The U.S. volatility attitude towards the Iraqi issue, made Maliki to come to the conclusion that he has nothing to lose, and all what the U.S. interested right now is “an Iraqi election” described by the Americans in two words “transparent and fair”, which allows the U.S. to withdraw its military forces in the August of this year.
In the absence of a clear U.S. policy in Iraq compared to its concerns in Afghanistan, the U.S. intervention in Iraqi affairs is no longer built on a “moral issue” such as what it was in the Republicans era, with the presence of strong American ambassadors in Iraq, like Zalmay Khalilzad, Negroponte, and Ryan Crocker. The presence of the current ambassador Christopher Hill, is …
_Inside
Stories ignored and unreported by mainstream news from all the streets of the Arab world
Maliki vs Hill … Cut the U.S. ties, back to Iran for rescue
Election crisis, the U.S. sending out two contradictory signals
The plan is very simple; make as much noise as possible and the Americans will accept the “J and A” decisions (and will recognize the election results).
At least it worked with Talabani, who tries to synchronize his position with the Kurdish Alliance saying today:
The Baathists appeared again, their return to the political process in Iraq is a major threat, their current movement designed to win the sympathy of Arab public opinion to start a military coup in Iraq.
Some kind of “cold-war” between Sectarian parties and the U.S. ambassador in Iraq “Christopher Hill”. Hill told the media that the U.S. will continue to withdraw its troops from Iraq gradually according to the agreement, but its role will in Iraq will continue according to …
A new Kurdish position
At least one source has said that the Supreme Federal Court gave its answer to the IHEC about the legality of “J and A”, and the answer (as you see in the image above) is; “J and A is an illegal institution”. The above is not confirmed and it could be part of Allawi’s “psycho-war” against the sectarian parties, but there are two confirmed developments today:
In a drastic change of position, the Kurdistan Regional Government released a statement says that the decision made by Appeals Court is a violation to the constitution and against the “J and A“‘s rules.
The significance about the above statement is that it challenges Jalal Talabani’s position, which is not only supportive to the Appeals Court but Talabani …
Attempt to withdraw confidence from the Appeals Court, Al-Sadr’s condemnation statement
First, the decision made by the Appeals Court is very clear saying postpone JAC’s decision and not “cancellation” (image above is part of the decision).
Second, the election campaign officially postponed from 7 Feb to 12 Feb.
Third, I will bypass what is already reported by the news agencies.
It is possible to say that the actual election campaign started yesterday, because the Appeal Court decision will seriously affect the election results, and there is one thing very clear; this will not be in the interest of the Prime Minister –Maliki, who for the past two months tried “cover” JAC’s resolutions, and that will coast him his Sunni supporters and allies.
Reversing JAC’s decision gave Allawi’s Al-Iraqiya List and its allies Salih Al-Mutlaq, Naseer Al-Ani …
Militia kidnapped a senior U.S. officer — [hostage video]
A video clip of the kidnapped U.S. officer released by Asaib Al-Haq. Also important to add that the British hostage Alan Mcmenemy is still alive.
In yesterday post “Asaib Al-Haq: We still have a British and an American hostages”, Akram Al-Kaabi the leader of Asaib Al-Haq revealed that the militia keeps an American as a hostage (and a British).
Details revealed today that the organization has kidnapped of a senior U.S. officer in Baghdad over the past two days.
The source did not revealed the the name and the rank of the officer. But he pointed out that the abduction was in the Al-Khrik side (of the river).
The militia already threatened to return to armed confrontations unless the release of the detained leaders.
Barred candidates allowed to stand, INA’s emergency meeting … more update
While Ahmad Al-Chalabi headed to met Talabani behind closed doors, INA released a statement (after the emergency meeting) of two points: 1) condemns the U.S. role and intervention in the Iraqi affairs, but we welcome any advise offered by any side. 2) The Appeals Court task is limited to check the compatibility of JAC decisions with the law.
Video clip on Al-Fayha TV, Al-Lami said that if IHEC implemented the Appeals-Court’s decision, then we [JAC] have the right to take IHEC to Federal Court because it is a violation to its [IHEC] own Article 6.
This is Just reported from Baghdad — Emergency meeting held few minutes ago by INA leaders to discuss the Appeal Court decision — Attendees are: Falih Al-Fayad, Hamam Hamoudi, …
Asaib Al-Haq: We still have a British and an American hostages
IHEC gave the political blocs a dead time of 3 days to change the names of the excluded politicians, according to Al-Hayat. The same source reported that if the new names rejected by the IHEC then there is no way for a second change.
Allawi’s Al-Iraqiya List and its allies, in their meeting yesterday, decided not to change the names of its candidates and ignores the (J and A Commission).
There are unconfirmed leaked information expected that the coming Supreme Court decision (within two days) will approve the exclusion of Salih Mutlaq and others from participating in the election. The excluded politicians are waiting for the reaction of the UNAMI, Arab League and the Islamic Conference Organization to cut a deal with …
Algerian Salafis fight in Yemen
A very strange proposal on Fox news, the writer argues that “Kabyles” can be the best U.S. anti-Al-Qaeda allies. The mistakes made by the writer are the following:
– “Kabyles” is the Arabic name for “tribes”, there are no Algerian minority called “Kabyles”, this is simply an equivalent to “Tribesmen” in English. The right word for the minority is “Amazigh”.
– “Amazigh” or “Kabyles” are secular and Anti-Al-Qaeda. Dutch film director Theo van Gogh is killed by Mohammed Bouyeri who is a Moroccan-“Amazigh” = “Kabyles” an extended tribes of the Algerian “Amazigh”.
– The word used by Algerians to the region is not “Kabylia” as the writer put it, “Deep Algeria” = “Aljazair Al-Ameek” is the right word, which means everything below …
The Supreme Council: split or deviation?
We can filter Ammar Al-Hakim’s “scheduled visits” in Lebanon by simply clicking on the “visits” tab on the Supreme Council’s website and we are interested only in his meetings with Lebanese officials. Ammar Al-Hakim meets:
-) Walid Jumblatt, Sheikh Akil (Head of the Druz), Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah Leader), Michel Aoun (Christian leader of the Change and Reform), Nabih Berri (Amal Movement Leader and Parliament speaker), Sa’ad Hariri (PM), and some Lebanese journalists.
Notice that Al-Hakim’s meeting with the (Iraqi origin — lives in the exile) Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah is not listed above — or better to say “removed” from the Suprme Council’s website, because clicking on the Google “cached” version shows that the meeting did happened (4th from the top), but …
Iraq’s 2010 budget; the missing pages
Despite the presence of the budget assigned to the three presidential entities [president, Prime Minister and parliament] in the index, scrolling through the released document of 2010 budget [Arabic, link corrected], pages and tables from chapter 4 are missing.
According to Head of the Financial Committee in the Parliament MP Shatha Al-Mousawi:
There is a “silent” agreement not to raise the subject for fear of igniting the public opinion about it.
But we have some data and figures, Ahamd Al-Chalabi revealed to Al-Mada — 21-10-2009:
Each MP in the Parliament receives a salary of US$25000 (30 million ID) monthly, and that is US$300000 annually.
Annually, MPs salaries are US$ 140 million, Ministers of US$200 million, and State officials about US$ 250 million.
Add to the above, what …