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<h1><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/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/20130126101154/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-12961"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/04/06/lack-of-mine-maps-hampers-demining/#respond" title="Comment on Lack of mine maps hampers demining">No Comments</a></span> Posted on April 6th, 2011 by Hussein Al-Bayati</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/04/06/lack-of-mine-maps-hampers-demining/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Lack of mine maps hampers demining">Lack of mine maps hampers demining</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/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/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/features/" title="View all posts in Features" rel="category tag">Features</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/defence-ministry/" rel="tag">defence ministry</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/demining/" rel="tag">demining</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/economic-development/" rel="tag">Economic development</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/human-rights/" rel="tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/irin/" rel="tag">IRIN</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/landmines/" rel="tag">Landmines</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/" rel="tag">political instability</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>BAGHDAD, 6 April 2011 (IRIN) – Lack of detailed mine maps in Iraq and the current political instability have hampered mine-clearance efforts, officials say. </p> <p>“Iraq is one of the most contaminated countries in the world," Deputy Environment Minister Kamal Hussein Latif said. “It has nearly a quarter of the world’s landmines and that has become a heavy legacy hindering economic development and health." </p> <p>Landmines have been laid in Iraq since the 1960s by various governments fighting pro-independence Kurdish rebels in the north; during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war; and in the years prior to the 2003 US-led invasion. </p> <p>“The hardest challenge we face today is that no maps were left from the previous regime for landmines which were planted randomly – and that makes clearance operations very hard,” Latif told reporters in Baghdad at a news conference to mark International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on 4 April. </p> <p>Speaking at the same news conference, Daniel Augstburger, chief humanitarian affairs officer at the UN Assistance Mission, said: “Clearance is very slow due to security constraints. The unexploded devices are one of the main principle reasons stopping development in Iraq.” </p> <p>The longer the mines were left in the ground, Augstburger added, the more dangerous they would become to local communities, and the more they would affect agricultural and economic activity. </p> <p>Iraq joined the Ottawa Convention which bans the use of anti-personnel mines in 2008, committing itself not to use, produce, acquire or export landmines. It also committed to clearing all its landmines by 2018. </p> <p>However, Latif said Iraq would not be able to meet that target because of insecurity and the lack of professional deminers. Currently, there are only about 2,000 at the Defence Ministry, and 13 private companies. </p> <p>“If I want to clear all the landmines in the coming 10 years, I need hundreds of specialized companies and 19,000 professional deminers,” he said. </p> <p>According to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.iauiraq.org/documents/1333/Landmine%20Factsheet.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">UN figures</a> Iraq’s contaminated sites cover an estimated 1,730sqkm and affect around 1.6 million people. Landmines and unexploded ordnance killed or injured an average of two Iraqis every week in 2009, of whom 80 percent were boys and young men aged 15-29. Between 48,000 and 68,000 Iraqis have undergone amputations due to landmine and unexploded ordinances. </p> <p>In May or June, Latif said, the government will start a national programme to determine contaminated areas and the exact number of the landmines.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=92386" class="external" target="_blank">IRIN Middle East | IRAQ: Lack of mine maps hampers demining | Iraq | Human Rights | Security | Urban Risk</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-12195"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/13/enforced-disappearances-a-long-term-challenge/#respond" title="Comment on Enforced disappearances – "a long-term challenge"">No Comments</a></span> Posted on January 13th, 2011 by Abdus-Samad</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2011/01/13/enforced-disappearances-a-long-term-challenge/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Enforced disappearances – "a long-term challenge"">Enforced disappearances – "a long-term challenge"</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/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/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/human-rights/" title="View all posts in Human Rights" rel="category tag">Human Rights</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/abductions/" rel="tag">abductions</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/amnesty-international/" rel="tag">Amnesty International</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/asma-al-haidari/" rel="tag">Asma Al-Haidari</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/children/" rel="tag">Children</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/detainees/" rel="tag">detainees</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/dirk-adriansens/" rel="tag">Dirk Adriansens</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/disappearances/" rel="tag">disappearances</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ethnicity/" rel="tag">ethnicity</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/human-rights/" rel="tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/idps/" rel="tag">IDPs</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/imcp/" rel="tag">IMCP</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/international-committee-of-the-red-cross/" rel="tag">international committee of the red cross</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/irin/" rel="tag">IRIN</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kidnapping/" rel="tag">kidnapping</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kidnappings/" rel="tag">Kidnappings</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/middle-east/" rel="tag">Middle East</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/missing-persons/" rel="tag">missing persons</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/" rel="tag">political instability</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugee-agency/" rel="tag">refugee agency</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/refugee-population/" rel="tag">refugee population</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/un-human-rights-council/" rel="tag">un human rights council</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/unhcr/" rel="tag">UNHCR</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>MADRID, 13 January 2011 (IRIN) – Asma Al-Haidari, an Amman-based Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate, says the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in Iraq touches the whole population, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or religious belief. </p> <p>The number of missing persons in Iraq ranges from 250,000 to over one million, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.ic-mp.org/" class="external" target="_blank">ICMP</a>). </p> <p>The length of time over which enforced disappearances have occurred in Iraq, starting with the Iraq-Iran war (1980-88), render this issue particularly complex, according to International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson for Iraq Layal Houraniyeh. The issue of enforced disappearances in Iraq represents, according to IMCP, “a major long-term challenge”. </p> <p>Article 2 of the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/disappearance-convention.htm" class="external" target="_blank">International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance</a> defines enforced disappearance as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.” </p> <p>The Convention entered into force on 23 December 2010, 30 days after Iraq became the 20th state to ratify it on 23 November. It provides that “no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance” and that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.” According to the UN Human Rights Council, “secret detention amounts to an enforced disappearance.” </p> <h3>“No safe place” </h3> <p>Focusing on enforced disappearance in Iraq since 2003, Dirk Adriansens, an expert on Iraq and member of international anti-war group the Brussels Tribunal, gave a presentation at a 9-12 December conference in London organized by the International Committee Against Disappearance (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.icad-int.org/" class="external" target="_blank">ICAD</a>). Citing 2009 surveys by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), he said 20 percent of internally displaced and 5 percent of returnee families reported cases of missing children. </p> <p>Further, UNHCR <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.uniraq.org/documents/UNHCR%20Iraq%20Protection%20Monitoring%20%20Jan-Oct%202009.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">published findings</a> in 2009 showing that “many communities reported missing family members – 30 percent of IDPs, 30 percent of IDP returnees, 27 percent of refugee returnees – indicating that they were missing because of kidnappings, abductions and detentions and that they do not know what happened to their missing family members,” he said. </p> <p>Adriansens added in his presentation: “A rough estimate would therefore bring the number of missing persons among the refugee population and the internally displaced after ‘Shock and Awe’ [2003 US-led military operation to invade Iraq] to 260,000, most of them enforced disappearances.” </p> <p>Adriansens went on to say that by extrapolating UNHCR figures to cover the Iraqi population which had not suffered displacement, the total number of missing persons since 2003 “could be more than half a million”. </p> <p>Jordan-based analyst Al-Haidari believes this number is higher, placing it in the range of 800,000 to one million. “There is no safe place in Iraq. People can be disappeared and sent to secret, illegal detention centres anywhere in the country, without the knowledge of the family or the person’s lawyer,” Al-Haidari said. “Many are assassinated and buried in secret. Many others are charged with trumped-up terrorism charges.” </p> <h3>Amnesty International report </h3> <p>A recent <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/006/2010/en/c7df062b-5d4c-4820-9f14-a4977f863666/mde140062010en.pdf" class="external" target="_blank">Amnesty International report</a> said “an estimated 30,000 untried detainees are currently being held by the Iraqi authorities, although the exact number is not known as the authorities do not disclose such information.” In addition, there are detainees held at secret facilities, at which torture is common, it said. </p> <p>A further 23,000 previously held without charge or trial by US forces are currently being transferred to the Iraqi authorities or released, though Amnesty International believes “[a state cannot] claim to be treating detainees humanely while knowingly handing them over to torturers, any more than it can knowingly `release’ detainees in a minefield and claim that their safety is no longer its responsibility.”