an autonomy referendum in place. </p> <p>Other than as a symptom of the GZG’s lack of political legitimacy across swathes of Irak I’m not inclined to take the bid for autonomy seriously <em><strong>yet</strong></em>. As matters stand it’s more of a warning shot to Maliki and his cohorts that unless they start to implement the power-sharing they’ve been promising for years that all hell military and political will once again break loose in Salah ad Din. Sadly Maliki has chosen to respond in his usual heavy handed way. This doesn’t augur well.</p> <p>markfromireland</p> </p></div> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-13374"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/05/16/shiite-groups-behind-iraq-killings-officials-say-reuters/#respond" title="Comment on Shi’ite groups behind Iraq killings, officials say | Reuters">No Comments</a></span> Posted on May 16th, 2011 by Burhan Aydin</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/05/16/shiite-groups-behind-iraq-killings-officials-say-reuters/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Shi’ite groups behind Iraq killings, officials say | Reuters">Shi’ite groups behind Iraq killings, officials say | Reuters</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/iraq/" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/al-qaeda/" rel="tag">Al Qaeda</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/assassination-campaigns/" rel="tag">Assassination campaigns</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/assassinations/" rel="tag">Assassinations</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baath/" rel="tag">Ba'ath</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baath-party/" rel="tag">baath party</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baathists/" rel="tag">baathists</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baghdad/" rel="tag">Baghdad</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/bombs/" rel="tag">bombs</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/death-squads/" rel="tag">Death Squads</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/defense-ministry/" rel="tag">Defense Ministry</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/interior-ministry/" rel="tag">Interior Ministry</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/militia/" rel="tag">Militia</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/militias/" rel="tag">Militias</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-violence/" rel="tag">political violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/reuters/" rel="tag">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/security-operations/" rel="tag">Security operations</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <div style="text-align: left; unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr"> <p>Shi’ite militias rather than Sunni Islamist al Qaeda are behind a recent wave of assassinations of Iraqi government, police and military officials in Baghdad, security officials said.</p> <p>Militants have used silenced guns and bombs stuck to their targets to kill more than 38 officials in the last five months, according to Baghdad security operations. Interior Ministry sources have reported at least 51 such killings to Reuters in the same period.</p> <p>"This issue is the biggest concern for the security apparatus currently," said Major-General Hassan al-Baidhani, chief of staff for Baghdad’s security operations command.</p> </p></div> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/05/16/shiite-groups-behind-iraq-killings-officials-say-reuters/#more-13374" class="more-link">» أقرأ التفاصيل .. | Read the rest of this entry »</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-10604"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/05/19/qa-iraq-had-elections-so-why-isnt-there-a-new-government-mcclatchy/#respond" title="Comment on Q&A: Iraq had elections, so why isn’t there a new government? | McClatchy">No Comments</a></span> Posted on May 19th, 2010 by Nur Hussein Ghazali</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/05/19/qa-iraq-had-elections-so-why-isnt-there-a-new-government-mcclatchy/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Q&A: Iraq had elections, so why isn’t there a new government? | McClatchy">Q&A: Iraq had elections, so why isn’t there a new government? | McClatchy</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ahmad-chalabi/" rel="tag">Ahmad Chalabi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/al-sadr/" rel="tag">al sadr</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/allawi/" rel="tag">Allawi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/arabs/" rel="tag">Arabs</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baath/" rel="tag">Ba'ath</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baath-party/" rel="tag">baath party</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baathists/" rel="tag">baathists</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/bombings/" rel="tag">Bombings</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/caretaker-government/" rel="tag">caretaker government</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/chalabi-ahmed/" rel="tag">Chalabi - Ahmed</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/constitution/" rel="tag">Constitution</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/debaathification-laws-abuse-of/" rel="tag">DeBa'athification laws - abuse of</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/election-commission/" rel="tag">election commission</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/election-results/" rel="tag">election results</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/elections/" rel="tag">Elections</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ina/" rel="tag">INA</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/invasion/" rel="tag">invasion</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraki-national-list-bloc/" rel="tag">Iraki National List Bloc</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqiya-list/" rel="tag">Iraqiya list</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iyad-allawi/" rel="tag">Iyad Allawi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kirkuk/" rel="tag">Kirkuk</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kurdish-parties/" rel="tag">kurdish parties</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kurdish-separatism-resistance-to/" rel="tag">Kurdish Separatism - resistance to</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kurdistan/" rel="tag">Kurdistan</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/muqtada-al-sadr/" rel="tag">Muqtada al-Sadr</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/nia/" rel="tag">NIA</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/nouri-al-maliki/" rel="tag">nouri al maliki</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/occupation/" rel="tag">occupation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/oil/" rel="tag">oil</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/parliamentary-election/" rel="tag">parliamentary election</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/parliamentary-elections/" rel="tag">parliamentary elections</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-negotiations/" rel="tag">political negotiations</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-paralysis/" rel="tag">political paralysis</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/presidency/" rel="tag">presidency</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/prisoners/" rel="tag">prisoners</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ramadan/" rel="tag">Ramadan</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sadrist-bloc/" rel="tag">Sadrist Bloc</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/speaker/" rel="tag">Speaker</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/state-of-law-coalition/" rel="tag">State of Law Coalition</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/state-of-law-coalition-vs-sadrists/" rel="tag">State of Law Coalition vs Sadrists</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/state-of-law-coalition-vs-iraqiya-list/" rel="tag">State of Law Coalition vs. Iraqiya list</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/tehran/" rel="tag">Tehran</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%83%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b5%d8%af%d8%b1/" rel="tag">حركة الصدر</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p> </p> <blockquote><p>BAGHDAD, Iraq — Millions of Iraqi voters defied bombings and intimidation to cast ballots in the country’s March 7 parliamentary election, which was billed as historic because it was the first since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 to be organized, carried out and secured by Iraqis.</p> <p>The excitement of Election Day wore off quickly, however, and the country’s been locked in a state of political paralysis ever since as its top politicians battle to control the next government.</p> <p>The results were an upset: Secular Shiite Muslim politician Ayad Allawi’s bloc won more seats in parliament than favored incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a conservative Shiite, did. The margin was so close, however, that political maneuvering to change the results has delayed the seating of a new government.</p> <p>Here’s a look at where the election results stand, what happens next and when a new government might take shape in Baghdad.</p> <p>Q: Have the major players changed since election day?</p> <p>A: Not much. The main blocs are still Allawi’s Iraqiya, a mixed-sect ticket with broad Sunni support; Maliki’s State of Law, mostly from his conservative Shiite Dawa Party; the Iraqi National Alliance, the main religious Shiite grouping of Iranian-backed parties, including politicians loyal to militant cleric Muqtada al Sadr.</p> <p>The two main Kurdish parties ran on a single ticket as the Kurdistan Alliance. An upstart Kurdish opposition party, Gorran, won some seats, as well.</p> <p>Q: One of the first snags was an attempt to disqualify some winning candidates by accusing them of ties to the late dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. Did they lose their seats?</p> <p>A: There were several rounds of de-Baathification, the controversial process of rooting out former Baathists and barring them from public service. Former exile and Bush administration ally Ahmad Chalabi and his deputy Ali al Lami, who both ran in the elections, oversaw the purges.</p> <p>Hundreds of candidates were eliminated, but an Iraqi court Monday ruled in favor of nine victorious candidates whose cases were in dispute. Those candidates are expected to take their seats in the next parliament.</p> <p>Q: Maliki rejected the election commission’s results and demanded a partial recount. Did the recount uncover fraud or change the results?</p> <p>A: At Maliki’s insistence, a court ruled that the election commission should conduct a recount, but only in Baghdad province. The recount uncovered no major fraud and didn’t alter Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc’s slight lead.</p> <p>Q: OK, so now the recount is over and the de-Baathification efforts have been suspended. What’s next?</p> <p>A: The next step is for Iraq’s top court to certify the final election results, which would start the clock on forming a government in accordance with the Iraqi constitution. The chief delay now is the intense, behind-the-scenes haggling over who’ll get the prime minister’s post and other key positions. With no group winning an outright majority, alliances are starting to take shape.</p> <p>For now, it looks as if Maliki’s State of Law and the Shiite-dominated Iraqi National Alliance are pairing up to challenge Allawi’s group for a majority in parliament. However, the Sadrists, a backbone of the Alliance, have long opposed Maliki as premier, which jeopardizes cooperation between the two groups.</p> <p>Also, there’s growing concern that cutting out Allawi, whose bloc was the nation’s top vote-getter, would be unacceptable to millions of Iraqis who voted for him, especially the Sunni minority.</p> <p>Q. What do ordinary Iraqis think?</p> <p>A. The word on the street is similar to the criticism from political quarters: The leadership is too busy guarding its own interests to pay attention to the security and other needs of ordinary citizens.</p> <p>With so many government offices in limbo, Iraqis say, everyday aspects of life have slowed to a halt: obtaining passports, approving state jobs, road and utility repairs, awarding contracts, to name just a few.</p> <p>The longer and bloodier this transition becomes, the more Iraqis begin to question their participation in the democratic process.</p> <p>Q. So when can we expect to see a new government?