Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Los Angeles Times
January 4, 2008 Colleagues seek to lift the immunity of Sunni leader Adnan Dulaimi, who has been accused of complicity in attacks. He denies the allegations.
By Kimi Yoshino and Saif Hameed, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
BAGHDAD —Members of Iraq's parliament are renewing efforts to strip immunity from a top Sunni Arab lawmaker, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki who has repeatedly been accused of involvement in incidents of violence.
At least 30 lawmakers, most of them non-Sunnis, have signed a petition asking that Adnan Dulaimi be denied protection granted to all parliament members. The petition, which hasn't been submitted yet, could force a vote on the matter and pave the way for criminal charges against him.
"How can we build a real democratic system if we block the justice?" said Mithal Alusi, a secular Sunni lawmaker who has accused Dulaimi of being involved in the killing of his two sons.
"If you don't go there, a few hundred cases of people who have been killed, this will be dropped. This is not fair. We politicians, we should not have the power to drop the justice."
Dulaimi, whose Iraqi Accordance Front has 44 seats in parliament, has repeatedly denied the allegations.
"This is a wide campaign waged against me to disfigure my reputation and to disrespect me," Dulaimi said in an interview Thursday. "I am ready to face any charge that will be directed at me."
A spokesman for the Baghdad security plan said police last week seized mortar shells, grenade launchers and other weapons and explosives from a house next to Dulaimi's home that allegedly is used by his guards.
The evidence has been presented to judges for possible criminal charges, the spokesman said.
Dulaimi denies owning or managing the raided property.
The allegations, though, are only the latest involving Dulaimi, whose home and office have been repeatedly searched. On Nov. 30, U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested Dulaimi's son and more than 40 guards after the slaying of a U.S.-backed neighborhood volunteer fighter and the discovery of a car bomb near Dulaimi's compound.
The arrests came a day after Dulaimi joined other lawmakers in boycotting a legislative session to derail Maliki's attempt to appoint new Cabinet ministers.
In September 2006, one of Dulaimi's guards was arrested on suspicion of plotting a suicide attack inside the Green Zone.
Dulaimi was never implicated, but he has also been suspected of involvement in the January 2006 kidnapping of reporter Jill Carroll. She had set up a meeting with Dulaimi, who didn't show, and was kidnapped just after she left his office. He made appeals to her kidnappers and said he helped facilitate her release by paying a ransom.
On Thursday, Dulaimi said he was the victim.
"I am innocent, and I would not do anything that is against the system," Dulaimi said. "I have been targeted by terrorists because I have participated in the political process. They have attacked my house and they attacked the area that I've been living with mortars."
As the petition to lift Dulaimi's immunity circulates, some lawmakers said the matter would be better handled by the Judiciary Council, which oversees the courts and can formally ask parliament to take action.
"I think the question should not be politicized," said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman. "Until now, there is a lot of talk against him, but no official charges. So we better wait for the charges."
In other news, a bomb exploded in southeast Baghdad in front of the home of a Shiite Muslim lawmaker with the Islamic Dawa Party, police said. The explosion killed his son, nephew and neighbor; 11 other people suffered injuries. Another bombing, in east Baghdad, injured four city workers.
In Diyala province, six Iraqi soldiers were killed and two were wounded when they entered a booby-trapped house during a raid in a village, according to Iraqi government officials.
The U.S. military reported that seven suspected insurgents were killed Thursday during two airstrikes targeting Al Qaeda operatives in Diyala.
The military also said two U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday in an attack in Diyala that also left one soldier wounded. In addition, a soldier died Wednesday in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad. Their names were not released pending notification of family. At least 3,907 U.S. troops have died in the Iraq theater since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to the website icasualties.org.
In a speech at a conference in the southern city of Najaf, Abdel- aziz Hakim, leader of the largest Shiite party in parliament, noted significant progress in security and "an end of fears of a civil war." He credited groups of mostly Sunni volunteers that aid the U.S. effort against insurgents, adding, "We still believe in the importance of continuing to depend on this strategy."
His statements Thursday were a slight softening of warnings last month against giving too much power to the volunteer forces.
Times staff writer Raheem Salman and special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.