</p> <p>Source:<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91622" class="external" target="_blank">IRIN Middle East | IRAQ: Enforced disappearances – "a long-term challenge" | Iraq | Governance | Human Rights</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-11830"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/01/children-indulging-in-iraqi-violence-to-the-level-of-suicide-aswat-al-iraq/#respond" title="Comment on Children indulging in Iraqi violence to the level of suicide : Aswat Al Iraq">No Comments</a></span> Posted on December 1st, 2010 by Hussein Al-Bayati</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/12/01/children-indulging-in-iraqi-violence-to-the-level-of-suicide-aswat-al-iraq/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Children indulging in Iraqi violence to the level of suicide : Aswat Al Iraq">Children indulging in Iraqi violence to the level of suicide : Aswat Al Iraq</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/children/" title="View all posts in Children" rel="category tag">Children</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/early-warning/" title="View all posts in Early Warning" rel="category tag">Early Warning</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/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/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/features/" title="View all posts in Features" rel="category tag">Features</a>, <a 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black 1px solid"> <p>Armed groups brainwash them, exploiting their poverty, inclination for revenge and family disintegration.</p> <p>By: Milad Al-Jabbouri</p> </p></div> <p>BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Assa’ad and Omran are almost the same age of eighteen. They share a cell at the Juveniles’ prison in Baghdad, away from their families that live in Dawrah, south of the capital. Both boys joined armed groups and participated in bloody acts of violence in 2006. What distinguishes them is that they are members in opposing groups that kill based on identity.</p> <p>Prison may be the best destiny for the two boys. Hundreds of their peers were killed in battles or were blown to pieces in suicide bombings for which they were recruited by armed organizations.</p> <p>Asa’ad Husam Eddin prefers to stay in jail so that he does not become subject to a tribal judgment that condemns him to death for participating in four members of one family. During his childhood, Asa’ad was known by the name “Al-‘Allas”, a term in Iraqi dialect describing children recruited as informers for armed groups. Among his duties was to select a target and monitors its movements so that the armed group could abduct and execute him.</p> <p>According to his confessions, Asa’ad was active in monitoring people in his neighborhood, and informing Al-Qa’eda elements about their moves, in return for $200 per person.</p> <p>Omran Abbas has a similar record, except that he used to work for the opposing group. He is spending a sentence of 15 years in jail after being convicted of committing acts of violence in Abu Dsheir area, one street from Al-Daourah. Residents of the two areas belong to two different confessions. Abbas was fourteen when he joined armed groups opposing Al-Qa’eda. He participated in acts of violence during the peak of confessional violence in 2006. Shortly before that, his father was kidnapped by Al-Qa’eda, and was later found beheaded in the ‘no-man’s-land” separating the two “fighting” areas.</p> <p>As an act of revenge for a lost relative, or to follow in someone’s footsteps, many boys whom we met at the Juvenile Prison, such as Nathem Jabbar, Mahdi Hassan and Sa’doun, and hundreds of others, fell victim to the phenomenon of recruiting children by armed groups that emerged after the battles of the spring and summer of 2004 in Al-Fallujah and Al-Najaf.</p> <p>A number of armed groups emerged in Iraq after those brutal battles, and spread between Sunni and Shi’ite affiliations. Most of these organizations, however, participated in battles over time, but the major part ended after the spring of 2008. <br/>The most dangerous organization, which continued practicing violence with a steady methodology, was Al-Qa’eda that concentrated its operations after 2003 in Al-Anbar region. It then managed to control a number of cities and governorates such as Salaheddin, Ninewa, South Kirkuk, South Baghdad and North Babel.</p> <p>The phenomenon of recruiting children by Al-Qa’eda developed form training them in monitoring, collection of information and transferring messages among combatants, to planting explosive devices and participating in killings, to carrying out suicide bombings, in the peak of sectarian violence between 2006 and 2007.</p> <h3>Suicide, Revenge and Kidnap</h3> <p>Before that, recruiting children in suicide bombings was rare and rather erratic. The first operation was carried out by a child of ten years in the fall of 2005, targeting the chief of Kirkuk police (250 kilometers north of Baghdad). After about two months, two children carried out two suicide bombings against the American forces in Al-Fallujah, Al-Anbar province (110 kilometers northwest of the capital, and Al-Huwijeh of the Kirkuk governorate. In the summer of 2008, a child of ten years, disguised as a peddler, followed one of the most prominent leaders of Al-Sahwah in Tarmiyyeh area, Sheikh Emad Jassem, for three consecutive days, after which he succeeded in detonating himself near the Sheikh, whose leg was amputated as a result of the explosion. In the same year, a girl of thirteen carried out a suicide bombing in Ba’quba, the central city of Deyala governorate (57 kilometers east of Baghdad) resulting in the death of a number of Al-Sahwah followers.</p> <p>The military leader who investigated that operation, as well as a number of child suicide bombings in Deyala, points out that most operations carried out by children are “revengeful” in nature and mostly take place in areas where Al-Qa’eda influence has subsided in favor of Al-Sahwah.</p> <p>The Media official in Al-Anbar police headquarters, however, sees that “some suicide bombings were not vengeful in nature. The last of these operations were carried out by two children, one of whom had been sedated and the other was mentally unstable.”  The two children were fit with explosive belts and sent to checkpoints. However, a mistake in the timing of the explosive belts enabled the security forces to dismantle them, according to the media official. He further explains that “fitting explosive belts around children’s bodies is a tactic used by Al-Qa’eda over the past years.”  Another method used was to send closed explosive packages by hand with children, and to detonate them from a distance the minute the children are in close proximity to security forces or when they board civilian cars or arrive in markets.”</p> <p>The father of the mentally deranged suicide bomber child says that his son Ghazi was kidnapped from in front of the family house in Al-Khaldiyyah area of Al-Anbar, a former stronghold of Al-Qa’eda. His fate was unknown until he was found near the checkpoint with an explosive belt around his waist. Ghazi’s father is now very worried because his younger son was also kidnapped at the beginning of last October, and might be used in the same manner unless he pays the ransom the kidnappers demand.</p> <p>Dirgham, a mongoloid child was booby-trapped by elements from Al-Qa’eda after he was tempted to buy sweets from a shop near a security center where elements from the police force shop during their break. The child was killed, and with him a number of policemen and shoppers. Despite this, the child’s father refuses to criticize Al-Qa’eda in fear that they might return one day.</p> <h3>Fathers Fear Children</h3> <p>Fear from Al-Qa’eda’s revenge is not restricted to Dirgham’s father, but extends to many people with whom this report-writer talked. They refrained from telling their experiences with the process their children were recruited.</p> <p>A high-ranking officer from Al-Anbar says that sleeping Al-Qa’eda cells become active during certain periods, then go back to sleep, which indicates that risking the exposure of details may not be liked by the organization, and may mean paying with lives. This officer tells the story of three children who burnt their father to death.  The father was a moderate religious man. They placed him between old rubber tires and set them on fire, simply because he criticized Al-Qa’eda.</p> <p>We asked one of the fathers if he had made any effort to prevent his children from joining Al-Qa’eda. He answered: “I lived for years hesitating to take any step such as this, afraid that they may kill me if I went too far.”Although the son left Iraq to a neighboring country after the defeats Al-Qa’eda received, the father continues to be careful that the son may one day return.</p> <p>Faris Al-Obeidi summarizes children’s motives in joining armed groups in two words: “poverty” and “revenge.”</p> <p>An official in research at the Juveniles’ Prison, however, believes that “unemployment and family disintegration” are the main reasons, in addition to some sort of “ideological thought” that prevails at home, as the first incubator that attracts children to the circle of violence. Iraq is “eligible for its children to pursue violence, because it lived for decades in a state of conflict and continuous wars.”</p> <p>Fawwaz Ibrahim, the social researcher relates this phenomenon to the period preceding 2003; the date of the American invasion of Baghdad. Years before that date, “children, named ‘Saddam’s Cubs’ participated in operations of killing and cutting hands and tongues in many areas. Militarization of children was part of the militarization of society which the last century witnessed.”  At that time, “Al-Tala’e organization, which was part of the Ba’ath party used to recruit children in groups affiliated with the authority, to monitor the neighbor, street, the school and even the home, reporting periodically about anybody suspected of opposing the regime.”</p> <p>The researcher connects between the practices of the followers of Al-Tala’e and the specialty of most recruited children in reporting to armed organizations about all details going on in their vicinity.</p> <p>He is joined in this rhetoric the researcher Al-Obaidi: “For a person to be a hero in an ideological army is something like a dream that children have when living in a society dominated by violence.”  Hence, Al-Obaidi sees that “recruitment will not be difficult in a society where children boast about flaunting their power, that starts with carrying plastic toy weapons and forming groups to launch imaginary attacks from one street to another, declaring allegiance to armed groups that have a strong grip on areas, attending their events and military parades.”</p> <h3>Going Along with the Party in Power</h3> <p>Ali Al-Massoudi, the activist specializing in armed groups’ thought has documented a number of the features of children joining armed groups. He sees that recruitment depends basically on “the recruited child’s environment”. In most cases, the child gets carried away with the prevailing beliefs prevailing in his home, street and neighborhood where he lives. Al-Massoudi divides this phenomenon into four levels: Information collection or monitoring (less than ten years), carrying firearms, participating in guard duties and checkpoints (13 – 18 years) and getting involved in violent operations such as kidnapping, killing and participating in street fights (15 – 18 years). The more dangerous level, according to Al-Massoudi, is carrying out suicide operations, normally connected to Al-Qa’eda organization.