</p> <p>A. It’s hard to say. Maliki has predicted that it won’t take longer than July. Foreign diplomats speculate it’ll be sometime this summer; religious authorities hope things will be resolved in time for the holy month of Ramadan, which begins in August; and other political observers fear that it could last into the fall.</p> <p>Q. What are some of the main points of negotiation among all these blocs?</p> <p>A. Each bloc holds some powerful cards. Allawi’s bloc is the top vote getter, has the most Sunni support and is looked upon favorably by both the Americans and Iraq’s Arab neighbors. Maliki also won a huge number of votes, is the incumbent and has branded himself with some success as a nationalist.</p> <p>The chief kingmakers are the Sadrists, who want hundreds of their prisoners released and some senior cabinet posts, and the Kurds, who are insisting on keeping the presidency, gaining control of oil-rich Kirkuk and other territories that Sunni Arabs also claim, and holding cabinet positions in numbers that are proportionate to the Kurdish population.</p> <p>Q. What’s the role of the Americans, the Iranians and other foreign powers with vested interests in the outcome of the Iraqi elections?</p> <p>A. Both the Americans and Iranians have played it cool publicly, while meeting privately with all the key players.</p> <p>The Americans prefer a government that includes Sunnis and other minorities and is diverse enough to act as a spoiler to outright Iranian control.</p> <p>The Iranians, who have numerous allies and agents in Iraq, would like to see a continuation of Tehran-friendly, Shiite-dominated government, though some Iranian officials have said that some of Allawi’s allies must be included in order to work toward a more stable Iraq.</p> <p>Q. Who’s in charge while all these negotiations are going on? Are there limitations on the caretaker government?</p> <p>A. Maliki’s administration is carrying on with business as usual, but absent a parliament, the government cannot enter into international treaties, declare war or make any other major decisions that normally would require parliamentary approval.</p> <p>Q. Are there constitutional mechanisms to ensure that the paralysis doesn’t last forever?</p> <p>A. Yes. However, the current government found loopholes after the last parliamentary elections in 2005. For example, the constitution calls for the naming of a speaker of parliament in the legislature’s first session. To get around this and buy more time, the last parliament simply called a session to order and didn’t adjourn it for several weeks.</p> <p>Strictly speaking, once the top court certifies the election results, the parliament must convene within 15 days. In the first session, the members are required to choose a speaker and two deputy speakers. After that, they’re supposed to name the Iraqi president, though the constitution doesn’t specify a timeline.</p> <p>Once a president is elected by parliament, the president has 15 days to ask the nominee of the largest bloc in parliament to form a government within a month. If that fails, the president can ask another candidate from any bloc to try.</p> <p>Q. Will the delay in forming a government affect security in Iraq?</p> <p>A. Many Iraqis, including members of the current parliament, argue that the delay already has chipped away at security.</p> <p>In the aftermath of a series of devastating bombings, including a day when attacks killed more than 100 people, some Iraqi politicians said that militants were taking advantage of the security void, which they blamed on the Iraqi leadership’s preoccupation with political negotiations.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/18/v-print/94397/qa-iraq-had-elections-so-why-isnt.html" class="external" target="_blank">Q&A: Iraq had elections, so why isn’t there a new government? | McClatchy</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-10285"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/05/03/asharq-al-awsat-talks-hoshyar-zebari/#respond" title="Comment on Asharq Al-Awsat Talks Hoshyar Zebari">No Comments</a></span> Posted on May 3rd, 2010 by Um Thalit</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/05/03/asharq-al-awsat-talks-hoshyar-zebari/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Asharq Al-Awsat Talks Hoshyar Zebari">Asharq Al-Awsat Talks Hoshyar Zebari</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ambassadors/" rel="tag">Ambassadors</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/arab-countries/" rel="tag">arab countries</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/arab-league/" rel="tag">Arab League</a>, <a 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqi-airways/" rel="tag">Iraqi Airways</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqi-parliament/" rel="tag">iraqi parliament</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iyad-allawi/" rel="tag">Iyad Allawi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kurdistan-democratic-party/" rel="tag">kurdistan democratic party</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kurds/" rel="tag">kurds</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kuwait/" rel="tag">kuwait</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/maad-fayad/" rel="tag">Ma'ad Fayad</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/masud-barzani/" rel="tag">Masud Barzani</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-situation/" rel="tag">political situation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/religious-minorities/" rel="tag">Religious minorities</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saddam-hussein/" rel="tag">Saddam Hussein</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sanctions/" rel="tag">Sanctions</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saudi/" rel="tag">Saudi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saudi-arabia/" rel="tag">Saudi Arabia</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/security-situation/" rel="tag">security situation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/syria/" rel="tag">Syria</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/turkey/" rel="tag">Turkey</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/universities/" rel="tag">Universities</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/water/" rel="tag">Water</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/xe/" rel="tag">Xe</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/zebari-hoshyar/" rel="tag">Zebari - Hoshyar</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>London, <a title="Asharq Al-Awsat" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=20813" class="external" target="_blank">Asharq Al-Awsat</a>- Since the change of the Iraqi regime in 2003, four governments have succeeded each other in administering Iraq ranging between the government of Paul Bremer, US civil Administrator, and interim, and permanent governments. The Kurdish politician Hoshyar Zebari – leading member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP] led by Masud Barzani -has been a foreign minister in all these governments. In fact he was the first foreign minister after the end of the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and he still is while the prime ministers and other ministers have been changed.</p> <p>On the basis of this, Zebari has shouldered all the burdens, difficulties, and complications of the new construction of one of the most important ministries of the government, the Foreign Ministry, and he has become the most prominent engineer of the Iraqi foreign policy. Perhaps one of the most complex issues is being the first Iraqi foreign minister from the Kurdish nation, which constitutes the second national group in Iraq, and all these years he has had to sit down and confer with his Arab opposite numbers, who, according to his expression, have forged distinguished links with him.</p> <p>During his private visit to London, Zebari gave Asharq Al-Awsat exclusively an expanded and comprehensive interview about his work experience at the Foreign Ministry in which he explains the difficulties facing the Iraqi foreign policy. Today, Zebari is on the verge of leaving his post as the term of the government ends, and he is a member of the upcoming Iraqi Parliament for the Kurdistan Alliance, and of the committee stemming from the alliance for dialog with the other political blocs about the formation of the new government.</p> <p>The following is the text of the interview:</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] At the end of the term of the Government, what is your assessment of Iraqi foreign policy?</p> <p>[Zebari] I am greatly honored to have served in this post in four consecutive governments. This is a record achieved under the most difficult circumstances through which Iraq has gone. I take pride in my service during this period in which we have tried to serve our country. Our record testifies to the achievements and accomplishments we have made. The state was in ruins when we took over in September 2003 during the period of the Government Council; and the Foreign Ministry consisted of some isolated, besieged, burned, and ruined embassies. Thus, praise be to God, we have been able, through collective efforts and not individual ones, to rebuild and restore the ministry. This has been achieved as a result of us working on the basis of the principle of national reconciliation.</p> <p>We have been the first ministry to apply this principle. When we took over the ministry it included 1,200 employees ranging between diplomats and administrative officials, and supplemented them from among former members of the intelligence and the Baathists. We have dismissed more than 550 employees, because the Foreign Ministry under the previous regime was one of the security ministries, and was a closed shop for the Baath Party. We have kept the professional diplomats and administrators, and in practice they have proved their high level of efficiency and national sense. This is why we have been accused, while our aim was, and still is, to keep the wheel of work turning.</p> <p>It is true that when we took over the ministry we had the experience of working abroad, and of the foreign relations of the KDP, but the partisan work, or work in the opposition remains different from official work, the ministry, and work in the state. However, we utilized our previous relations for the benefit of our work in the Foreign Ministry.</p> <p>Moreover, we opened the work in the Foreign Ministry for all, and not only for the elite, the sons of the wealthy or upper-class families, and officials. Two years after we started work, we advertised in the media a training course for diplomatic work, and any Iraqi who satisfied the conditions was able to work in the ministry. We have accepted the highest grade graduates of the Iraqi universities. Also the issue in which I personally take pride is our interest in training and qualifying the cadres of diplomatic work.</p> <p>Moreover, the number of the employees of our ministry is the lowest among the Iraqi ministries compared to its services and importance, as there are less than 2,000 diplomats and administrators in the Foreign Ministry, which is a very small number. We have sent most of them, more then 1,200 employees, to training courses in diplomatic and language training abroad, which is something that is admired by our Arab counterparts. We also changed the culture of work in the Ministry, which used to be characterized by domination, militarism, and centralization, and the employee used to stand before the official as if he was his servant or slave; we have removed all these barriers. I am entitled to take pride in this issue.</p> <p>It is well known that Iraq is a big and old country in international politics. It is one of the founders of the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Thus, we have decided to make the diplomatic representation extensive, or at least acceptable; now there are more than 83 diplomatic missions around the world, 67 embassies, and 16 consulates. Therefore, I can say that the upcoming Iraqi Government will take over a developed institution. Add to this that we have ratified the Foreign Service law, which is at the level of the international laws in this field.</p> <p>Despite all the suspicions and distortion that accompanied the work of the ministry, such as claiming that it is a Kurdish ministry and similar things, I do not say that our ministry is an ideal one that is devoid of administrative or financial corruption, but I say that compared to other ministries, the Foreign Ministry is one of the cleanest and most impartial ministries from the point of view of the good reports of the auditing departments and the Commission on Public Integrity.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] There are accusations leveled at Iraqi foreign policy because of the bad relations between Iraq and some regional countries?