tagged w/ Iraqi Prime Minister
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This past week, Iraq surpassed the previous record for the country that has gone the longest between holding a parliamentary election and forming a government.This past week, Iraq surpassed the previous record for the country that has gone the... more
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If no Iraqi government has been cobbled together by September 8 – and few expect it will –it will have been more than half a year since Iraqis voted.If no Iraqi government has been cobbled together by September 8 – and few expect... more
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Vice President Joe Biden paid a surprise visit to Iraq on the fourth of July to salute the troops and to urge rival Iraqi politicians to end months of delays and select new leaders for their wobbly democracy. Nevertheless, Biden predicted a peaceful transition of power even as suicide bombers struck government centers in two major cities, Mosul and Ramadi. Four people were killed and 25 injured in the two blasts that occurred hundreds of miles apart.Vice President Joe Biden paid a surprise visit to Iraq on the fourth of July to salute... more
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The New York Times reports that some 150 politicians, civil servants, tribal chiefs, police officers, Sunni clerics and members of Awakening Councils have been assassinated throughout Iraq since the election — bloodshed apparently aimed at heightening turmoil in the power vacuum created by more than four months without a national government.The New York Times reports that some 150 politicians, civil servants, tribal chiefs,... more
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Gunmen killed two candidates from the Sunni-backed coalition that won the most seats in Iraq's March parliamentary election, slayings that the alliance says are part of a politically motivated campaign of assassinations.Gunmen killed two candidates from the Sunni-backed coalition that won the most seats... more
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This past week the Center for Constitutional Rights and its co-counsel asked the Supreme Court to take up the case against CACI and L-3 Services (known formerly as Titan). The two corporations’ employees participated in the infamous torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib.This past week the Center for Constitutional Rights and its co-counsel asked the... more
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Human Rights Watch says that torture, beating and sodomizing inmates with brooms or pistol barrels were the norm at an illegal prison run by a military unit under the command of the Iraqi prime minister's office.Human Rights Watch says that torture, beating and sodomizing inmates with brooms or... more
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Recent elections in Iraq saw strong returns for ex-prime minister Ayad Allawi whose Iraqi National Accord party gained 91 seats, two seats better than current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
Though who ultimately won Iraq’s elections still remains in dispute, Allawi’s return to prominence has dredged up controversial questions about his past, including his history with the US Central Intelligence Agency and stories suggesting Allawi personally executed people at whim.Recent elections in Iraq saw strong returns for ex-prime minister Ayad Allawi whose... more
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The London Guardian reports that a senior Iraqi spy is accusing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of handing out thousands of guns to tribal leaders in a bid to win votes. The claim was made by Iraqi National Intelligence Service former spokesman, Saad al-Alusi, a week before Iraq's general election, in which allegations of vote buying and exorbitant handouts have become widespread.The London Guardian reports that a senior Iraqi spy is accusing Prime Minister Nouri... more
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The US military in Iraq freed an Iraqi freelance journalist working for Reuters news agency last week after he had been held without charges for 17 months.The US military in Iraq freed an Iraqi freelance journalist working for Reuters news... more
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last week called in the Iraqi Army to cordon off the provincial council building in Tikrit. It was the latest in a series of actions by Iraq’s prime minister that have infuriated his political opponents while raising doubts about the strength of the country’s laws and democratic institutions.Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last week called in the Iraqi Army to cordon off... more
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Iraq is demanding an explanation from the United States after allegations that US intelligence agencies have been spying on Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister and other government officials.
If the claims, made in a new book by veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward, prove to be true they will “cast a shadow” over relations between Baghdad and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other US intelligence services, an Iraqi government spokesman said yesterday.
“If it is true, if it is a fact, it reflects that there is no trust and it reflects also that the institutions in the United States are used to spy on their friends and their enemies in the same way,” Dr Ali al-Dabbagh told The Times.
“If it is true it casts a shadow on the future relations with such institutions,” he said. “We will raise this with the American side and we will ask for an explanation.”
The comments came in response to excerpts from Mr Woodward's latest book, which claimed that US intelligence agencies “know everything” Mr al-Maliki says.
It also alleges that they have been spying on his staff and others within the Iraqi Government at a time when both sides were working together to defeat the bloody insurgency that consumed Iraq in 2006 and early 2007.
A US embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad declined to comment on the revelations in The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008.
The book, due to be published on Monday, also claims that a “surge” last year of almost 30,000 additional US troops into Baghdad and the surrounding area was not the primary reason behind a drop in the violence in recent months.
Instead, it alludes to “groundbreaking” new covert techniques that enabled US military and intelligence officials to pinpoint and kill key insurgent leaders, including senior members of al-Qaeda in Iraq. It declines to give more details, however, to avoid revealing state secrets.
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from the Wikipedia: Woodward, working with fellow reporter Carl Bernstein, helped uncover the Watergate scandal that led to U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation. Woodward has written 12 best-selling non-fiction books and has twice contributed reporting to efforts that collectively earned the Post and its National Reporting staff a Pulitzer Prize.Iraq is demanding an explanation from the United States after allegations that US... more
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In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Barack Obama's 16 timeframe for a withdrawal from Iraq is the right one.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supports US presidential candidate Barack Obama's plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months. When asked in and interview with SPIEGEL when he thinks US troops should leave Iraq, Maliki responded "as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned." He then continued: "US presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."
Maliki was careful to back away from outright support for Obama. "Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement. Who they choose as their president is the Americans' business," he said. But then, apparently referring to Republican candidate John McCain's more open-ended Iraq policy, Maliki said: "Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic. Artificially prolonging the tenure of US troops in Iraq would cause problems."
Iraq, Maliki went on to say, "would like to see the establishment of a long-term strategic treaty with the United States, which would govern the basic aspects of our economic and cultural relations." He also emphasized though that the security agreement between the two countries should only "remain in effect in the short term."
Read more...In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Barack... more
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U.N. Secretary-General ducks behind a podium after a rocket lands near the Iraqi Prime Minister's office in Baghdad.U.N. Secretary-General ducks behind a podium after a rocket lands near the Iraqi Prime... more
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