</p> <p>The first level prevails in “areas that are closed ideologically, especially during the period of confessional violence when armed groups enjoyed the sympathy of the area residents.”  Children grouping t crossroads were active in informing armed men about the arrival of American troops, preparing to detonate explosives near them.</p> <p>One specialist at the Ministry of Interior says that recruiting children is not restricted to one armed group and not the other, “despite variation in the level of their concentration.”  This specialist saw for himself large numbers of children carrying arms at the “Jund El-Sama’a (Soldiers of Heaven) camp in the Zarka area, 13 kilometers north east of the holy city of Al-Najaf, holy to Shi’ite Muslims (160 kilometers south of Baghdad), during confrontations that took place between them and Iraqi forces in early 2007. But he believes that the more dangerous organization for children is Al-Qa’eda, which established organizations specializing in enticing children under soft names like “birds of heaven, youth of heaven and cubs of heaven.”</p> <p>The expert mentioned that the “Birds of Heaven” organization, which was active in Al-Anbar and Deyala when Al-Qa’eda controlled them was for the “children of the leadership and elements of Al-Qa’eda in Iraq.”  The Cubs and Children of heaven organizations were used to “lure children with certain specifications that qualify them to indulge in battles and carry out suicide bombings.”</p> <h3>Camps for Brainwashing</h3> <p>After a raid in November of 2006 on a ‘hideout’ for Al-Qa’eda north of Baghdad, the American forces discovered an electronic storage device that had information on children’s sleeping cells, in addition to details regarding recruiting them and training them for armed operations.</p> <p>The Director of Operations at the Ministry of Interior Colonel Abdul Kareem Khalaf asserts that Al-Qa’eda organization is “the major party that depended on child recruitment from poor families, and those who were subjected to intellectual changes towards extremism through religious training courses organized in mosques without censorship.”</p> <p>The most important areas where Al-Qa’eda trained children on armed operations is Al-Mukhaiseh remote area, which falls within the Humrain hills band in Deyala governorate, according to Colonel Khalaf. “Hundreds of children from both genders were exposed to brainwashing and continuous training under the supervision of experts from Al-Qa’eda, some of whom arrived from outside Iraq for this purpose.”</p> <p>According to Colonel Khalaf, recruitment did not target poor families and those transformed to extremism only. There were remnants from those who were known as Saddam’s Cubs. These form a large group that entered continuous training camps until 2003.</p> <p>The most dangerous children who were involved in armed operations and the most vicious were the children and brothers of activists in Al-Qa’eda. All these, according to Colonel Khalaf, were trained in areas with winding roads and orchards with thick trees and vegetation that are difficult to access, in addition to the remote areas extending deep into the desert.</p> <p>Child training camps spread in areas under the control of Al-Qa’eda for years. There are camps in Deyala, Al-Anbar and Al-Mada’en south of Baghdad, in addition to border areas adjacent to Syria in the west and Iran in the east.</p> <h3>A New Generation of Al-Qa’eda</h3> <p>One of the former Al-Qa’eda theorists told the report writer at a detention center run by the Ministry of Interior that recruiting children “is carried out</p> <p>A New Generation of Al-Qa’eda</p> <p>One of Al-Qa’eda’s former theoreticians tells the report writer from his Interior Ministry prison cell that the recruitment of children is “done under the direct supervision of Al-Qa’eda leaderships.”  The first step begins by “encouraging the children to take Quran memorization classes,” especially those who have specific characteristics, such a good build and excessive obedience.  Hikmat adds:  “We take into consideration the family they belong to, whether it is known for radicalism or not.  Then we join them to groups older of age to nourish them intellectually in preparation for giving them assignments, like moving cash and publications for the organization’s members.”  After that, “they are assigned to transport explosive devices and sometimes planting them in certain areas, then we put them in armed operations that sometimes require them to engage in direct confrontations.”</p> <p>One of the dissents of Al-Qa’eda gives an expanded description of the stages of building the children’s networks by specialists in Al-Qa’eda who succeeded in brainwashing the brains of a large number of children whose fathers or brothers had been killed.  Abul Waleed is a nickname that a man in his late forties gave himself who previously worked with Al-Qa’eda, then moved to Al-Sahwah forces before he ultimately abandoned both and secluded himself in a house he rented in a area on the outreaches of southern Baghdad.  Abul Waleed says:  “The first cells specializing in child recruitment launched after the battles of 2004 south of the capital city and included nearly 100 children who were carefully selected to ensure that they fulfill dangerous duties, foremost suicide bombings.”</p> <p>Abul Waleed summarizes Al-Qa’eda’s strategy for recruiting this youth by saying that children are registered in religious classes that focus on “Quranic verses and sayings by the Prophet that encourage fighting the enemies, the infidels and the renegades.”  After that, says Abul Waleed, they are shown videos of suicide operations previously executed by the organization’s members in Iraq and Afghanistan against foreign forces.  Experts seek to convince the youth that they can do this to preserve the faith and that they will be heroes of Islam and remembered by future generations.  This thought in particular “was the obsession that the experts use to influence the thoughts of most of the youth and ensures that the spirit of bravery and courage is raised within them.”</p> <p>The majority of those selected for the child recruitment cells, Abul Waleed discloses, are the offspring of Al-Qa’eda members or who known for their hard-line tendencies at an early age.  Some “begin the recruitment stage with enthusiasm but soon try to backtrack, and therefore Al-Qa’eda is forced to make them continue by threatening to tell their parents or the authorities about their participation in the training or threaten to kill them or liquidate their families if they change their minds.”</p> <p>The most dangerous, says Abul Waleed, are “those that have lost their parents at the hands of the American or Iraqi forces or even as a result of internal strife.”  These “do not need much effort to be encouraged to execute combat and even suicide operations.  It is enough to concentrate on the idea that they will be avenging their murdered family if they execute suicide operations.”</p> <p>Child recruitment serves four purposes: </p> <ul> <li>Ensuring that there are new combatant generation that expand the presence of the organization, increase its power and assault and make up for the deficit of combatants, which the organization suffered from after losing the areas near Syria to Al-Sahwah forces and the security forces. </li> <li>Taking advantage of children’s easy movement and that the security authorities do not pay attention to them or doubt them when they cross check points. </li> <li>Maintaining the momentum of suicide operations that kill more people and give the organization attention in the media, thus increasing the terror it spreads. </li> <li>Bring in more combatants by promoting the idea that children are braver than men who failed to join Al-Qa’eda to fight for the sake of God.</li> </ul> <p>Abul Waleed states here that the leader of Al-Qa’eda in Iraq, Abu Mos’ab Al-Zarqawi, who was killed in American air raid in mid 2006, addressed an audio message chastising the men who did not join the organization after a woman executed a suicide operation in Deyala (see link 2).</p> <h3>The Young Instead of the Old</h3> <p>A high level security source in Al-Anbar province adds a fifth reason that he says he had seen up close and personal.  The majority of children’s suicide attacks were directed at Al-Sahwah men, which means that Al-Qa’eda wanted to terrorize the Al-Sahwah men and tell them they are “killed at the hands of their children.”</p> <p>Researcher Faris Al-Obeidi confirms what Abul Waleed says and adds that Al-Qa’eda did not keep the recruitment of children secret, but rather promoted them and featured trainings on websites and YouTube.</p> <p>Al-Obeidi refers to a videotape of children between 10-12 years of age wearing black clothes and covering their faces with masks as Al-Qa’eda members do, and training on weapons, make-belief kidnapping, breaking into a house after climbing its walls.  The videotape was shown extensively (see link 3) after Al-Qa’eda lost much of its popularity in its home environment, believes Al-Obeidi, and after the process of recruiting local combatants became difficult and bringing in foreign combatants even more difficult because of the control of the Iraqi forces on most of the border line with Syria.</p> <p>The sheikh and speaker of one of the mosques in the city of Ramadi in the center of Al-Anbar province pointed to a “jurisprudence dispute about the dividing line between childhood and manhood”, and believed that “this dispute helped Al-Qa’eda penetrate into the minds of targeted people and facilitated the consideration of children’s recruitment as a legitimate matter.”</p> <p>The sheikh, who is considered one of the leading moderate men of religion in Al-Ramadi city, reminded that Islam “banned the use of children and women in the execution of any acts that anger God and their recruitment for the purpose of executing suicide actions that lead to the killing of innocent people, whether civilians or even policemen, and it is prohibited.”</p> <p>While religious scholars agree that Jihad is a duty of every Muslim, but it is “within conditions specified in the Islamic Sharia Law, most important of which that it must be based on wrong jurisprudence, such as rendering another an apostate or deciding that he has violated religion because he disagreed on jurisprudence issues, as Al-Qa’eda does and which has rendered everyone an apostate, including the followers of the Sunni sects that do not support it.”</p> <p>The sheikh expresses regret that hard-line ideas calling for killing are spreading mostly in the rigid tribal communities, where the level of education is low and the culture of violence is prolific, unlike the moderate environment that is considered strongholds for moderate men of religion who cannot guarantee the security of their lives if they propose their ideas outside of this environment.</p> <p>The word “Jihad” captivated the young boy, Yaser Thanoun, and encouraged him to work with Al-Qa’eda.  His elder brother was killed in Al-Fallujah battles in 2004.  Yaser completely believes that resisting the occupation is a duty for every Muslim, and says:  “I did not join Al-Qa’eda in search of money, as some of my friends have.”  He settled for an income of 70,000 to 100,000 Dinars (around $80) to cover his expenses after blowing up every explosive or carrying out a combat operation against the government forces.  After the death of his combatant brother, Yaser had to join the organization on a full time basis and left his work as a smith that was providing for his family.  “The money was not my objective, but rather the Jihad against the occupiers,” says Yaser, who was captured after he engaged in battle against Iraqi police personnel in Fallujah in 2008.