</p> <p>[Zebari] Iraq was isolated, punished, and marginalized in all Arab and international forums. However, with great efforts we have been able to restore it to its important status, and we broke the isolation ring. To be frank and explicit, this has not taken place only as a result of our efforts, but also with the help and support of our allies in the US and UK Administrations, which liberated Iraq from dictatorship.</p> <p>The work of the Foreign Ministry is a reflection of the domestic policy of the country and its stances; if there is no united stance or a united domestic policy coupled with strong will, there will be no success in the foreign policy however relentless the efforts might be, because the foreign policy will reflect what is taking place domestically. [The same applies] if there is reconstruction, the security situation is solid, the economic situation is good, and the national unity is strong.</p> <p>I admit that one of the problems in which we failed is that we have not been able to play any role in the Arab forums. We have not been able to fulfill our commitments to the issues of destiny, such as the Palestinian issue, supporting the Palestinian Authority, or supporting the regional or international issues to which Iraq was contributing. We have inherited a huge legacy of international sanctions, effects of siege, fragile relations, and problems of water and borders with nearly all the neighboring countries. This is what we have been focusing on, and that is what any government ought to focus on, try to close all these dossiers, and rectify its relations.</p> <p>In the midst of this hysterical and difficult political situation, we have been able to progress with our work, and to reflect a positive image of the situation and work of the government. The Foreign Ministry does not make the policy, but it implements it; our policy exists in the Constitution, and in the government decisions and viewpoint, because the government is the one that determines Iraq’s foreign policy. One of the problems which we faced at the level of our foreign operations is the multiplicity of the sources of media statements and stances given by MP’s, advisers, and others. In many cases we receive instructions, but we act according to the interest of the country; thus we have adopted some stances that the others understood.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Was your stance at the last Arab summit in Libya one of these policies?</p> <p>[Zebari] At the last summit, and other summits, we acted according to our relations, and as representatives of the Iraqi Government. The other sides relied on what we said and not on the statement of this MP, or that adviser or politician.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] How do the Arab officials receive you as a Kurd in your capacity as foreign minister of Iraq?</p> <p>[Zebari] In the beginning it was a surprise and a strange and odd thing. I remember that I attended my first meeting of Arab foreign ministers in the Arab League in September 2003. The Arab foreign ministers, in jest, said: Let us have fun at his (broken) Arabic. After I talked and delivered speeches, they said: We were wrong, because your Arabic is better than ours. This is a real experience. We behave as a national Iraqi official, and not as a Kurd, and we defend Iraq and the interests of Iraq. Now they have got used to us. At the Arab summit in Sirte (Libya) they said: We have become used to you. I said: This is politics, and we have a diplomatic system; today I am here, and tomorrow there is someone else. I have had excellent relations with my Arab counterparts, and achieved good relations with the Arab officials and leaders, and with the Arab League.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] How do you explain the delay of some Arab countries in opening their embassies in Baghdad?</p> <p>[Zebari] The fact is this subject has been exaggerated, and politicized by some Iraqi political sides. They say that Iraq is distant from its Arab and Islamic environment; this is political one-upmanship. When an Iraqi politician meets an Arab leader, does this mean that he is close to that leader and we cannot do the same? For instance, I can meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak or any other Arab official any day. We tolerate the fact that Iraqi politicians meet Arab leaders outside the government framework; have we had a strong government, it would not have allowed to hold such meetings. This is not supposed to occur. I remember once that the leader of the British Conservative Party met Clinton or Bush in Washington, and there was a commotion that raised Cain in London, because it was considered defiance. Unfortunately, our leaders or politicians are complacent about this issue, and hence they lose their value.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] How do you explain the bad relations between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and some Arab countries, such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, and others?</p> <p>[Zebari] The prime minister is not responsible for these stances. Perhaps I have many issues related to work over which I disagree with the prime minister, but over this issue we have to be realistic. If there is a country or a side that wants to harm Iraq, we must not kiss their hands; this is inadmissible. Today, for instance, there are public activities by Muhammad Yunus al-Ahmad – leading member of the Iraqi Baath Party – in Damascus. We have asked the Syrians about him, and we told them that he was active against Iraq; they said: We do not know him at all. Now, here he is. What is his program or aims? Are his programs and aims related to participating in government, or developing the political process in Iraq? Definitely not, because he (Al-Ahmad) wants to destroy and blow up everything. There are some issues on which we have to draw the line. For instance, with regard to the relations with Saudi Arabia, the Saudi brethren are the ones who opened the doors, and they opened up to receive various Iraqi leaders, and are the ones who became convinced that there ought to be good relations with Iraq, with which they have the longest common borders; the initiative came from them. The Egyptians, after they realized that they were absent and that the non-Arab neighboring countries were the ones that would fill the vacuum, woke up and came and opened their embassy in Baghdad.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Have Iran and Turkey filled in the vacuum resulting from the Arab absence in Iraq?</p> <p>[Zebari] I have visited Tehran, Ankara, and even Damascus, and I have said to them beware, and do not think that you will fill in the vacuum that will occur due to the withdrawal of the US forces. The Iraqis will not accept anyone other then themselves to fill in the vacuum in their country. We have the legitimate right to do so. Iran, Turkey, and others are waiting for the withdrawal of the US forces, which are in a hurry to leave Iraq in August, to fill in the vacuum; this is a huge disaster.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] What do you think of the Kuwaiti claims over the airplane hired by the Iraqi Airways, which they tried to detain in Britain? How will you deal with the problems with Kuwait?</p> <p>[Zebari] Let me tell you something, several times we have discussed the pending relations with the Kuwaiti brethren. At Sirte summit, we sat with the Amir, deputy prime minister, and foreign minister of Kuwait. There are pending problems between Kuwait and Iraq, and they ought to be resolved. The most prominent of these problems is the issue of the borders that have been demarcated according to UN Security Council Resolution 833, the recognition of which the constitutional Iraqi Government is supposed to reiterate. As for the rest of the issues, they are treatable. These borders have been imposed on Iraq following Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Does Iraq recognize these borders?</p> <p>[Zebari] Saddam Hussein agreed to them in 1993. What is required of this government or the upcoming government is to reiterate its recognition of these borders. This is the key to the resolution of all the pending problems between Iraq and Kuwait. I say it frankly, neither the issue of the missing, the prisoners, nor the properties are the obstacles; this issue (the borders) still is pending. We have tried, and we have exerted huge efforts to resolve it; however, we have become convinced that it is a political and not a technical issue. The government has said, now we are on the verge of elections and we will leave this dossier to the upcoming government.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] You have spoken of the professionalism of the Iraqi ambassadors, but the issue of the ambassadors constitutes a subject for the accusations leveled at the Foreign Ministry, as there are ambassadors who have been appointed at the level of extraordinary ambassador without any diplomatic background. How do you explain this?</p> <p>[Zebari] The ambassador is supposed to be a professional diplomat who has progressed in his diplomatic career until he reaches the grade of ambassador. However, in many countries there are political appointments, i.e. the government or the head of state chooses a former minister, military officer, or a friend as (former US President) Bush or (US President) Obama did. If you look into the background of some US ambassadors you will discover that they are friends of the president. However this happens within certain percentage such as 10 percent or more, and could be as much as 25 percent. The highest percentage of such appointments, as far as we know, is in Egypt. Also we have fixed a percentage of such appointment in the Foreign Service Law, which has been ratified by Parliament and government. However, we are in an interim stage, and all the political sides want to be represented in the diplomatic corpse.</p> <p>I would like to explain the mechanism we used. We have accepted 57 ambassadors out of 150 nominated by the various political blocs; and we have said to all the blocs that we would not accept anyone who does not satisfy even the minimum of the conditions set by our ministry. This is what has taken place, and it was my decision. Among those accepted there have been a large percentage of professional diplomats, and also there have been ambassadors nominated by sides not participating in the government, such as the former Al-Iraqiya List, national and religious minorities, and also women. The process has not taken place on the basis of quotas alone, but we also took into consideration the diversity of the Iraqi society in addition to those who have been nominated by sides in the government. Moreover, the deliberations and the discussions of the names between the ministry and the Parliament continued for two years until the list of names was given back to us; during that period we sent the candidates to training courses, and attached them to work within the departments of the ministry. After that came the difficult stage, even the most complex one, namely the organization and distribution of the ambassadors. This is a more complex process than forming the government. We were obliged to meet the political leaders and explain to them that the standard of the ambassador nominated by them is not suitable to be appointed to this-or-that country, but he has to be appointed to another country, and so on.</p> <p>There have been many opinions saying that we should not send the names to the countries until after the elections, but I insisted on sending them before the elections. I said: I will send them and you will see the confidence of the countries in us. Indeed, we sent the names of the ambassadors to the countries to which they were nominated. This is an achievement that ought to be recorded for the government and for our ministry. Ten days ago, we received 43 approvals out of 52 nominations to Arab and western countries, and to international organizations.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Why is the Foreign Ministry accused of being a Kurdish ministry?</p> <p>[Zebari] This is not true. If you count the number of Kurds among the administrators and diplomats in the Foreign Ministry you will realize that it is very small, and less than the percentage they deserve. The Kurds are Iraqis, and have the right to work in the diplomatic corps. Moreover, I am not promoting the Kurdish interests, but I promote the Iraqi interests, and the Kurds come within this context.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] The Iraqi embassy in London has been, and still is without an ambassador. What are the reasons behind this?</p> <p>[Zebari] Indeed this is a problem. However, there is an ambassador who is a candidate for this post, but I cannot divulge his name now.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Will you remain the foreign minister in the upcoming government?