No doubt that Maliki’s chances for a second term are in decline if not close to zero, take for example today’s report on Al-Hayat: Washington invited Barzani, Abdul Mahdi and Hashimi for talks with Obama and Biden (all the three are Maliki’s opponents). Another example is Elaph’s report today saying: Sistani hold Maliki responsible for Shiite Unity split — Sistani also gave instructions to his deputies not to promote Maliki in the religious ceremonies.
The statement released after a meeting held between President of Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, and the leader of the Supreme Council Ammar Al-Hakim in Salah Al-Din summer resort proposed the idea of the establishment of a broad-based National Front between the two political blocs, stressing on the …
_Inside
Stories ignored and unreported by mainstream news from all the streets of the Arab world
New alliances and a new political scene is emerging
Breathing new life into the “South-Federate” project
I said that the whole chaos created yesterday was a “display its military muscles”, and this is what Azzaman wrote today quoting an anonymous security source saying that the whole operation is to test the loyalty of the police and army unites.
Commenting on yesterday’s security measures and raids, the government said that the operation and the “new” Baghdad’s security plan is successful ~ Personal opinion, I expect a wave of bombings soon.
Ammar Al-Hakim held meetings in Kurdistan, negotiated the possibilities to form an alliance with the Kurds after the election, but the interesting news is that Al-Hakim said the “federate” word again.
After long silence not mentioning the Supreme Council’s “old” “South-Federate” project, and in a press conference after meeting Barzani, Ammar …
Yemen and the U.S. intervention
Weird is that the Yemeni government reject the western pressures to resolve its crisis internal and hold talks with the opposition, at the same time offered to hold conditional talks with Al-Qaeda. The Yemeni army killed Al-Qaeda leader Abdullah Al-Mehdar.
Al-Mehdar is a member of the one of richest families in South-Yemen — Habban area. the family (or tribe) have many businesses in Saudi Arabia.
American writers and bloggers have a problem to understand why Zandani opinion matters, and why his statement is directly reported by the news agencies.
Zandani is the most powerful cleric in Yemen, back to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the Americans needed Arab volunteers to fight the Russian their. Yemen was the recruitment base and Zandani was their …
Chaos after a false bomb plot and an assassination
We start with this funny issue:
I reported yesterday that the parliament appointed seven judges to replace the seven unapproved candidates in the justice and Accountability Committee to make the final decision in the ban of the 15 political blocs and decide if the if the Committee’s orders are legal or not. It seems that three of the judges are included in the ban by the Committee itself (which means that the whole issue entered a close loop).
No bombs plot and no explosive vehicles, the government wanted to display its military muscles to show the public that the security services are ready to face any “imaginary” coup attempt.
Al-Sharqiya says that the number of the arrests made today is not an evidence of …
The Mossad, CIA and Al-Balawi
Embarrassed by its role in cooperating with CIA, Jordanians started to question their government’s role in helping the CIA in Afghanistan.
With the death of the Jordanian Al-Qaeda leader Mahmoud Zaydan, the Jordanian government allowed the family of the deceased a margin of freedom by “celebrating” the “martyrdom” of their son in Pakistan.
Preparing to eliminate any possibility for Al-Qaeda presence in Jordan, reported on Al-Quds Al-Arabi today that Jordan will review all its previous investigation on Al-Qaeda’s activities and suspected Al-Qaeda cells in the country, especially the Salafi and Jihadi organization.
Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab Alyoum reported today, that the Jordanian Interior Ministry gave its instructions to intinsefy security measures in the provinces and provide extra security to government officials.
The deal made by the …
Dawa Party: Time to replace Maliki with another candidate
Interesting speech made by Maliki yesterday saying that the Parliament should be elected, and led by one or two political bloc. This call is directly rejected by many political parties (among them Al-Bolani current Interior Minister), refused to implement the “Lebanese model” in Iraq.
After a meeting a Sistani’s son Muhammad Ridha Al-Sistani, Maliki announced his initiative to “renegotiate” joining an alliance with INA.
According to Hamid Al-Kafai (Spokesman of the former Iraqi Governing Council) on Al-Hayat:
Maliki wants to give the impression that his decision is Sistani’s desire … If these two (State of Law and INA) join a coalition, before or after the elections, then this alliance will be build on a sectarian base.
Exclusive information from within the Dawa Party, says that the leaders …
Iraqi election facing threats of boycott
The evidence used by the Justice and Accountibility Committee against Al-Mutlaq, as Al-Adeeb one of the leaders of Dawa Party told Al-Mada:
Al-Mutlaq issued statements saying that there will be 40 Ba’ath members in the next parliament.
Strange and surprise is that, these are Ahmad Al-Chalabi’s words and not Mutlaq’s. Chalabi told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat — 22-10-2009:
Chalabi noted the presence of Ba’athists and the remnants of the security services publicly, expected to obtain the required support and this would ensure the Ba’athists 40 parliamentary seats in the next election.
In the absence of a political law in Iraq, it seems that the Justice and Accountability Committee plays this role, but the strange thing is that the Committee itself is not a legal entity approved …
U.S. — Baath party vs Al-Qaeda in Yemen
Panic and chaos in Maliki government (and Iran) after the news of U.S. works with Ba’ath members to fight Al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Removing Salih Al-Mutlaq is to block the Saudis — U.S. plan to restore the Ba’athists through Salih Al-Mutlaq “gate” to the parliament.
A Ba’ath Party source told Bahraini newspaper that U.S. military commander David Petraeus himself is leading the negotiations between the Baath Party and its allied factions. ~ Akhbar-Alkhaleej 07-01-2010
When he was asked about if the U.S. negotiated with the Ba’athists, Michael Corbin Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs — Iraq answered:
It depends who do you call Ba’athists? We did not hold negotiations with Baathists refuse to participate in the political process. ~ Kuwaiti Al-Rai 20-12-2009
Britain’s newspaper …
Fighting Al-Qaeda in Yemen is all about China
A report published yesterday on Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas saying that Western intelligence warned Gulf states that Al-Qaeda is on the verge of launching attacks mainly on ships in the Arabian sea after regrouping in the past few months.
At the same time the Yemeni officials are resisting any suggestion of bringing US military forces into the country.
An anonymous source from one of the Gulf-States told newspaper Al-Manar that the U.S. administration is paving the way for the establishment of military bases in Yemen and near the sea straits and oil tankers passages under the cover of “fighting al-Qaeda”, which is part of the 700 military bases and stations around the world.
Confirms the above, Indian ambassador Bhadrakumar linked all the U.S. current “fighting …
Major development in Iraq: Mutlaq banned, Allawi threatens to quit
Major development in Iraq today, which and not reported by the media yet, will have serious consequences in the coming days:
The Accountability and Justice Committee (formally known as “De-Ba’athification”, a committee without head till today) ruled out the ban of Saleh Al-Mutlaq Secretary-General of the “National Dialogue Front” from participating in the election.
The Committee said that conditions put to prevent candidates and entities who are linked to Ba’ath Party and terror organizations from participating in the election are fully applicable to Mutlaq and his political entity, according to article 7.
Article 7:
Prohibition of Entities or parties that adopts racism, ethnic-cleansing, incite, facilitate, glorify, promote, or justify terrorism, especially Saddam’s Baath in Iraq and its symbols, under any name, shall not be within the …