</p> <p>The situation is different for Nuseir.  His belief in the necessity of Jihad was not the thing that pushed him to join the armed groups.  His friends were the ones that convinced him to take part in the armed operations with them under the command of Al-Qa’eda.</p> <p>Nuseir’s father spoke proudly with a tone of sadness of his son.  After Nuseir trained to use weapons and launch rockets, his father says, “he participated in the bombing of American forces in Al-Mazra’a area in the east of Fallujah, then the joint check point at the city’s entrance.”  After that, Nuseir joined the armed factions in battle in the city, and was arrested in 2007 and was transported to Boca prison.  He remained in prison for one year and a half until he was released under the general pardon.  He was soon killed by an unknown group when he was walking in the city.</p> <p>The bereaved father refuses to talk about his son’s movements after he got out of prison.  Yet he confirms that “he received threats from groups that the opponents of the group he belonged to,” in an indication that he was back with his initial group.</p> <p>The mourning father criticizes “the government for releasing so many of the prisoners before they were able to reform them and convince them to abandon the violence.”  He demands the government to monitor “the mosques which have become in their majority lairs that attract the youth.”</p> <h3>The responsibility of the family</h3> <p>Senior Secretary General of the Interior Ministry, Adnan Al-Asadi, however, accuses the children’s families of being the first to bring harm to them because they left them unobserved.</p> <p>Al-Asadi says:  “The boys who got involved in armed groups found the easy money and social influence an earning worth the risk by working with Al-Qa’eda members.”  Al-Asadi however believes, and according to the results of investigations with a large number of the “Birds of Heaven” children and “the boys of heaven”, that the number of suicide operations executed by children is “small” compared to other types of operations such as “monitoring and logistical support for the militants.”</p> <p>The idea of killing, believes Al-Asadi, “is no longer receiving response from the children, especially after the decline of the influence of Al-Qa’eda’s and the armed groups that have lost their strongholds in Al-Anbar, Deyala, Salaheddin, Ninawa and areas south of Baghdad.”</p> <p>Researcher Faris Al-Obeidi believes that rehabilitating hundreds of children who engaged in militant work requires “a great deal of social and government effort and this is difficult to achieve in view of the economic, security and political instability in Iraq.”</p> <p>In the final outcome, these are part of a mobile social system, and if they do not have a sound environment to help them integrate in their societies, “they will definitely go back to the armed groups that had provided them with a sense of belonging.”</p> <p>Juvenile rehabilitation plans currently adopted are not convincing to the prison director, who complains that the building cannot accommodate “the large number of juveniles, given that the current building is a temporary alternative for the original prison that was overtaken by refugees refusing so far to leave it despite all official attempts.”</p> <p>The juvenile prison building is similar to an elementary school.  It is nothing more than a yard surrounded by four prison cells and a few small rooms for the guards, as well as a caravan for the prison director to do his job.</p> <p>The research unit chief in prison that the lack of entertainment facilities and training workshops have not helped the prison staff to lower the number of medical cases that usually accompany imprisonment, such as the depression that many prisoners suffer from because they feel neglected by their own families.</p> <p>The research chief believes that terrorism prisoners are inherently “good” people, but have been exploited and taken advantage of because of their difficult life conditions.</p> <p>A field study by a researcher in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs indicates that family disintegration is responsible for half of the reasons that lead children’s integration in registered organizations.</p> <h3>Field study shows the reasons behind children joining armed groups.</h3> <p>“Family disintegration was the cause that led to the recruitment of 47% of child prisoners into armed groups.”  The researcher attributes this to their residing outside the family home with relatives or friends or in workplaces.  The study found that 63% of those convicted of terrorism have engaged in armed work under influence of friends.</p> <p>The study, which was based on a sample of 80 prisoners convicted of terrorism according to Article 4, indicates that murder represents 56% of the types of crimes committed by children, while 18% of the sample planted and exploded explosive devices, and 15% executed kidnappings.</p> <p>The low educational level was prevalent among the sample.  Half of them did not pass elementary education, and 55% of the sample justified their engagement in armed operation with their belief in the resistance.  Meanwhile, political convictions and affiliations were the cause of 28% joining the armed groups.</p> <p>More than half of the children convicted of terrorism according to Article 4 and are imprisoned in the juvenile prison were sentence to more than ten years.  These are “major” sentences, believes the researcher who criticizes the fact the judges rely on Law number 111 for 1996, which places terrorism crimes under the definition of crimes, stipulating sentences to be five or more years.</p> <p>Indications however show that the rate of children’s engagement in armed groups receded a great deal in the past two years because of improving security conditions in many areas that were previously considered “hot zones.”</p> <p>This improvement, according to researcher Faris Al-Obeidi, “led to economic movement in the country, which in turn contributed to the movement of the majority of youth towards profitable professions and abandoning armed organizations where the work has become dangerous with the increase of the power of security forces.  Moreover, the ideas on which the armed groups were based “receded in a major way and do not have a standing except with religious hard-liners.”</p> <p>Interior Minister Jawad Al-Bolani confirms that Al-Qa’eda’s influence in Iraq was “broken and it has lost control over its old strongholds, which put it in a critical situation that prevents from continuing to recruit children in the manner it has been doing in past years.”  The stage of recruiting children, Al-Bolani says, “is over now, and although there are a few sleeper cells, the intelligence efforts will continue to pursue them and eliminate them in the end, sooner or later.”</p> <p>Researchers Al-Obeidi, Fawwaz Ibrahim, and Al-Massoudi, along with the research chief at the juvenile prison and the researcher in the Labor Ministry, believe that the receding phenomenon of child recruitment is not the end of the story, and that intelligence efforts, no matter how strong it is, will not be able to eliminate this phenomenon completely.  There is always a chance for it to come back if rehabilitation plans that can fortify children and protect them against extremist thinking, which continues to look for an opportunity to prevail once again in Iraq, are not implemented.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=139409" class="external" target="_blank">Children indulging in Iraqi violence to the level of suicide : Aswat Al Iraq</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-11568"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/10/07/vatican-synod-mulls-middle-east-christian-exodus-reuters/#respond" title="Comment on Vatican synod mulls Middle East Christian exodus | Reuters">No Comments</a></span> Posted on October 7th, 2010 by Mohammed Al-Hamadani</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/10/07/vatican-synod-mulls-middle-east-christian-exodus-reuters/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Vatican synod mulls Middle East Christian exodus | Reuters">Vatican synod mulls Middle East Christian exodus | Reuters</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/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/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/human-rights/" title="View all posts in Human Rights" rel="category tag">Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/religion/" title="View all posts in Religion" rel="category tag">Religion</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/arab-society/" rel="tag">arab society</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/catholic-church/" rel="tag">Catholic Church</a>, <a 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target="_blank">Reuters</a>) – With Christianity dwindling in its Middle Eastern birthplace, Pope Benedict has convened Catholic bishops from the region to debate how to save its minority communities and promote harmony with their Muslim neighbours.</p> <p>For two weeks starting on Sunday, the bishops will discuss problems for the faithful ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and strife in Iraq to radical Islamism, economic crisis and the divisions among the region’s many Christian churches.</p> <p>They come from local churches affiliated with the Vatican, but the relentless exodus of all Christians — Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants — has prompted them to take a broad look at the challenges facing all followers of Jesus there.</p> <p>While conditions for Christians vary from country to country, the overall picture is dramatic. Christians made up around 20 percent of the region’s population a century ago, but now account for about five percent and falling.</p> <p>"If this phenomenon continues, Christianity in the Middle East will disappear," said Rev. Samir Khalil Samir, a Beirut-based Egyptian Jesuit who helped draw up the working documents for the October 10-24 synod at the Vatican.</p> <p>"This is not an unreal hypothesis — Turkey went from 20 percent Christian in the early 20th century to 0.2 percent now," he told journalists in Paris. The Christian exodus since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion "could bleed the Church in Iraq dry."</p> <h3>CALL FOR CHANGE</h3> <p>Instead of simply appealing for more aid to Catholics in the region, the experts who prepared the synod call for sweeping social changes to bring forth democratic secular states, interfaith cooperation and a rollback of advancing Islamism.</p> <p>"At issue is the renewal of Arab society," said Samir, who stressed most Christians and Muslims there are fellow Arabs.</p> <p>Challenged by western-style modernity, many Middle Eastern societies have fused their Arab and Muslim identities, he said, narrowing religious freedom for non-Muslim minorities.</p> <p>The working document stated: "Catholics, along with other Christian citizens and Muslim thinkers and reformers, ought to be able to support initiatives at examining thoroughly the concept of the ‘positive laicity’ of the state.</p> <p>"This could help eliminate the theocratic character of government and allow for greater equality among citizens of different religions, thereby fostering the promotion of a sound democracy, positively secular in nature."</p> <p>The document pins most of the blame for the Christian exodus on political tensions in the region: "Today, emigration is particularly prevalent because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the resulting instability throughout the region."</p> <p>It cited the "menacing social situation in Iraq," where about half the estimated 850,000 Christians there in 2003 have since fled sectarian violence and persecution, and "political instability of Lebanon" as further factors driving them out.