</p> <p>[Zebari] I belong to the Kurdistan Alliance, and this issue is up to the alliance and not to me. When I served as a foreign minister, I was nominated by the Kurdistan Alliance. I am one of the people who consider themselves soldiers in the service of the leadership; this means that today we serve in this post, and tomorrow in another one that is chosen for us by the leadership. This is the first factor. Secondly, this depends of whether or not the Kurdistan Alliance will participate in the government.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Is there any doubt that you will participate in the upcoming government?</p> <p>[Zebari] It is possible to forge coalitions that will be able to form the government with no need for the Kurdistan Alliance, and it is possible to include some Kurds from outside the alliance in the upcoming government.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Do you think that such a possibility might take place?</p> <p>[Zebari] Theoretically, it is possible. The Kurdistan Alliance was strong in the previous elections, and it constituted the second parliamentary bloc. Today, it is the fourth list. However, politically and realistically I do not think that such a possibility might materialize, and all the other blocs agree on the importance of our participation in government. If the negotiations to form the government take place, one of the sovereignty ministries will be in our share. In the past, the choice and agreement was the Foreign Ministry because of the accumulation of expertise and other factors; today, as I said, this is not up to me, but to our leadership.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] If the decision is up to you, will you stay at the Foreign Ministry?</p> <p>[Zebari] I can serve at this ministry, because we have accumulated developed experiences, and we have established good relations with our Arab and non-Arab counterparts. However, I reiterate that the political decision is not up to me.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] As long as we are talking about the formation of the government, what do you think of the existing dispute on the political arena over this issue, I mean the formation of the new government?</p> <p>[Zebari] The disputes are very severe, and the situation has become extremely complicated for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is that the results are close between the two major blocs, the Al-Iraqiya (led by Iyad Allawi, former prime minister of the Iraqi Government) and the State of Law (led by Nuri al-Maliki, prime minister of the government whose term has ended). In the previous election there was one bloc that won the majority of the seats and formed the government. As for the current situation, the events will lead to prolonged and complicated negotiations; no serious alliances or dialogs will take place until the ratification of the results of the elections. You know that there are the manual recounting, the looking into the issue of the excluded because of the Debathification commission, and other issues; the longer the period, the more complications will appear.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Would you have preferred the results to be ratified without the issuing of the decision to have a manual recount?</p> <p>[Zebari] The problem lies in the electoral system. The (Independent High Electoral) Commission has done its utmost to make the elections succeed, but there are frightening shortcomings in its work, and it has not taken into consideration many issues. Moreover, there is the absence of the support and help from the United States and Britain that had a clear role in the previous elections; this role has been absent in these elections, which contributed to the increase in the difficulties despite the presence of the United Nations. What I mean exactly is the absence of a side that helps and contributes to gathering the winning blocs in order to agree and form the government.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Do you think that the US Administration has withdrawn its hand completely from Iraq?</p> <p>[Zebari] Unfortunately I say that the United States now is not bothered about anything other that withdrawing its forces from Iraq. If the new government is not formed by August, and in the light of these difficult security conditions, the withdrawal of the US forces will be too early, and immature. The US Administration has a problem now, if the government is not formed, the security challenges escalate, and the political problems get complicated, the situation will be extremely complicated, and in my opinion this might affect the timetable of the withdrawal of the US forces.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Have you explained this viewpoint of yours to the US side?</p> <p>[Zebari] Yes, we always meet the US ambassador to Baghdad, and there are dialogs with US Vice President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and also her assistants. However, so far their viewpoint is to leave the Iraqis to solve their problems on their own. Their message to us is: Solve your problems quickly so that we can get out quickly.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Do you think that the current problem, with regard to the issue of manual recounting and the exclusion of some winners from Parliament, will be internationalized in order to find solutions for it?</p> <p>[Zebari] When the situation gets complicated, it is inevitable that an acceptable side intervenes to help in finding solutions; the candidate for such a role is the United Nations. The issue is not one of internationalization as much as it is giving help, especially as there is an international authorization to the United Nations from the UN Security Council with the agreement of the Iraqi Government to intervene in the situation in Iraq. This authorization is under Chapter 7. Therefore, the United Nations can play a clear role and to express its views in order to help in bringing the various sides together.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Are you optimistic about finding solutions and proceeding with the formation of the government?</p> <p>[Zebari] They call me the eternal optimist; however, after these elections the situation has become difficult.</p> <p>[Asharq Al-Awsat] Difficult?</p> <p>[Zebari] Yes, difficult.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=20813" class="external" target="_blank">Asharq Al-Awsat Talks to Iraqi FM Hoshyar Zebari Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)</a> By Ma’ad Fayad</p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-9897"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/04/19/iraqis-need-new-leader/#respond" title="Comment on Iraqis Need New Leader">No Comments</a></span> Posted on April 19th, 2010 by Abdus-Samad</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/04/19/iraqis-need-new-leader/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Iraqis Need New Leader">Iraqis Need New Leader</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/analysis-briefings-commentary/" title="View all posts in Analysis Briefings Commentary" rel="category tag">Analysis Briefings Commentary</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/allawijafar_al-sadr_maliki/" rel="tag">Allawi/Jafar_al-Sadr_maliki</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baath/" rel="tag">Ba'ath</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baathists/" rel="tag">baathists</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/commentary/" rel="tag">commentary</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/economic-development/" rel="tag">Economic development</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/former-prime-ministers/" rel="tag">former prime ministers</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ibrahim-al-jaafari/" rel="tag">Ibrahim al-Jaafari</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iwpr/" rel="tag">IWPR</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iyad-allawi/" rel="tag">Iyad Allawi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/maliki-nouri-al/" rel="tag">Maliki - Nouri al-</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/muqtada-al-sadr/" rel="tag">Muqtada al-Sadr</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/national-reconciliation/" rel="tag">national reconciliation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/parliamentary-election/" rel="tag">parliamentary election</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-alliances/" rel="tag">political alliances</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-analysis/" rel="tag">Political analysis</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/politics-and-security/" rel="tag">Politics and Security</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/premiership/" rel="tag">premiership</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/state-of-law-coalition/" rel="tag">State of Law Coalition</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>A fierce political battle is underway to determine who will lead Iraq’s new government. The prime minister’s post, the most powerful and coveted position in Iraq, is at the heart of intense negotiations between the country’s top political alliances. </p> <div style="border-right: lightgrey 1px solid; padding-right: 5px; border-top: lightgrey 1px solid; padding-left: 5px; float: right; padding-bottom: 5px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; border-left: lightgrey 1px solid; width: 310px; padding-top: 5px; border-bottom: lightgrey 1px solid">  <p><strong>Editor’s Notes:</strong> </p> <ul> <li><img title="Hemin_H_Lihony" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 5px 25px; border-right-width: 0px" height="128" alt="Hemin_H_Lihony" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240im_/http://gorillasguides.com/wp-content/uploads/Hemin_H_Lihony.jpg" width="102" align="right" border="0"/> Hemin H Lihony is an IWPR Iraq local editor based in Sulaimaniyah. </li> <li>The views expressed in the article are not necessarily the views of IWPR. </li> </ul></div> <p>The prime minister will lead Iraq through one of the most critical periods in Iraq’s modern history. The United States military withdrawal will be a major test for Iraq’s forces and its government. </p> <p>In addition to security, the new prime minister will need to build stronger relations with Iraq’s allies and address domestic challenges, including corruption, services, economic development and national reconciliation. The future of the country will lie in his hands. </p> <p>The top contenders have all served as prime minister, but re-electing them would be a mistake. In light of the serious issues that Iraq will face – and the political divisiveness of former leaders –  Iraq’s best option is to choose a fresh face to serve as the country’s new leader. </p> <p>A new leader will bring a sense of hope and optimism which are in dire need in Iraq today. </p> <p><img style="border-right: silver 2px solid; border-top: silver 2px solid; display: inline; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; border-left: silver 2px solid; border-bottom: silver 2px solid" height="200" alt="jafari_allawi_maliki" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240im_/http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2775/4330872990_f17d3ac2f2_o.jpg" width="300" align="right"/>Iraq’s three former prime ministers – Ayad Allawi, Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Nuri al-Maliki – failed to bring stability, tackle corruption and promote national reconciliation. They all sowed mistrust between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds. </p> <p>Allawi, whose Iraqiya bloc won the parliamentary election by a narrow margin, had a chance to serve as a great leader when he was appointed interim prime minister from 2004 until 2005. But even with the support of the Americans, he could not bring stability to Iraq and instead destroyed Fallujah and Sunni strongholds. </p> <p>He couldn’t achieve national reconciliation. Now the Kurds, the Shia and Iran are wary of his support from former Baathists. </p> <p>Jaafari, who heads a relatively small Shia party, has emerged as one of the contenders after winning a referendum by supporters of the radical Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. Jaafari’s 13-month tenure was marked by a Sunni boycott of the government, mistrust among Kurds, widespread kidnappings and sectarian discord. Under his leadership, Iraq was on the verge of a civil war. </p> <p>Incumbent premier Maliki, leader of the State of Law coalition, made a lot of enemies, especially with neighbouring countries. Rather than inviting Arab states to support Iraq politically and economically, he accused them of interfering in Iraqi affairs but never spoke of Iran. </p> <p>He blamed Saudi Arabia and Syria for supporting terrorism after major bombings. He had trouble with Sunni Arabs and his leadership created schisms even within the Shia. He could not even win over Kurds, who saved his government from dissolving. </p> <p>His decision to bring Iraqi forces to areas disputed between Kurds and Arabs inflamed tensions