January 4, 2008 Colleagues seek to lift the immunity of Sunni leader Adnan Dulaimi, who has been accused of complicity in attacks. He denies the allegations.
By Kimi Yoshino and Saif Hameed, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
BAGHDAD —Members of Iraq's parliament are renewing efforts to strip immunity from a top Sunni Arab lawmaker, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki who has repeatedly been accused of involvement in incidents of violence.
At least 30 lawmakers, most of them non-Sunnis, have signed a petition asking that Adnan Dulaimi be denied protection granted to all parliament members. The petition, which hasn't been submitted yet, could force a vote on the matter and pave the way for criminal charges against him.
"How can we build a real democratic system if we block the justice?" said Mithal Alusi, a secular Sunni lawmaker who has accused Dulaimi of being involved in the killing of his two sons.
"If you don't go there, a few hundred cases of people who have been killed, this will be dropped. This is not fair. We politicians, we should not have the power to drop the justice."
Dulaimi, whose Iraqi Accordance Front has 44 seats in parliament, has repeatedly denied the allegations.
"This is a wide campaign waged against me to disfigure my reputation and to disrespect me," Dulaimi said in an interview Thursday. "I am ready to face any charge that will be directed at me."
A spokesman for the Baghdad security plan said police last week seized mortar shells, grenade launchers and other weapons and explosives from a house next to Dulaimi's home that allegedly is used by his guards.
The evidence has been presented to judges for possible criminal charges, the spokesman said.
Dulaimi denies owning or managing the raided property.
The allegations, though, are only the latest involving Dulaimi, whose home and office have been repeatedly searched. On Nov. 30, U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested Dulaimi's son and more than 40 guards after the slaying of a U.S.-backed neighborhood volunteer fighter and the discovery of a car bomb near Dulaimi's compound.
The arrests came a day after Dulaimi joined other lawmakers in boycotting a legislative session to derail Maliki's attempt to appoint new Cabinet ministers.
In September 2006, one of Dulaimi's guards was arrested on suspicion of plotting a suicide attack inside the Green Zone.
Dulaimi was never implicated, but he has also been suspected of involvement in the January 2006 kidnapping of reporter Jill Carroll. She had set up a meeting with Dulaimi, who didn't show, and was kidnapped just after she left his office. He made appeals to her kidnappers and said he helped facilitate her release by paying a ransom.
On Thursday, Dulaimi said he was the victim.
"I am innocent, and I would not do anything that is against the system," Dulaimi said. "I have been targeted by terrorists because I have participated in the political process. They have attacked my house and they attacked the area that I've been living with mortars."
As the petition to lift Dulaimi's immunity circulates, some lawmakers said the matter would be better handled by the Judiciary Council, which oversees the courts and can formally ask parliament to take action.
"I think the question should not be politicized," said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman. "Until now, there is a lot of talk against him, but no official charges. So we better wait for the charges."
In other news, a bomb exploded in southeast Baghdad in front of the home of a Shiite Muslim lawmaker with the Islamic Dawa Party, police said. The explosion killed his son, nephew and neighbor; 11 other people suffered injuries. Another bombing, in east Baghdad, injured four city workers.
In Diyala province, six Iraqi soldiers were killed and two were wounded when they entered a booby-trapped house during a raid in a village, according to Iraqi government officials.
The U.S. military reported that seven suspected insurgents were killed Thursday during two airstrikes targeting Al Qaeda operatives in Diyala.
The military also said two U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday in an attack in Diyala that also left one soldier wounded. In addition, a soldier died Wednesday in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad. Their names were not released pending notification of family. At least 3,907 U.S. troops have died in the Iraq theater since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to the website icasualties.org.
In a speech at a conference in the southern city of Najaf, Abdel- aziz Hakim, leader of the largest Shiite party in parliament, noted significant progress in security and "an end of fears of a civil war." He credited groups of mostly Sunni volunteers that aid the U.S. effort against insurgents, adding, "We still believe in the importance of continuing to depend on this strategy."
His statements Thursday were a slight softening of warnings last month against giving too much power to the volunteer forces.
Times staff writer Raheem Salman and special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.