</p> <p>The rise of political Islam since the 1970s, especially its violent variations, menaces the whole region, it added, saying: "These extremist currents, clearly a threat to everyone, Christians and Muslims alike, require joint action."</p> <h3>CHRISTIAN COOPERATION</h3> <p>The region’s Christians have also been weakened by age-old splits. The Catholics are divided into Latin Catholic, Coptic, Maronite, Chaldean, Armenian, Syrian and Greek Melkite churches — and they are outnumbered by various Orthodox churches.</p> <p>Protestants are also present, in older communities founded by colonial missionaries or in newer evangelical groups whose aggressive proselytising — often backed by conservative U.S. churches — has provoked a backlash from Muslim authorities.</p> <p>The synod document urges the sometimes competing Catholic churches to work with each other and with other Christians to make their voice heard in Middle Eastern society.</p> <p>Its advice to open up to other churches and faiths, simplify their ancient liturgies and introduce more Arabic into their services echoes the Second Vatican Council reforms that worldwide Roman Catholicism launched back in the 1960s.</p> <p>Highlighting this openness, the synod has invited an Iranian ayatollah, a Lebanese Muslim and a rabbi from Jerusalem to attend the proceedings and address the 250 participants.</p> <p>"I don’t think people in the West appreciate to what extent the thematics of the synod are totally new to so much of the Church in the Middle East," said Rev. David Jaeger, a Franciscan and leading Roman Catholic expert on the Middle East.</p> <p>"The whole discussion of the civic duty of the Christian … is totally new for the region as a whole. For 13 centuries, Christians in the Middle East have been made to live in a kind of socio-economic ghetto," he told Reuters Television in Rome.</p> <p>As Samir summed it up: "If we can do something with other Christians, it is better than doing it alone. If we Christians can do something with the Muslims, that is even better."</p> <p><strong>Source: </strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE6952EJ20101007?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=egyptNews&rpc=401&sp=true" class="external" target="_blank">Vatican synod mulls Middle East Christian exodus | News by Country | Reuters</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-10531"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/05/16/what-happens-next-in-iraq-after-baghdad-recount/#respond" title="Comment on What happens next in Iraq after Baghdad recount?">No Comments</a></span> Posted on May 16th, 2010 by Yusuf Al-Jezani</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/05/16/what-happens-next-in-iraq-after-baghdad-recount/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to What happens next in Iraq after Baghdad recount?">What happens next in Iraq after Baghdad recount?</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/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/20130126101154/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/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/al-najifi-osama/" rel="tag">al-Najifi -Osama</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/al-nujaifi-osama/" rel="tag">al-Nujaifi - 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Kurdish demands to retain</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/prime-ministerial-nomination-committee/" rel="tag">prime ministerial nomination committee</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/reuters/" rel="tag">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/reuters-alertnet/" rel="tag">reuters alertnet</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sadrist-bloc/" rel="tag">Sadrist Bloc</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sadrist-leaders-detention-campaign-by-gzgbadr/" rel="tag">Sadrist leaders - detention campaign by GZG/Badr</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saleh-al-mutlaq/" rel="tag">Saleh al-Mutlaq</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarian-tensions/" rel="tag">sectarian tensions</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/state-of-law-coalition/" rel="tag">State of Law Coalition</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/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/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/state-of-law-coalition-with-ina/" rel="tag">State of Law Coalition With INA</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/state-of-lawina-prime-ministerial-nomination-committee/" rel="tag">State of Law/INA prime ministerial nomination committee</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/talbani-2nd-term/" rel="tag">Talbani - 2nd term</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/tariq-al-hashimi/" rel="tag">Tariq al-Hashimi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/violence/" rel="tag">violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/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>BAGHDAD, May 16 (<a title="Reuters" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE64E02O.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Reuters</a>) – The end of a recount of votes in Baghdad opens the way for Iraq’s March 7 election results to be finally certified more than two months after the ballot, and for coalition-forming talks to begin in earnest. </p> <p>It does not mean the pace of government formation will necessarily pick up, and the ingredients are still in place for a protracted political vacuum in which sectarian tensions could lead to violence as U.S. troops pack up and start to leave. </p> <p>The sectarian warfare between once dominant Sunnis and majority Shi’ites that was kicked off after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has subsided substantially since its peak in 2006/07. </p> <p>But a string of attacks by a weakened yet still lethal Sunni Islamist insurgency since the ballot has fuelled fears of a slide back into broad bloodshed that could derail U.S. plans to end combat operations in August ahead of a full pullout in 2011. </p> <p>The following is a glimpse into political negotiations thought to be taking place and a review of possible outcomes. </p> <h3>WHO GETS FIRST CHANCE TO FORM A GOVERNMENT </h3> <p>The recount left intact the two-seat election lead of the cross-sectarian Iraqiya list of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi over the predominantly Shi’ite State of Law bloc of incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. </p> <p>But Allawi’s chances of forming a government are slim, raising the prospect of anger among minority Sunnis who backed Iraqiya and who see its electoral success as a vindication of their claim to greater clout in post-invasion Iraq. </p> <p>Instead, a Shi’ite mega tie-up announced between Maliki’s faction and the other main Shi’ite group, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), has the best chance. They are just four seats short of a governing majority in the new 325-seat parliament. </p> <p>In theory, the president picked by the next parliament when it sits should give Allawi as the election winner the first shot at trying to form a government and 30 days in which to do so. </p> <p>The supreme court, though, has already issued an opinion stating that right could also legally be granted to the single biggest bloc in the new parliament. </p> <h3>WHO IS TALKING TO WHOM </h3> <p>In the meantime, State of Law and the INA will be talking to the recently unified Kurdish bloc about what concessions will be needed to bring the Kurds’ 57 or so seats into the fold. </p> <p>The Kurds want the presidency, a resumption in their oil exports, and commitments on disputed areas like Kirkuk, which the Kurds want wrapped into their semi-autonomous enclave. </p> <p>Maliki’s envoys will also be talking to members of Iraqiya who might cross the floor if offered a suitably attractive deal, such as a ministry. It will be important to bestow a Sunni tint on an otherwise Shi’ite-Kurdish dominated government. </p> <p>Among those who might be tempted to desert Allawi could be incumbent Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a prominent Sunni, or members of former Sunni lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlaq’s list. </p> <p>Hashemi would bring with him around 9 seats while Mutlaq’s former National Dialogue Front could deliver at least 20. Mutlaq himself was barred from the election because of alleged links to Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath party. </p> <p>Sunni politician Osama al-Nujaifi, who controls around half of Iraqiya’s 20-odd seats in the violent northern province of Nineveh, may also be willing to deal with State of Law and INA. </p> <p>The inclusion of a large-enough Sunni bloc may defuse some of the outrage Sunnis will feel at Allawi being sidelined by the Shi’ite factions that have dominated Iraq since Saddam’s fall. </p> <h3>WHAT STILL STANDS IN THE WAY OF A SHI’ITE MEGA-MERGER </h3> <p>The pick of prime minister is a hurdle that could yet defeat the plans to create a Shi’ite mega-faction. </p> <p>Maliki, the top vote winner in the March election, insists that he be returned to office for a second term. </p> <p>But he is opposed by the movement of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which won 39 of INA’s 70 seats and dislikes Maliki for sending troops to crush Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia. </p> <p>Maliki is viewed with disquiet within the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which has seen its former dominance of Shi’ite politics whittled away by Maliki’s growing stature. </p> <p>In addition, the incumbent prime minister is thought to be viewed by Tehran as overly independent. Shi’ite power Iran has been an influential player in Iraq since its Shi’ite majority was propelled into political supremacy by the invasion. </p> <p>Under the tie-up, State of Law and INA were to create a 14-person committee to decide on a prime ministerial nominee. </p> <p>The formation of the panel has been stymied by disagreement within the INA as to who should be included in it, and by State of Law opposition to the INA side appointing too many Sadrists. </p> <p>The committee, once formed, will have a week to endorse a prime minister unanimously. If it fails, it will then vote on a selection. The winning candidate will need 80 percent support. If that also fails, a new mechanism will have to be agreed. </p> <h3>HOW LONG </h3> <p>It could still take months to form a new government. </p> <p>While the election results will most likely be certified by June, diplomats expect politicians to want a package deal on all remaining issues — prime minister, president and ministries — before the new parliament is allowed to hold its first session. </p> <p>A popular estimate for a new government is August, just when U.S. troops levels are supposed to go down by half to 50,000. </p> <h3>SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE </h3> <p>When Iraq waited months for a government in 2006, sectarian bloodshed took hold. Some fear history could repeat itself. </p> <p>But Iraq in 2010 is different to Iraq in 2006. </p> <p>The 650,000-plus troops and police Iraq now has have proven to be relatively professional, while not flawless, and capable of battling both Sunni insurgents and Shi’ite militia. </p> <p>Iraqis themselves are tired of war, and less inclined to turn a blind eye to or provide a safe haven for armed groups. </p> <p>Iraq has also signed 10 deals with global oil firms that could turn it into the world’s No. 2 oil producer. </p> <p>The allure of booming oil revenues may persuade many who might otherwise take up arms that it would be more profitable to join the government, than to fight it. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE64E02O.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Reuters AlertNet – SCENARIOS-What happens next in Iraq after Baghdad recount?</a></p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-10477"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/05/14/%d9%85%d9%85%d8%ab%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d9%8a%d9%86%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%af-%d8%a7%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%86%d8%b2%d9%8a%d9%81-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af/#respond" title="Comment on ممثل السيستاني ينتقد استمرار نزيف الدم العراقي ويتساءل عن وعود الكهرباء">No Comments</a></span> Posted on May 14th, 2010 by Diya al din</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/05/14/%d9%85%d9%85%d8%ab%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b3%d9%8a%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d9%8a%d9%86%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%af-%d8%a7%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%86%d8%b2%d9%8a%d9%81-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to ممثل السيستاني ينتقد استمرار نزيف الدم العراقي ويتساءل عن وعود الكهرباء">ممثل السيستاني ينتقد استمرار نزيف الدم العراقي ويتساءل عن وعود الكهرباء</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/iraq/" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/religion/" title="View all posts in Religion" rel="category tag">Religion</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/al-safi-ahmed/" rel="tag">al-Safi Ahmed</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/electricity-crisis-irak/" rel="tag">Electricity Crisis (Irak)</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/electricity-crisis-politicians-failure-to-resolve/" rel="tag">Electricity Crisis - politicians failure to resolve</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-guidance-by-clergy/" rel="tag">Political Guidance by Clergy</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/" rel="tag">political instability</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-opportunism/" rel="tag">political opportunism</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-problems-politicians-failure-to-resolve/" rel="tag">political problems - politicians failure to resolve</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-violence/" rel="tag">political violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/politicians-duties-of/" rel="tag">Politicians - duties of</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/politics-and-security/" rel="tag">Politics and Security</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/security-situation/" rel="tag">security situation</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sermon-reports/" rel="tag">Sermon Reports</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <div dir="rtl" align="right"> <p><a title="20090320saffey by Gorillas Guides, on Flickr" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.flickr.com/photos/27086036@N02/3371739495/" class="external" target="_blank"><img style="display: inline; margin: 5px 15px 5px 0px" height="250" alt="20090320saffey" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154im_/http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3426/3371739495_20dd0072f6_o.jpg" width="350" align="left"/></a>انتقد السيد أحمد الصافي ممثل المرجع الديني السيد علي السيستاني في خطبة الجمعة بكربلاء ما اسماه نزيف الدم الذي لازال مستمرا في البلد. <br/>ونوه الصافي الى ان الحراك السياسي لابد ان يؤدي الى تشكيل الحكومة بعيدا عن التطرف، في ما تطرق الى ازمة الكهرباء وتساءل عن صدق وعود الوزارة منذ سنتين بانتهاء الازمة بحلول عام 2011 في ما المشكلة لازالت متفاقمة. <br/>وقال الصافي في خطبة الجمعة بالصحن الحسيني الشريف "لدينا أسئلة لا اعتقد ان لها أجوبة بشكل توقف حالة الدمار والقتل المروع خاصة ما حدث في البصرة والحلة وقبلها في بغداد والانبار وديالى". <br/>وأضاف"من نلوم وعلى أية جهة تقع المسؤولبة هل هي على القوات الأمنية أم على السياسيين أم على مجالس المحافظات أم على طريقة بناء الهيكلية الأمنية؟، مضيفا ان هناك أرواح زهقت تشكو ظلامة البشر ونحن لا نعرف على أي جهة تقع المسؤولية وهناك من لا يهتم. <br/>ولفت من لا تأخذه "الحمية والغيرة " على نزف الدم فهو شخص لا يصلح لأي موقع لان الجميع يرمي الأسباب على غيره وهي أسباب لا توقف إزهاق الأرواح ولا تعيد من زهقت أرواحهم وعملية التفريط بالدم خيانة … نريد حلا حقيقيا لا حلا صحافيا. <br/>وتطرق الصافي في خطبته إلى ما اسماه الحراك السياسي ما بعد الانتخابات الأخيرة وقال على المسؤولين دراسة الحراك السياسي وهي مسؤولية الجميع بلا استثناء لان الهدف هو الوصول إلى التمثيل الأفضل لتشكيل الحكومة التي هي أساس تشكل لخدمة الناس. <br/>وأضاف على المسؤول إلا يصل في حراكه الى العنف والتطرف لأنه سياسي وعليه استخدام الطرق الدستورية ومنها الانتخابات.مضيفا ان العنف يعني إننا ضعفاء والصحيح إن يتقدم خطوة باتجاه الأخر من اجل الوصول إلى خدمة الناس. <br/>وتساءل الصافي عن واقع الكهرباء وقال وزارة الكهرباء ذكرت قبل سنتين إن عام 2011 هو انتهاء مشكلة الكهرباء ونحن هنا نتساءل فقط عن هذا الموعد وصدقه. مضيفا أين انتم من هذا الموعد والمشكلة لم تزل موجودة.</p> </p></div> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-9933"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/04/20/20-04-2010-selected-english-language-coverage/#respond" title="Comment on 20-04-2010 Selected English Language Coverage">No Comments</a></span> Posted on April 20th, 2010 by Hussein Al-Bayati</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/04/20/20-04-2010-selected-english-language-coverage/" 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/human-rights-ministry/" rel="tag">Human Rights Ministry</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/interior-ministry/" rel="tag">Interior Ministry</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/ips/" rel="tag">IPS</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/iyad-allawi/" rel="tag">Iyad Allawi</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/journalists-attacked/" rel="tag">Journalists Attacked</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/judicial-authority/" rel="tag">judicial authority</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kamil-amin/" rel="tag">Kamil Amin</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/kuna/" rel="tag">KUNA</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/murder/" rel="tag">murder</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/nineveh/" rel="tag">Nineveh</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/northern-iraq/" rel="tag">northern iraq</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/oil/" rel="tag">oil</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/oil-contracts/" rel="tag">oil contracts</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-coverage/" rel="tag">political coverage</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/" rel="tag">political instability</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/prisoner-abuse/" rel="tag">prisoner abuse</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/prisons/" rel="tag">prisons</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/public-prosecutor/" rel="tag">public prosecutor</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/rumaila-oilfield/" rel="tag">Rumaila oilfield</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sectarian-violence/" rel="tag">sectarian violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/sheikh-ghazi-jabouri/" rel="tag">Sheikh Ghazi Jabouri</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/summaries/" rel="tag">Summaries</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/tarmiya/" rel="tag">Tarmiya</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/tarmiyah/" rel="tag">Tarmiyah</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/unsolved-murders/" rel="tag">unsolved murders</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/violence/" rel="tag">violence</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/author/abdus-samad/"></a></p> <p><strong></strong></p> </p> <p><strong>Iraq tops for unsolved murders of reporters</strong><strong>: </strong></p> <blockquote><p>The CPJ’s Impunity Index “calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of a country’s population” for the years 2000 through 2009 and ranks them accordingly. </p> <p>Twelve countries made the list with five or more unsolved cases. </p> <p>Iraq was number one with 88 unsolved journalist murders, or 2.794 unsolved murders per one million inhabitants.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/April/international_April1135.xml&section=international&col=">Read in full</a></strong><strong>: </strong></p> </blockquote> <h3><font color="#800000">The Day In Quotes:</font></h3> <ol> <li><strong>Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director on the "secret jail" being run by Nouri al-Maliki’s office: </p> <p></strong>"The existence of secret jails indicates that military units in Iraq are allowed to commit human rights abuses unchecked,". </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2010/04/2010420163646513430.html" class="external" target="_blank"><strong>Source:</strong></a> </li> <li><strong>Kamil Amin, spokesman for Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry on the "secret jail" being run by Nouri al-Maliki’s office. <br/></strong> <br/>"We found judges and representatives of the public prosecutor installed inside the prison, which means the prison is not a secret one" <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2010/04/2010420163646513430.html" class="external" target="_blank"><strong>Same source as quote No: 1 above</strong></a> </li> <li><strong>Iyad Allawi on the ruling that Baghdad’s ballots should be recounted: <br/></strong> <br/>"The List does not object the judicial authority’s ruling to recount ballots in Baghdad although it does not serve interest of the Iraqi people," <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2077272&Language=en" class="external" target="_blank"><strong>Source</strong></a><strong>: </strong></li> <li><strong>Charles Tripp on on Iraq’s political future to David Tresilian: <p></strong>"Quite a few of the Iraqis who will come to power are people who are deeply mindful of the role America has played in getting them into power, so the question is will they be able to establish themselves as something other than American puppets, especially if they are competing with others who are saying that they weren’t the ones who were parachuted in on the back of an American invasion." </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/994/sc15.htm" class="external" target="_blank"><strong>Source</strong></a><strong>:</strong> </li> </ol> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE63I12J.htm" class="external" target="_blank"></a></p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE63I12J.htm"></a><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE63I12J.htm" class="external" target="_blank"></a></p> <h3><font color="#800000">Political Coverage:</font></h3> <p><strong>Iraqi secular leader says votes recount must be under strict international monitoring | Xinhua </strong></p> <blockquote><p>"We respect the latest measures (of appeals panel for manual recount for votes in Baghdad), which must be under international strict monitoring," Allawi told news conference. </p> <p>However, Allawi warned that such recount should include areas that his bloc submitted complaints about alleged manipulation other than Baghdad, otherwise, his bloc would take decisions which he refused to name. </p> <p>"If such measures (manual recount) would not cover other areas that we have submitted complaints, the Iraqia bloc would take a decision which I don’t want to disclose now," Allawi said. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/21/c_13260198.htm"><strong>Read in full</strong></a> </p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Vote recount double-bladed sword for Iraq to end political deadlock: by Li Laifang, Jamal Ahmed : Xinhua</strong> </p> <blockquote><p>BAGHDAD, April 19 (Xinhua) — An Iraqi appeals court in charge of reviewing alleged electoral frauds ordered a manual recount of votes in Baghdad on Monday, raising possibilities of a change in the initial results of the country’s pivotal national poll last month and a delay of government formation. </p> <p>Iraq’s electoral authorities did not specify the scale of recount in the capital, a key province with the largest share of 70 seats in the new 325-member parliament. </p> <p><em>[snip]</em></p> <p>In response to fraud allegations, a recount is one of the steps needed to end the political deadlock, as all blocs should accept the final results approved by the country’s Supreme Court. </p> <p><em>[snip]</em></p> <p>A recount may change the seat ranking of the two leading blocs with just a gap of two seats. And any change in seat numbers is likely to bring about more subsequent political rows. </p> <p>Thus the bitter fight between Maliki and Allawi will not end soon, as long as both are eyeing the prime minister post and the right to form a coalition government. </p> <p><em>[snip]</em></p> <p>It may take months for Iraq to have a new government. Allawi has warned that Iraq will see chaos if there is no new government when the U.S. troops in the country are cut down to around 50,000 by the end of August.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/20/c_13258694.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Read in full</a></strong><strong>:</strong></p> </blockquote> <blockquote><p><strong></strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <h3><font color="#800000">Security Coverage:</font></h3> <p><strong>كونا : Iraq launches operation " Leap of the Lion " to hunt down  Al-Qaeda – Military and Security – 20/04/2010 -الدفاع والأمن</strong><strong>: </strong></p> <blockquote><p>Operation "Leap of the Lion" still in motion and will continue to hunt down Al-Qaeda elements in Iraq, said the Iraqi government on Tuesday. </p> <p>Major General Qassem Atta told KUNA that the campaign aimed at dismantling Al-Qaeda operations, saying that such operations, which began in March 11, succeeded in the arrest of several Al-Qaeda leaders. </p> <p>In accordance to intelligence information and USF-I backup, the operations lead to the capture and death of several Qaeda operatives such as Abu Suhaib, leader of Al-Qaeda in northern Iraq. </p> <p>The slain terrorist known as Ahmad Al-Obaidi was in charge terrorist operations in Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Salahuddin governorates, but the Iraqi forces managed to end his reign of terror, said Attah. </p> <p><strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2077301&Language=en" class="external" target="_blank">Source:</a></strong><strong> </strong></p> </blockquote> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2077113&Language=en" class="external" target="_blank"><strong>كونا : Qaeda leader for northern Baghdad operations killed – الدفاع والأمن – 20/04/2010</strong></a><strong>: </strong></p> <blockquote><p>The leader of Al-Qaeda terrorist group for operations in areas north of Baghdad Ahmad Al-Obaidi, known as Abu Suhaib, was killed by US forces, a leading Iraqi military commander told KUNA Tuesday. </p> <p>The source said the militant was killed in an operation separate from the one which led to the killing of Abu Ayoub Al-Masri and Abu Umar Al-Baghdadi, but would not give more details. </p> <p>The militant was the group’s official responsible for Ninawa, Kirkuk, and Salahiddeen regions. </p> <p>The official added the son of Al-Baghdadi and the assistant of Al-Masri was killed in the same operation in which the two leaders were killed. Another 16 aides and militants were also arrested, the source said</p> <p><strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2077113&Language=en" class="external" target="_blank">Source</a></strong><strong>: </strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Children of Anti-Qaeda Militia Chief Beheaded in Iraq Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English): </strong></p> <blockquote><p>TARMIYAH, Iraq (AFP) – Five family members of a local chief of an anti-Qaeda militia were gunned down in their homes in Tarmiyah, north of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, with the children also beheaded, police said. </p> <p>"The wife, a daughter of 22 and three boys of between 12 and 16 were shot dead, with the assassins also beheading the last three," said Colonel Tawfiq al-Janaabi, police chief of Tarmiyah, 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Baghdad. </p> <p>He said the local chief of the Al-Sahwa militia, identified as Abu Ali, was on duty at a checkpoint at the time of the attack.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=20647" class="external" target="_blank"><strong>Read in full</strong></a><strong>: </strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Senior police officer killed in Iraqi bomb attacks</strong><strong>: </strong></p> <blockquote><p>Two people, including a senior police officer, were killed and four others wounded on Tuesday in bomb attacks in Baghdad and Iraq’s western province of Anbar, an Interior Ministry source said. </p> <p>A roadside bomb struck the convoy of Colonel Raheem Omer, deputy police chief of Anbar province’s Hit city, some 160 km west of Baghdad, killing him, his driver and wounding two policemen, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/20/c_13259701.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Read in full</a></strong><strong>: </strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Soldier Charged in Iraq Slayings Back in Court | 13WMAZ.com | Macon, GA</strong><strong>: </strong></p> <blockquote><p>A Fort Stewart soldier charged with slaying a superior and a fellow U.S. soldier in Iraq is due back in a military court. </p> <p>A military judge is scheduled Tuesday to hear defense motions in the case of Army Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich. The judge may also rule on requests from both prosecutors and defense lawyers to delay his court-martial on murder charges. </p> <p><strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=77912&catid=52" class="external" target="_blank">Read in full</a></strong><strong>: </strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <h3><font color="#800000">Economic Coverage:</font></h3> <p><strong>France24 – China’s CNPC to boost Iraqi oilfield output: </strong></p> <blockquote><p>China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country’s top oil producer, aims to boost output at a giant Iraqi oilfield by 10 percent this year, a newspaper owned by the company said Tuesday. </p> <p>CNPC and Britain’s BP in November signed a deal with Iraq to nearly triple production from the current one million barrels a day to 2.85 million barrels at the Rumaila field over the next six to seven years. </p> <p>The consortium will fully take over work on the oilfield by June 30 and plans to increase its output by 10 percent by the end of this year, said a report by China Petroleum Daily, a newpaper owned by CNPC. </p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.france24.com/en/20100420-chinas-cnpc-boost-iraqi-oilfield-output" class="external" target="_blank"><strong>Read in full</strong></a><strong>: </strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Oil services giant set to tap Iraq: </strong></p> <blockquote><p>As energy companies scavenge for hard-to-extract sources in oil sands or deep water, Iraq is one of the last, and least exploited, sources of old-style cheap oil. Assuming Iraq can hit the targets set in last year’s round of oil contracts, the nation will be gushing close to an additional 10 million barrels a day by the end of the decade, according to the Energy Policy Research Foundation. </p> <p>Even getting half the way to this goal — a more realistic assumption –would eclipse other historic surges in supply, such as those from Russia in the mid-2000s and Mexico in the early 1980s. The stingy fee-per-barrel structure of the contracts oil companies have signed in Iraq means they benefit from volume, not price, giving them a powerful incentive to pump at full speed. And all this is before allowing for new finds, which some geologists believe could more than double Iraqi reserves.</p> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.financialpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2926952" class="external" target="_blank"><strong>Read in full</strong></a><strong>: </strong></p> </blockquote> <h3><font color="#800000">Commentary and Analysis</font></h3> <p><strong>IRAQ: Imam Assassination Sparks Fears of Violence – By Abdu Rahman and Dahr Jamail – IPS ipsnews.net</strong><strong>:</strong> </p> <blockquote><p>BAGHDAD, Apr 20, 2010 (IPS) – The assassination of Sheikh Ghazi Jabouri, a prominent Sunni Imam in the Al- Adhamiya district of Baghdad, has raised fears of renewed sectarian violence in the wake of the Mar. 7 elections.</p> <p>Tensions have been reported in the area following the assassination Wednesday last week. At least two gunmen killed Sheikh Jabouri, 42, as he walked home after completing morning prayers at the Rahman Mosque.</p> <p>His brother Sarmad Faisal Jabouri, like many Iraqis in Adhamiya district, blames the government. "We hold the government fully responsibility for the killing of my brother, because they are supposed to be in control of security at the entrances and exits to the area," Jabouri said.</p> <p>The attack came on a morning when a high-ranking officer in Iraq’s anti- terrorism police was killed by a bomb planted in his car. The attack also killed two nearby policemen.</p> <p>The violence comes amidst a wave of increasing attacks across the capital, and amidst political instability in the wake of last month’s elections, that have yet to yield a clear winner. </p> <p><strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51124" class="external" target="_blank">Read in full</a></strong><strong>:</strong></p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-8963"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/03/05/%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%83%d9%8a-%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ad-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%89-%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%87-%d9%82%d8%af-%d9%8a%d8%b7%d9%84%d8%a8-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b4%d9%86%d8%b7%d9%86-%d8%aa/#respond" title="Comment on المالكي يلمح الى انه قد يطلب من واشنطن تمديد بقاء قواتها في العراق">No Comments</a></span> Posted on March 5th, 2010 by Mohammed Khader Hashi</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/03/05/%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%83%d9%8a-%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ad-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%89-%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%87-%d9%82%d8%af-%d9%8a%d8%b7%d9%84%d8%a8-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b4%d9%86%d8%b7%d9%86-%d8%aa/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to المالكي يلمح الى انه قد يطلب من واشنطن تمديد بقاء قواتها في العراق">المالكي يلمح الى انه قد يطلب من واشنطن تمديد بقاء قواتها في العراق</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/iraq/" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/american-troops-departure/" rel="tag">American troops - departure</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/cnn-videos/" rel="tag">CNN Videos</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/maliki-cnn-interview/" rel="tag">Maliki - CNN interview</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/maliki-nouri-al/" rel="tag">Maliki - Nouri al-</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/" rel="tag">political instability</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p dir="rtl" align="right"><a title="20100305_screenshot_mailiki_CNN" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.flickr.com/photos/27086036@N02/4408607679/" class="external" target="_blank"><img style="border-right: silver 2px solid; border-top: silver 2px solid; display: inline; margin: 5px 15px 5px 0px; border-left: silver 2px solid; border-bottom: silver 2px solid" alt="20100305_screenshot_mailiki_CNN" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154im_/http://static.flickr.com/4026/4408607679_ec09dc3240.jpg" align="left" border="0"/></a>قال رئيس الوزراء العراقي نوري المالكي إنه لا يخشى عودة الإرهاب والعنف الطائفي إلى البلاد. <br/>وقال المالكي في مقابلة مع <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/05/iraq.us.security/index.html?iref=allsearch" target="_blank" class="external">CNN</a> الخميس إنه ليس خائفا من عودة العنف والإرهاب، لأن لديه جيش وشرطة وقوات أمن كافية ووحدة وطنية تعززت عقب المصالحة الوطنية، ملحما إلى أنه قد يطلب من الولايات المتحدة تمديد بقاء القوات الأمريكية في العراق لما بعد الجدول الزمني المعلن للانسحاب، في حالة إذا ما استمر التدهور الذي يشهده الوضع الأمني، وفي ظل احتمالات عدم جاهزية القوات العراقية لتولي مهامها بمختلف أنحاء البلاد. <br/>وكانت الحكومة العراقية قد أكدت في وقت سابق تمسكها بموعد انسحاب القوات الأمريكية من البلاد وفق الاتفاقية الثنائية بين الجانبين واستبعدت تمديد بقاء تلك القوات رغم المخاوف من تجدد موجة العنف.