between the two ethnic groups. </p> <p>Re-electing any of these three leaders will take Iraq back to square one. The former prime ministers currently jockeying for the post should recognise that it is in Iraq’s best interest to compromise by stepping aside and allowing parliament to elect a new prime minister. </p> <p>Out of respect for the will of people and democracy, the new prime minister should be from one of the winning lists – either State of Law, which won 89 parliamentary seats, or Iraqiya, which gained 91. </p> <p>Even if he has not served before, an endorsement from a strong list will automatically give a new leader enormous respect and influence. </p> <p>Maliki and Allawi are the front-runners in the competition and won the most votes of any candidate in Iraq. But this is because they held power, were well-known. In fact, more than 80 per cent of newly-elected legislators are new faces in the assembly, an indication that Iraqis want fresh politicians in power. </p> <p>We have to ask ourselves why Maliki and Allawi want to be prime minister, and who would be best for the country. The two leaders are seeking another chance to hold power, even though they did not use it wisely in the past. </p> <p>If they want stability for Iraq, they need to stop their quest for the premiership. Compromising and electing a new person to the post will cast them in a positive light and would also be good for Iraq. </p> <p>Given their chequered histories many parties eye Maliki and Allawi with suspicion. Heavy political jockeying is under way as they try to secure support from wary potential allies. </p> <p>A new candidate will not face such hurdles. To be sure, the nominee will need to be an experienced politician who is accepted by Iraq’s most influential parties and groups. He should not have a history of divisiveness and should not be antagonistic. He should be willing and able to fend off foreign influence. </p> <p>A fresh face will make people optimistic and prove that Iraq has new politicians, and is not always in the hands of a small group of leaders. Neighbouring countries will also give him a chance before judging him. </p> <p>We need someone who can garner the support of Shia, Sunni and Kurds. A new leader will have a better chance of negotiating with rival political parties and forming a national unity government. </p> <p>This is crucial for the future of Iraq, as history has shown us that a government cannot function unless all of the major parties and groups are involved in decision-making.  <br/>The new prime minister will have to deal with national reconciliation, corruption and security. The old leaders failed to achieve these goals, and if they are re-elected by parliament, Iraqis will only remember the past. </p> <p><strong>Source:</strong>  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.iwpr.net/report-news/iraqis-need-new-leader" class="external" target="_blank">Iraqis Need New Leader</a> by – Hemin H Lihony – <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.iwpr.net/" class="external" target="_blank">IWPR</a> Institute for War & Peace Reporting</p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-8633"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/02/08/coups-dtats-in-iraq/#respond" title="Comment on Coups d’états in Iraq">No Comments</a></span> Posted on February 8th, 2010 by Ali</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/02/08/coups-dtats-in-iraq/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Coups d’états in Iraq">Coups d’états in Iraq</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/analysis-briefings-commentary/" title="View all posts in Analysis Briefings Commentary" rel="category tag">Analysis Briefings Commentary</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/1990-1991-gulf-war/" rel="tag">1990-1991 Gulf War</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/1991-uprising/" rel="tag">1991 uprising</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/al-zaman-newspaper/" rel="tag">al zaman newspaper</a>, <a 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/george-h-w-bush/" rel="tag">george h w bush</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/invasion/" rel="tag">invasion</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kirkuk/" rel="tag">Kirkuk</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kurds/" rel="tag">kurds</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/mass-graves/" rel="tag">Mass Graves</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/massacres/" rel="tag">Massacres</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/mosul/" rel="tag">Mosul</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/mukhabarat/" rel="tag">Mukhabarat</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/occupation/" rel="tag">occupation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugees/" rel="tag">Refugees</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saddam-hussein/" rel="tag">Saddam Hussein</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarian-government/" rel="tag">sectarian government</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/secular-vs-religious/" rel="tag">Secular vs. Religious</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/team-members/" rel="tag">Team Members</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/torture/" rel="tag">Torture</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>Fatih Abdulsalam’s 4 part series was published in Al-Zaman newspaper’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/" class="external" target="_blank">English edition</a> between the third and sixth of February. (Links and "teaser" extracts are at the end of this posting.) The articles, as one expects from Fatih Abdulsalam, are well writtenn and worth reading in their entirety. I however want to concentrate upon an essential point: </p> <blockquote><p>Not every member of the Baath party was loyal to Saddam Hussein or his policies. <strong>There is a big difference between “Saddamists” and “Baathists”.</strong> The commission is treating both the same way. </p> <p>This blunder has made every Baathist a Saddamist whther they like it or not. And who was not a member of the Baath party. Without registering in the Baath party, there was no possibility for getting a job. And the government was almost the sole employer.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news�0-02-04kurd.htm" target="_blank" class="external">Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (2)</a></p> <p>He is right. This is a monumental blunder and one which, even if reversed, has caused massive damage to our already shredded political and social fabric. </p> <p>I know all about Saddamists. Like many who write on this site I experienced the Saddamist terror firsthand, I was one of those who rose in rebellion in 1991 and my wife and young family were first tortured and then killed by Saddam’s Mukhabarat. I completely understand the terror and loathing felt for the Saddamists by those now in power. But that does not blind me to the fact that <em>there is an enormous difference between somebody who joined the Ba’ath because they were forced to and a committed Ba’athist</em> who wholeheartedly supported Saddam’s regime of thugs, thieves, and torturers.</p> <p>In 1991 I was one of those who who was stupid enough to believe the cynical lies of American President President George H. W. Bush who on February 15, 1991, encouraged us to rise and remove Saddam from power saying this :</p> <blockquote><p>GEORGE H.W. BUSH: There is another way for the bloodshed to stop, and that is for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside, and then comply with the United Nations’ resolutions and rejoin the family of peace-loving nations.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Source 1 (Text):</strong> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0101/05/cp.00.html" class="external" target="_blank">CNN.com – Transcripts</a> </p> <p><strong>Source 2 (Text):</strong> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.kurdmedia.com/article.aspx?id=15016" class="external" target="_blank">KurdishMedia.com: The role and diplomacy of non-state actors: Case study on Kurds in Iraq </a></p> <p><strong>Source: 3 (Audiovisual):</strong> You watch and hear Bush saying it <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/video/ghw_bush_19_wm.html#v271" class="external" target="_blank">here from 2:33 in the recording</a>.</p> <p>Bush’s speech is perhaps the best known encouragement from the Americans to us and the Kurds to rise against Saddam but it was only one of many. <br/>American radio stations particularly Voice of America, and the Saudi-based radio station maintained and paid for by the CIA "Voice of Free Iraq"  made broadcast after broadcast urgng the Kurds and the Shi’a to rise up against Saddam and promising American support.</p> <p>Many of us were fooled by this cynical American ploy and rose against the tyrant. We lost. Far from helping us <em><strong>the Americans actively colluded with Saddam</strong></em>. The American general <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Schwarzkopf,_Jr." class="external" target="_blank">Schwartzkopf</a> allowed Saddam to use his airpower and heavy weaponry against us and with that our defeat and the defeat of the Kurds was a foregone conclusion. </p> <p>Nobody has ever been able to put reliable figures on how many were killed but at least 100,000 Shi’a were slaughtered and more than a million became refugees. The figures for the Kurds are equally horrific <em>at the very least</em> 100,000 Kurds were killed or "disappeared" and the numbers forced to flee their homes are again at least 1 million. Extrapolating from the numbes of found in mass graves since Saddam’s regime fell it seems that at 300,00 Kurds, Shia Arab Muslims and other dissidents were killed in reprisal for the uprising.</p> <p><strong>I and many others have very good reason to hate and despise Saddam’s followers.</strong></p> <p>I was wounded in the fighting and we had learned that I had been recognised and was being sought by officers of the Third Directorate of the <em>Mukhabarat</em>. That I am alive today is because a brave friend hid me, treated my injuries, and then arranged for me to be smuggled out of the country. My wife and young family were not so lucky as me. They were seized by men from the <em>Mukhabarat </em>as they fled from our home, they were tortured by the <em>Mukhabarat</em> and killed. Years later when they had tracked me down, Saddam’s <em>Mukhabarat</em> arranged for a tape of my wife and family’s screams begging their torturers to kill them to be sent to me. I still do not know where they are buried.</p> <p>I have as I say very good reason to hate and despise Saddam’s followers – and I do.  But there is as Fatih Abdulsalam rightly says <em>"a big difference between “Saddamists” and “Baathists”"</em>. There is a big difference between Saddamists, (who were mostly secularists), and Sunni Muslims. In any case as anybody with a shred of honesty will tell you many of Saddam’s most ardent supporters were from a Shia background.</p> <p>For the sake of short term political advantage the current political powers that be are trying to ram through yet another political measure aimed at disenfranchising not so much at Sunni Muslims <em>per se</em> as at secularists who mostly come from a Sunni background. In doing so they risk turning our country into a jigsaw of warring cantons. This is why the conflicts over Kirkuk, Mosul, and the other parts of Irak that are sometimes called "disputed areas" are heating up. Various groups are jostling for advantage in the struggles that will take place when (and <em>if</em>) the Americans leave.</p> <blockquote><p>Once withdrawn, local forces will take over, and Iraq’s file will no longer be of international interest. It will be purely a domestic affair. </p> <p>The possibility of a coup in these circumstances will be even higher. But no plotter and no coup would have the ability to spread control across the country. Coups will only have dominance over certain regions.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news�0-02-06kurd.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Fatih Abdulsalam:  Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (4)</a></p> <p><cite>"Coups will only have dominance over certain regions"</cite> or in other words the breakup of my country. The thing that the American invaders have wanted and worked so hard for. It falls to all of us who love our country to prevent this.</p> <p><em>Ali</em> </p> <h3>Extracts and Links</h3> <dl> <dt><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2010-02-03%5Ckurd.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Fatih Abdulsalam:  Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq?</a> </dt> <dd>"The staging of a coup d’état is still there in the minds of some politicians but the possibility of its success is no longer there in Iraq, a high senior government official has been reported as saying…. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2010-02-03%5Ckurd.htm" class="external" target="_blank">read in full</a>   03/02/2010 </dd> <dt><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2010-02-04%5Ckurd.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Fatih Abdulsalam:  Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (2)</a> </dt> <dd>The place of military coups in Iraqi political life, as I said earlier, needs more than one article. The reason is the fear that what now looks like a possibility will sooner or later turn into reality.p… <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2010-02-04%5Ckurd.htm" class="external" target="_blank">read in full</a>   04/02/2010 </dd> <dt><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2010-02-05%5Ckurd.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Fatih Abdulsalam:  Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (3)</a> </dt> <dd>Politics is like football. The winner is only declared at the end of the game. But in football, the game is time-limited. In politics it is timeless…. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2010-02-05%5Ckurd.htm" class="external" target="_blank">read in full</a>   05/02/2010 </dd> <dt><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2010-02-06%5Ckurd.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Fatih Abdulsalam:  Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (4)</a> </dt> <dd>There are two possible scenarios when talking about the specter of a coup in Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S. occupation of the country…. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2010-02-06%5Ckurd.htm" class="external" target="_blank">read in full</a>   06/02/2010 </dd> </dl> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-8164"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/01/02/munir-chalabi-baath-is-coming-back/#respond" title="Comment on Munir Chalabi: Ba’ath Is Coming Back">No Comments</a></span> Posted on January 2nd, 2010 by Editors</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/01/02/munir-chalabi-baath-is-coming-back/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Munir Chalabi: Ba’ath Is Coming Back">Munir Chalabi: Ba’ath Is Coming Back</a></h3> <p 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/mercenaries/" rel="tag">Mercenaries</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/oil-law/" rel="tag">Oil law</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-coalitions/" rel="tag">Political Coalitions</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/resistance/" rel="tag">Resistance</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/resources/" rel="tag">Resources</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saddam-hussein/" rel="tag">Saddam Hussein</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sadr-city/" rel="tag">Sadr City</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sahwa/" rel="tag">sahwa</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saudi-arabia/" rel="tag">Saudi Arabia</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarian-violence/" rel="tag">sectarian violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarianism/" rel="tag">sectarianism</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/syria/" rel="tag">Syria</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/torture/" rel="tag">Torture</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/%d9%85%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b5%d8%af%d8%b1%e2%80%8e/" rel="tag">مدينة الصدر‎</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/youtube/" rel="tag">YouTube</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>The Iraqi Ba’ath party was formed in 1954 by anti-communist and reactionary nationalist Shiite and Sunni Arabs.<b> </b> </p> </p> <p> From the beginning, the party was anti-democratic and soon after its formation it turned into a fascist organisation, with an Arab nationalist ideology that believed in attaining political power through non-democratic means, and in obliterating all other Iraqi democratic parties by the use of excessive force. This included the assassination of political opponents and co-operation with any external superpower that would enable them to take control of the state.[1] <p>Since 1979, the Ba’ath party has mainly been led by Sunni leaders, but this has not always been the case. During the early years of its formation, the Ba’ath party comprised a mixture of Shiite and Sunni leadership and policy makers. During the 50’s and up to the 1963 coup d’état when they first came into power, most of the political leaders in the party were Shiite. They included the founder of the Iraqi Ba’ath Party, Fouad Al Rikabi and the leader of the CIA-organised coup d’état in 1963, Ali Salih Al-Sadi, his second in command Hani Fkaiki, and many other leaders. I have covered this issue in more detail in several of my previous articles.[2] </p> <p>By the 1979 Ba’ath conference, the Saddam wing of the party succeeded in ousting all of its opponents within the "Iraqi Command" of the party. This was the milestone which turned the party into a sectarian organisation, utilising the state as the main sectarian tool against the Shiites and Kurds. It is important to emphasise that the Iraqi Sunni community were not to blame on this issue. </p> <p>The Iraqi Ba’ath party was then split into several factions after the March 2003 US/UK occupation of Iraq and the arrest of Saddam Hussein in December 2003. </p> <p>From studying the history of the past fifty years, we see that the Iraqi Ba’ath party was frequently used as an instrument for accomplishing US and UK policies in the Middle East and Gulf region. The overwhelming evidence is that the CIA used the Ba’ath party in order to achieve US objectives and that the CIA and the British MI6 were behind the 1963 and 1968<b> </b>coups d’état which twice brought the Ba’ath party to power.[3] </p> <p>The Ba’ath was the major tool used in the bloody coup d’etat of 1963 against the Kassim regime and the progressive movements in Iraq. Ali Salih Al-Sadi, the Ba’ath party leader who headed the coup and consequently became Prime Minster, later admitted that they came to power in a coup organised and financed by the CIA and British Intelligence Services, in order to freeze Law 80. The law was introduced by General Kassim’s government in 1961 to recover over 99.5% of Iraqi territory from the control of the international oil companies (IOCs) and return it to Iraqi sovereignty.[4] </p> <p>The role the Iraqi Ba’ath party played in the success of the US plans to control the Middle East has now been well recognised by many historians. </p> <p>Detailed information concerning this was revealed in the book, <i>A Brutal Friendship: The West and the Arab Elite</i> (1997) by Said K. Aburish, which sets out in depth, not only how the CIA closely controlled the planning stages, but also how it played a central role in the subsequent purge of suspected democrats and communists after the coup. The author believes that 5,000 people were killed, giving the names of 600 of them — including many doctors, lawyers, teachers and professors who formed Iraq’s educated elite. The massacre was carried out on the basis of death lists provided by the CIA. The Ba’ath party leaders, in return for CIA support, agreed to "undertake a cleansing programme to get rid of the communists and their democratic allies." Hani Fkaiki, a Ba’ath party leader, says that the party’s contact man who orchestrated the coup was William Lakeland, the US assistant military attaché in Baghdad.[5] </p> <p>There are also many documented claims that Saddam Hussein started working as a CIA agent back in 1957, at the time when he joined the Ba’ath party.[6] </p> <p>On July 17 1968, the Ba’ath party returned to power for the second time and then on July 30, 1968 there was a coup within the coup, the purpose of which was stated on Iraqi TV by Saddam Hussein, to remove two of the original organisers who were representing the CIA. </p> <p>In 1980, the Ba’ath regime started an eight year war against Iran to bring to a halt the spreading of ideas and influence of the 1979 Iranian revolution, in line with the objectives of US strategy in the Gulf at the time. The Ba’ath government was supported militarily, politically and financially by the US, UK and all the Arab reactionary regimes in the area during this war. The US succeeded not only in countering the influence of the Iranian revolution, but also in returning to the US all the hundreds of billions of dollars which states in the area had accumulated from the sale of their oil in the 1980’s.[7] </p> <p>After the collapse of the USSR in 1989, the US was no longer interested in a partnership with the Iraqi Ba’ath party (in a similar way that it withdrew support from Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989) and instead shifted their policies to the direct and full control of the Gulf area. This meant that the US now had no more need for the Iraqi Ba’ath party and when the Iraqi Ba’athists attacked and occupied Kuwait in August 1990, this allowed the US, the only super power left, to use this opportunity to take full military, political and economical control of the Middle East. </p> <p>Therefore, no one should be surprised if US policy makers may today be hoping to use the Ba’ath party as it did in 1963 and 1980. </p> <p>Furthermore, some Iraqi and international analysts who supported the 2003 US occupation of Iraq are now becoming supporters of the CIA’s plans to officially return the Ba’ath party to the political arena in Iraq. They insist that all the mistakes and brutality which happened during both periods that the Ba’ath party held power, had in fact nothing to do with the fascist ideology of the Ba’ath party and that the only people responsible were the principal leaders, such as Saddam Hussein. </p> <p>However, if we study fascist movements through history, we see that they all needed to create, "The Leader" in order to succeed in controlling their people. The German Nazis created Hitler, the Italian Fascists made Mussolini, whereas the Iraqi Ba’athists produced Saddam in order to rule Iraq for 35 years. It is not the leader who creates the movements, as some would have us believe, in order to place all the blame on that one individual and allow the fascist ideas to re-emerge after the old leader vanishes following his military defeat. </p> <p>Today with the re-emergence of the Ba’ath party as a major military threat to the political process in Iraq (again with the help of the CIA) and in open co-operation with the US plans, they are in the process of creating leaders to replace Saddam Hussein, such as Iyad Allawi (a Shiite Ba’athist), Saleh Al-Mutlag, Mohammed Younis, and even Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri. </p> <p>There are some who will disagree with this analysis of the Ba’ath regime in Iraq as a pro-Western regime because of the nationalisation of Iraqi oil between 1972 and 1975. However, if we look in depth at what happened in the 1970’s, we will see that the first country to start the process of oil nationalisation was Algeria in 1970, when they nationalised the interests of "Total," the French oil giant, in Algeria. This was followed by Libya in 1971, when colonel Gadafi nationalised BP’s shares in Libyan oil. </p> <p>Between 1972 and 1979, all the Gulf countries, including the states that had newly emerged from under British occupation, nationalised their oil. This included the Shah of Iran (who had been re-instated by the CIA/MI6 coup d’état in1953 after the nationalisation of Iranian oil by Dr. Mossadeq), and the newly appointed Saudi king who was brought to power after the assassination of King Faisal in 1974 (an assassination widely believed in the Middle East to be organised by the CIA after Faisal ordered the halt of Saudi oil exportation during the October 1973 war between Israel and the Arabs), the Iraqi Ba’ath regime and all the other Gulf states. Furthermore, the rulers of Kuwait, UAE, Qatar and Oman who nationalized their oil were still very much under strong British influences and control throughout the 1970’s. </p> <p>We should not underestimate the significance of oil nationalisation in the 1970’s, but these<b> </b>nationalisations took place for different reasons, which are not covered in this analysis, and do not indicate that they were signs of an anti-Western shift, as the vast majority of the countries who did nationalise their oil were very much under US/British influences and control. </p> <p>We should take note here that almost all the Middle Eastern countries, to this date, have kept their oil completely nationalised, including the pro-Western Saudi and Kuwaiti regimes, but excluding the Iraqi Ba’ath regime that started its privatisation program with the first Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) contract with the Russian oil company, Lukoil, in 1997, which was followed by a second PSA contract in 2000 with the Chinese oil company, CNOC, and subsequently followed by several PSA contracts with other foreign companies. </p> <h3>What are the new US policies in Iraq? </h3> <p>The US occupation of Iraq in 2003 did not for the most part achieve the neo-conservatives’ aims to privatise and control the oil and gas wealth and turn Iraq into the main US military base in the Middle East; but they have not entirely failed.<b> </b> </p> </p> <p> It is quite obvious now that the existing political process in Iraq, with all its negatives, including corruption and its sectarian structure, will not guarantee the US to fully achieve its objectives. That is why US policies and tactics in Iraq needed to be changed. Thus, US officials have become interested in bringing back the Ba’athists, their "old friends," who are more likely to guarantee the success of US plans. <p>The first step occurred in the middle of 2004, when the US occupying administration appointed Iyad Allawi, the CIA man and an old Shiite Ba’athist, as Prime Minister, who within days of his appointment started his massacre — in cooperation with the United States — of thousands of civilians in Najaf, Sadr city and Fallujah. He returned thousands of old Baath army officers to the newly formed Iraqi army and developed the "Iraqi National Intelligence Service" ( INIS), under the leadership of the old Baathist general, Muhammed Abdulla Al-Shahwani, an organisation which became directly operated, financed and controlled by the CIA in Baghdad. </p> <p>But the major change in the US tactical policies took place at the time of the Baker-Hamilton report (Iraqi Study Group — ISG), which represented for the first time the combined views of the neo-conservative Republicans and the Democrats following the US midterms elections of 2006. Since that report the US administration started secret negotiations with many elements of the insurgents and their biggest success since the start of the occupation was the creation of the "Awakenings" groups or "Alsahwa" movements. They succeeded in turning over 120,000 of the old enemies to their local private armies, by offering them a share of political power. By arming and financing them at the same time, they succeed in keeping them under US army control. They brought the "Alsahwa" movements into the political process with the assurance of their support for US plans. However, the above achievements still did not guarantee the full success of the US administration’s plans. </p> <p>The Bush administration started officially forcing their new policies of Re-Ba’athification on the Iraqi parties in the political process in 2006, under the slogan of "re-conciliation." They began with a meeting between President Bush and the Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki in Amman, which was followed by meetings between Bush and Al-Hakim of the Shiite SCIRI and Al-Hashmi of the Sunni Islamic party; these were followed immediately by the so-called "conference of re-conciliation" in Baghdad, to which several Ba’ath party officials were invited. The policy of co-operation with the Ba’athists represents a major shift in the policies of the Shiite SCIRI movement, which was previously against such co-operation with the Ba’athists, demonstrating the SCIRI’s weakness and inability to resist US pressure.[8] </p> <p>The latest speech of the new leader of the SCIRI, Mr. Ammar Al Hakim, on Nov. 17, 2009, who took over the leadership of SCIRI after the recent death of his father, clearly stated that the Ba’ath party should be accepted back in the Iraqi political arena and called for their return.[9] </p> <p>We should not be surprised to see the change of heart within the SCIRI leadership, as their new financial interests are connected to sustaining the US influence in Iraq, and several of their leaders were old members of the Ba’ath party, including the existing Vice President of Iraq, Mr. Adel Abdul Mahdi, who was a member of the Ba’ath National Guards when it carried out its killings in 1963. In addition, after the collapse of the Ba’ath regime in April 2003, thousands of Shiite Ba’athists, many of whom were part of the Ba’ath party’s security apparatus and responsible for the mass torture and killings of tens of thousands of Shiite civilians during the Ba’ath regime, joined the SCIRI in order to escape the revenge of ordinary Shiite people and return to new positions of power through their new leaders. </p> <p>The new US administration is now working very hard to bring all wings of the Ba’ath party to the political process through all types of negotiations, but on the condition that Washington will be assured of their support. </p> <p>In early 2008, under intense American pressure, Mr. Maliki pushed through Parliament a law to ease restrictions on the return of Ba’ath Party leaders to public life. However, eighteen months later, the US has still been unable to achieve its aim, and this has become a main obstacle to the US plan to bring the Ba’ath party back.[10] </p> <p>On April 18, 2009, American and British officials from a secretive unit called the Force Strategic Engagement Cell, flew to Jordan to try to persuade one of Saddam Hussein’s top generals, the commander of the final defence of Baghdad in 2003, Lt. Gen. Raad Majid al-Hamdani, to return to Iraq, giving him all kind of assurances that he will have a place in the new Iraq. This was all happening at the same time that the general was meeting with representatives of Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri, who was a Vice President under Saddam Hussein, and also with representatives of Douri’s rival for the party leadership, Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed. General Hamdani also confirmed that American and British officials had attended nearly every meeting since March 2008, in both Amman and Baghdad.[11] </p> <p>Posters were distributed in many parts of Baghdad and the western provinces of Iraq in the past few weeks, signed by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, calling for all Ba’athists and their friends to support the "Iraqi National List" which is headed by Iyad Allawi (a Shiite Ba’athist) and Saleh Al-Mutlag (a Sunni Ba’athist) in the March 2010 election. At the end of July, a statement by al-Douri was also placed on the Ba’ath Party and insurgent’s website, suggesting political reconciliation.[12] </p> <p>The recent terrorist bombs attacks in August, October and December 2009 in Baghdad were well organised mass explosions, which resulted in the killings of hundreds and injury to thousands of innocent civilians. These were well orchestrated tactics designed to insure that ordinary Iraqi civilians accept as a reality, that as long as the Ba’ath party is not included in the political process, then massacres will continue to happen and thus that the Iraqi people have no alternative but to accept the Ba’ath party back, if they want the killings to stop. </p> <p>The evidence to this date, points the finger at the wing of the Ba’ath party which is headed by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, using his friends from Al Qaida as suicide bombers, (who are heavily financed by sources in Saudi Arabia), but with — according to members of the Iraqi parliament — the full co-operation of the CIA-controlled Iraqi security organisation INIS. This organisation has thousands of Shiite, Kurd and Sunni employees, who were part of the old Ba’ath security services organisations. This was revealed after the first bombing which happened in August 2009. On the second day after the August bombing, the Iraqi Prime Minister called the head of the INIS, General Muhammed Al Shahwani, to his office and confronted him with the clear evidence that INIS men were involved in the bombing. According to several Arabic TV stations, he sacked Al Shahwani and the CIA flew him back the same night to the US, where he was a US resident before the 2003 occupation of Iraq. It is a well-known secret that the INIS is a CIA-controlled Iraqi security organisation, which is managed and operated by the CIA, paid for from Swiss banks from CIA accounts, as it was pointed out several times by some members of the Federal Iraqi parliament in open sessions. This CIA-controlled Iraqi security organisation is still to this date operating, but with a new acting head, from their headquarters in the green zone.</p> <p>It is in the interest of all sections of the Ba’ath party to continue the sectarian divisions in Iraq, in order to maintain their influence on Iraqi politics. The Ba’athists have lost all their support and organisations in the Kurdish and Shiite areas, and they are aware that they have no future there. The only way for them to keep their role in the future of Iraq is to sustain such divisions. Without them they will fade away from the political map, as was the case for many fascist movements around the globe.[13] </p> <p>It is important to emphasise that when we talk about the Ba’ath party and their crimes, we are talking about the senior leaders of the party who were responsible for planning and carrying out all the crimes against the ordinary civilian Iraqi people and the other Iraqi political movements. This includes members of their security apparatus, who tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis during the forty years or so since 1963, when they first came to power and senior Ba’athist army officers who carried out with much enthusiasm the crimes of the party. These are not the ordinary members of the party, many of whom joined the party for various personal reasons and were not involved in these crimes. The US plans are to return to power the most vicious Ba’athist criminals, the main leaders of the party and members of the old security services and army officers who were and still are involved in the massacres.</p> <p>The US Vice President’s trip at the beginning of July 2009, which was aimed at pressurising Iraq to comply with US demands ahead of a supposed American military pullout by 2011, comes just after President Barack Obama charged Biden with overseeing the US hypothetical departure. Biden is well known in Iraq for his earlier support of a plan to divide Iraq into three "autonomous" regions, one for each major ethnic group here — Sunni Arab, Shiite Arab and Kurd — under some kind of fake central government. A stark reminder of the legacy inherited by Obama’s administration, however, came in Sadr City, where thousands of supporters of Sadr, chanted anti-US slogans. "No, no America, No, no occupation, Yes, yes Iraq" they shouted as a US flag was reduced to ashes.[14] </p> <p><b>Conclusions</b></p> <p>1. The US neo-conservatives’ policies did not succeed in keeping Iraq under direct US occupation or as a complete satellite state, but this should not be interpreted as the total failure of the old polices.</p> <p>2. The 2003 US neo-conservative administration had several objectives from their easy military victory in the April 2003 occupation of Iraq. One of the main objectives of the occupation was the privatisation of Iraqi oil and gas wealth, together with the complete control of this wealth in order to control the oil resources of the world. Although US officials have been unable to swiftly succeed in their privatisation policies, they have still managed to achieve some success in partially controlling this wealth, and anticipate that 2010 will bring the Oil Law to life, and they will then be able to privatise Iraqi’s oil.</p> <p>The second objective was to make Iraq the central military base to control the Persian/Arabian gulf area. They aimed to use Iraq as a forward base for the attack on the Iranian Islamic government, in order to stop their influence in the area and replace the regime in Syria with a more friendly one which will accept the full US/Israeli control of the Middle East. They are still working hard to achieve these goals with the help of the US/Iraqi Strategic Framework agreement with their call that the only enemies to the Iraqi people are the Iranians and not the 130,000 US solders with 120,000 foreign mercenaries.</p> <p>3. Recent Iraqi history has shown that no political party in the area had served the US strategic polices in the Middle East better then the Iraqi Ba’ath party.[15]</p> <p>From studying the history of the past fifty years, the Iraqi Ba’ath party was frequently used as an instrument in accomplishing US and UK strategic policies in the Middle East and the Gulf. The evidence today is overwhelming, that the CIA has used the Ba’ath party to reach his objectives and that the CIA and the British MI6 were behind the 1963 and 1968 coups d’état which twice brought the Ba’ath party to power.[16]</p> <p>4. The existing US administration’s policies in Iraq are determined to bring most, if not all, the old and new wings of the Ba’ath party to play a major role in the Iraqi political process. The US administration in Iraq is working hard to make it acceptable to some parties in the political process to be acquainted with the Ba’ath party as one of the "democratic" powers of Iraqi society and they are arranging their plans in stages.