</p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-8321"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/01/15/%d8%b7%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%82-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%87%d8%a7%d8%b4%d9%85%d9%8a-%d9%82%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%87%d9%8a%d8%a6%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d8%a7%d8%a1%d9%84%d8%a9-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%af/#respond" title="Comment on طارق الهاشمي: قرار هيئة المساءلة والعدالة انتكاسة في مسار العملية السياسية">No Comments</a></span> Posted on January 15th, 2010 by Fatima Jameel</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/01/15/%d8%b7%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%82-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%87%d8%a7%d8%b4%d9%85%d9%8a-%d9%82%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%87%d9%8a%d8%a6%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3%d8%a7%d8%a1%d9%84%d8%a9-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%af/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to طارق الهاشمي: قرار هيئة المساءلة والعدالة انتكاسة في مسار العملية السياسية">طارق الهاشمي: قرار هيئة المساءلة والعدالة انتكاسة في مسار العملية السياسية</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/iraq/" title="View all posts in News" rel="category tag">News</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/debaathification-laws-abuse-of/" rel="tag">DeBa'athification laws - abuse of</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/national-dialogue-bloc/" rel="tag">National Dialogue bloc</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/" rel="tag">political instability</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-parties-bans-on/" rel="tag">Political parties - bans on</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saleh-al-mutlaq/" rel="tag">Saleh al-Mutlaq</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <p dir="rtl" align="right">اعلن نائب رئيس الجمهورية طارق الهاشمي أن "هناك شبهات قضائية وقانونية واضحة بشان قرار هيئة المساءلة والعدالة باستبعاد 16 كياناً سياسيا ومن حق تلك الكيانات أن تعترض وتسلك السبل القانونية"حسب تعبيره. <a title="Tareq-al-Hashemi_300x200" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://www.flickr.com/photos/27086036@N02/4275845639/" class="external" target="_blank"><img style="display: inline; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px" alt="Tareq-al-Hashemi_300x200" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154im_/http://static.flickr.com/2717/4275845639_a74c88eebe.jpg" align="right" border="0"/></a> <br/>واضاف الهاشمي في تصريح صحفي"أن الإدارة الحالية للهيئة هي ادارة تصريف اعمال فقط لان إدارتها لم تشكل لحد الآن، وهناك ثغرات قانونية ودستورية واضحة ومن حق هذه الكيانات ان تعترض، وهذه المسألة نتركها للقضاء. <br/>موضحا أن "المغزى السياسي لهذا القرار واضح وأنه شخصيا يقرأ هذا القرار بانه نكسة و يندرج ضمن عملية التسقيط السياسي وان الذي حصل هو تخريب للمصالحة وتخريب للعملية السياسية برمتها لانه ولد شعورا بالغبن والاجحاف والاقصاء".</p> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="post clearfix" id="post-8316"> <div class="postmetadata"><span class="comments"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/01/15/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d9%86%d9%81-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%aa%d8%b1-%d9%8a%d8%b2%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d8%a7%d9%82%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a8-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%aa%d8%ae%d8%a7/#respond" title="Comment on العنف والتوتر يزداد مع اقتراب الانتخابات العراقية">No Comments</a></span> Posted on January 15th, 2010 by Fatima Jameel</div> <h3><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2010/01/15/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d9%86%d9%81-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%aa%d8%b1-%d9%8a%d8%b2%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d8%a7%d9%82%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a8-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%aa%d8%ae%d8%a7/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to العنف والتوتر يزداد مع اقتراب الانتخابات العراقية">العنف والتوتر يزداد مع اقتراب الانتخابات العراقية</a></h3> <p class="postmetadata">Category: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/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/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/category/early-warning/" title="View all posts in Early Warning" rel="category tag">Early Warning</a>, Tags: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/debaathification-laws-abuse-of/" rel="tag">DeBa'athification laws - abuse of</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/features/" rel="tag">Features</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/national-dialogue-bloc/" rel="tag">National Dialogue bloc</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-conflicts/" rel="tag">political conflicts</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/" rel="tag">political instability</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-parties-bans-on/" rel="tag">Political parties - bans on</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-violence/" rel="tag">political violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/politics-and-security/" rel="tag">Politics and Security</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/pre-electoral-violence/" rel="tag">pre-electoral violence</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/saleh-al-mutlaq/" rel="tag">Saleh al-Mutlaq</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/xinhua-reports/" rel="tag">xinhua reports</a></p> <div class="entry" dir="rtl" align="right"> <div dir="rtl" align="right"> <p>بغداد 14 يناير 2010 (<a title="شينخوا" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://arabic.news.cn/speak/2010-01/15/c_13136633.htm" class="external" target="_blank">شينخوا</a>) لقي ثلاثون شخصا حتفهم وأصيب 88 آخرون في موجة جديدة لأعمال العنف في العراق يرى محللون سياسيون أن وتيرتها تزداد مع اقتراب الانتخابات البرلمانية التي من المقرر أن تجري في السابع من مارس المقبل ، والتي سيجري على ضوئها تحديد القوائم والأحزاب التي تحكم البلاد لمدة أربع سنوات.</p> <p>ففي محافظة النجف (160 كم جنوب بغداد) أسفرت ثلاثة انفجارات ، بسيارة مفخخة وعبوتين ناسفتين في المدينة القديمة التي يوجد فيها مكتب المرجع الشيعي الأعلى علي السيستاني عن مقتل 25 شخصا واصابة 72 آخرين بجروح ، وفقا لمصدر في وزارة الداخلية .</p> <p>أما محافظة ديالى ، فقد لقي فيها أربعة أشخاص مصرعهم وأصيب 12 آخرون بجروح في عدة أعمال عنف متفرقة شهدتها مدن المحافظة التي يعيش فيها خليط من السنة والشيعة والأكراد والتركمان .</p> <p>ولقي مدني مصرعه في مدينة الرمادي مركز محافظة الأنبار غربي العراق في انفجار عبوة ناسفة من النوع اللاصق في سيارته ، أدت إلى اصابة أربعة مدنيين بجروح والحاق أضرار مادية بعدد من السيارات والمال التجارية.</p> <p>ويعتقد محللون سياسيون أن هناك ارتباطا وثيقا بين أعمال العنف والتوترات التي تجري في العراق ، والانتخابات البرلمانية المقبلة ، فكلما اقتربت الانتخابات إزدادت وتيرة هذه الأعمال لتحصد أرواح العشرات من الأبرياء.</p> <p>وقال المحلل السياسي صباح الشيخ لوكالة أنباء (<a title="شينخوا" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://arabic.news.cn/speak/2010-01/15/c_13136633.htm" class="external" target="_blank">شينخوا</a>) " ان التوترات السياسية في الساحة العراقية حاليا تنعكس بصورة سلبية على الوضع الأمني ، حيث أن الجماعات المسلحة تستغل هذه التوترات لتنفيذ أجندتها من خلال استهداف المدنيين وايقاع خسائر كبيرة بين صفوفهم ، في محاولة منها لايصال فكرة للناخبين بأن لافائدة من المشاركة الفعالة في الانتخابات المقبلة".</p> <p>وأعرب الشيخ عن اعتقاده بأن بعض الجهات ستحاول استغلال أعمال العنف والتوترات لكسب الناخبين من خلال اثارة النعرة الطائفية ، محذرا من هذا السلوك لأنه سيعيد العراق إلى المربع الأول وسيضر بالعملية السياسية وبمصلحة الشعب العراقي وبمستقل التعايش السلمي بين فئاته .</p> <p>وفي ملف آخر ، يعتقد المراقبون انه ربما يزيد من حدة التوترات في العراق منع المفوضية العليا المستقلة للانتخابات نحو 500 مرشح وكيان سياسي من المشاركة في الانتخابات المقبلة لشمولهم باجراءات المساءلة والعدالة.</p> <p>وفي هذا الصدد ، قال المحلل السياسي جعفر العلي لوكالة أنباء (شينخوا) " أعتقد أن أزمة سياسية تلوح بالأفق بعد قرار المفوضية العليا للانتخابات استبعاد هذا العدد من المرشحين، وهذه الأزمة بلا شك ستنعكس بصورة سلبية على الوضع العام في البلاد ، لأن السنة العرب بشكل عام، والقوى الليبرالية بشكل خاص ستشعر أنها مستهدفة بهذا القرار".</p> <p>وأضاف العلي أن مثل هذه القرارات يجب أن تتخذ من قبل القضاء العراقي حتى لا يتم تسييس القضية ، وأضاف " أن البرلمان العراقي عليه وبأسرع وقت تشكيل لجنة من كبار القضاة المشهود لهم بالمهنية العالية للنظر في مثل هذه القضايا ، لأن القرار عندما يصدر من القضاء ، سيكون بعيدا عن الأهداف السياسية ".</p> <p>بدوره ، وصف زعيم جبهة الحوار الوطني السياسي السني صالح المطلك قرار هيئة المساءلة والعدالة باقصاء الجبهة التي يرأسها من المشاركة في الانتخابات المقبلة بأنه "خطوة سياسية جديدة باتجاه الانفراد بالسلطة " .</p> <p>وقال المطلك في تصريحات صحفية نشرت اليوم " إن اتساع القاعدة الجماهيرية للمشروع الوطني الذي تقوده الجبهة والتفاف قوى وطنية أخرى معروفة بجماهيريتها ، دفع بالأطراف التي تحاول الانفراد بالسلطة الى طريق التهميش والاقصاء للقوى الوطنية ".</p> <p>وشدد المطلك على "أن عمليات الاقصاء التي تمارسها هيئة المساءلة والعدالة وضعت الديمقراطية أمام أكثر من علامة استفهام ، وباتت العملية السياسية تسير بعيدا عن الشرعية والديمقراطية وباتجاهات خطيرة من الصعب تدارك نتائجها ". </p> <p><strong>المصدر : </strong>  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://arabic.news.cn/speak/2010-01/15/c_13136633.htm" class="external" target="_blank">Arabic.news.cn | تقرير اخباري : العنف والتوتر يزداد مع اقتراب الانتخابات العراقية</a></p> </p></div> </div> </div> <hr/> <div class="navigation"> <div class="alignleft"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/tag/political-instability/page/2/">« Previous Entries</a></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 Articles</a></li> <li class="ui-tabs-nav-item"><a href="#latest-articles">Latest Articles</a></li> </ul> <div id="featured-articles" class="widget"> <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130126101154/http://gorillasguides.com/2012/04/19/hezbollah-says-latest-bombings-in-iraq-thwart-mission-to-build-state/">Hezbollah says latest bombings in Iraq “thwart mission to build state”</a></li> <li><a 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