</p> <p>The first stage is to introduce the newly-formed Ba’athist coalition, which is called "The Iraqi National list" of Iyad Allawi and Saleh Al-Mutlag, as one of the main Sunni political blocs in the Federal parliament in the March 2010 election.</p> <p>5. The US administration wants to get rid of Al Maliki’s government after the 2010 election and replace him with a combination of political coalitions that are more loyal to Washington; these will include the two Kurdish parties, the KDP and PUK, as representatives of all the Kurds, the SCIRI as representatives of the majority of the Shiites and the "Iraqi National list" as representatives of the Sunnis. All the three coalitions, and in particular, Mr. Masoud Al Barazani, are very keen to get rid of Al Maliki’s government.</p> <p>If the results of the March 2010 election give the "Iraqi National List" wide Sunni support, then a serious attempt will be made to form a new pro-US Iraqi government which could be mainly formed from the above coalitions and will very likely exclude from power, not only the Sadr movement, as is the case today, but most likely both wings of the Al Dawa party.</p> <p>6. If the US does not succeed in bringing such pro-US groups to power after the 2010 election, it is possible it will also work on a backup plan for organising an army coup d’état, as most of the senior and middle ranking officers in the army and the security services and in particular the INIS are connected to one or another wing of the Ba’ath party.</p> <p>7. The US’s alternative policy in Iraq to return to the use of an army coup d’état in order to bring the Ba’ath party to power, is not a new US policy.</p> <p>It seems that the threat by the old Bush administration of an army coup d’état, was used against Al Maliki’s government at the beginning of 2007, in order to force Maliki’s government to accept the Bush administrations plans at the time. The threat at the time was a serious one from the US administration and the reason they did not carry it out was because it would have been a serious failure to the so called "Democratisation policies" of the neo-conservatives.</p> <p>Today the threat is much more serious. Firstly, Obama’s administration do not have any problem with using the slogan of "democratisation" as part of their policy’s cover-up and it is not even part of their political ‘vocabulary’. Secondly, the political mood nowadays, whereby the Kurdish parties and the SCIRI might accept the sharing of power with the old Ba’athists, is now more acceptable than it was back in 2007. </p> <p>Additionally, the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians since the start of the occupation has lessened public resistance to the Ba’athists, as some people are now hoping that if the Ba’ath party does return to power then this will stop the Ba’athists from carrying out their bloody civilian killings.</p> <p>It should be noted that while the Ba’athists were carrying out their massacres against the civilians, they always placed the blame of the killings on the Iranians. </p> <p>8. All the wings of the old Ba’ath party are still pursuing the same anti-democratic and fascist goal: they will only be content if they take full control of the political process in Iraq, making all the other political parties no more than satellites to them.</p> <p>9. Today, the two wings of the Ba’ath party are the only organized political/military force in Iraq which can wipe out by force, with US backing, the existing political process. They would eradicate any possible hope for any future democratic progress in Iraq, returning Iraq to the times of the barbarians’ rule of the one party state and at the same time serve all the US interests, without any impediments, as they have twice done in the past.</p> <p><b>Notes</b></p> <p>1. Munir Chalabi, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/2221" class="external" target="_blank">Political Observations on Sectarianism in Iraq</a>," ZNet, Jan. 24, 2007. </p> <p>2. See the source above and Munir Chalabi, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/2364" class="external" target="_blank">Political Observations Concerning the Immediate Future of Iraq</a>," ZNet, Jan. 7, 2007. </p> <p>3. Sean Mac Mathuna, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/cia_iraq.htm" class="external" target="_blank">CIA coups in Iraq in 1963 & 1968 helped put Saddam Hussein in power</a>," Flame. </p> <p>4. Richard Sanders, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/217.html" class="external" target="_blank">Regime Change: How the CIA put Saddam’s Party in Power</a>," Oct. 24, 2002. </p> <p>5. Sanders, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/217.html" class="external" target="_blank">Regime Change: How the CIA put Saddam’s Party in Power</a>." </p> <p>6. Mac Mathuna, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/cia_iraq.htm" class="external" target="_blank">CIA coups in Iraq in 1963 & 1968 helped put Saddam Hussein in power</a>." </p> <p>7. You Tube: "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeY05iS5iv0" class="external" target="_blank">Saddam Hussein — The Trial you will never see</a>." This documentary video tells the story of the Ba’ath regime’s full participation in the US plans. </p> <p>8. Chalabi, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/2364" class="external" target="_blank">Political Observations …Immediate Future</a>." </p> <p>9. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.yanabeealiraq.com/news_folder/n18110905.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Arabic article</a>. </p> <p>10. Sam Dagher, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/world/middleeast/26baathists.html" class="external" target="_blank">Iraq Resists Pleas by U.S. to Placate Baath Party</a>," <i>New York Times</i>, April 26, 2009. </p> <p>11. Damien McElroy, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/6030153/Saddam-Husseins-Baath-Party-loyalists-engage-with-US-over-Iraq.html" class="external" target="_blank">Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party loyalists engage with US over Iraq</a>," Telegraph, Aug. 14, 2009. </p> <p>12. Reuters, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5701F120090801" class="external" target="_blank">Iraqi Baath leader urges insurgents enter politics</a>," Aug. 1, 2009; Phil Sands, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090823/FOREIGN/708229888/1011/ART" class="external" target="_blank">Baath Party is back in the picture</a>," The National (UAE), Aug. 23, 2009. </p> <p>13. Chalabi, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/2221" class="external" target="_blank">Political Observations … Sectarianism</a>." </p> <p>14. France24, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.france24.com/en/20090704-joe-biden-iraq-us-political-disengagement-violence-spikes-vice-president" class="external" target="_blank">US threatens political disengagement if ethnic, sectarian violence return</a>," July 4, 2007. </p> <p>15. You Tube: "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeY05iS5iv0" class="external" target="_blank">Saddam Hussein — The Trial you will never see</a>." </p> <p>16. Sanders, "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/217.html" class="external" target="_blank">Regime Change: How the CIA put Saddam’s Party in Power</a>."</p> <p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/23534" class="external" target="_blank">Ba’ath Is Coming Back</a> By<strong> </strong>Munir Chalabi. <i>Munir Chalabi</i> is an Iraqi political and oil analyst living in the UK</p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-7440"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2009/10/08/adel-burwari-claims-baath-cells-activity-to-blame-for-undermining-diplomatic-ties-with-arab-countries/#respond" title="Comment on Adel Burwari Claims Ba’ath Cells Activity To Blame For Undermining Diplomatic Ties With Arab Countries">No Comments</a></span> Posted on October 8th, 2009 by Editors</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/2009/10/08/adel-burwari-claims-baath-cells-activity-to-blame-for-undermining-diplomatic-ties-with-arab-countries/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Adel Burwari Claims Ba’ath Cells Activity To Blame For Undermining Diplomatic Ties With Arab Countries">Adel Burwari Claims Ba’ath Cells Activity To Blame For Undermining Diplomatic Ties With Arab Countries</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/category/english-articles/" title="View all posts in English Language Articles" rel="category tag">English Language Articles</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/adel-burwari/" rel="tag">Adel Burwari</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/arab-countries/" rel="tag">arab countries</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baath/" rel="tag">Ba'ath</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/baathists/" rel="tag">baathists</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/damascus/" rel="tag">Damascus</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/egypt/" rel="tag">Egypt</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/internal-affairs/" rel="tag">internal affairs</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iraqi-parliament/" rel="tag">iraqi parliament</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/jordan/" rel="tag">Jordan</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kuwait/" rel="tag">kuwait</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saddam-hussein/" rel="tag">Saddam Hussein</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saudi-arabia/" rel="tag">Saudi Arabia</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/syria/" rel="tag">Syria</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/syriairaki-relations/" rel="tag">Syria/Iraki relations</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/xinhua/" rel="tag">Xinhua</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/yemen/" rel="tag">Yemen</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>BAGHDAD, Oct. 8 (<a title="Xinhua" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/08/content_12195264.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Xinhua</a>) — An Iraqi legislator revealed Thursday that members of the ousted president Saddam Hussein’s Baath party active in six regional Arab countries are undermining Iraq’s diplomatic relations with the Arab world. </p> <p>"Information presented by our security leaders said that sleeping cells of Saddam’s intelligence agents and his Baath party members are active in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Kuwait, with the aim of disturbing Iraq’s relations with these countries," Adel Burwari, a member of the security and defense committee in the Iraqi parliament said in a press release. </p> <p>He said that the Baathists there are using political and financial support in these countries without specifying the sources. </p> <p>Many of Saddam’s loyalists are capable of using their "influence on decision-making centers in these countries and by providing fabricated information about the situation in Iraq in order to ruin Iraq’s ties with these countries," Burwari said. </p> <p>He also said that "many of those Iraqi residents in the Arab countries, including some senior officials of the former regime, are wanted by the Iraqi judiciary." </p> <p>"We have a long list of those who are wanted for involving in crimes against Iraqis," he added. </p> <p>Iraq has frequently accused regional countries, particularly, Arab ones, of interfering in its internal affairs. </p> <p>Relations between Iraq and Syria has deteriorated after Baghdad alleged that Damascus is sheltering suspects linked to a massive bombing, targeting government ministries in Baghdad on Aug. 19 and claiming casualties of nearly 1,300 people. However, Damascus said it wanted evidence from Baghdad. </p> <p>On Aug. 25, Iraq recalled its ambassador to Damascus, and Syria retaliated within hours by recalling its ambassador to Baghdad. </p> <p>During the crisis with Syria, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki also demanded Syria to hand over senior remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, who allegedly plotted the deadly bombings in Baghdad and are in exile in neighboring Syria. </p> <p><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516012240/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/08/content_12195264.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Iraq MP blames Saddam loyalists for undermining diplomatic ties with Arab countries _English_Xinhua</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="navigation"> <div class="alignleft"></div> <div class="alignright"></div> </div> </div> <div id="sidebar" class="span-10 last"> <div class="span-10" id="tabs"> <ul> <li class="ui-tabs-nav-item"><a href="#featured-articles">Featured 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