Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Diego Union-Tribune
June 18, 2008 Old parliament building rebuilt
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press
BAGHDAD – Iraq's parliament will start holding sessions outside the U.S.-protected Green Zone in the fall, the deputy speaker said yesterday.
The 275-member legislative body currently meets in a heavily guarded convention center inside the Green Zone, a sprawling maze of concrete barriers and checkpoints in central Baghdad.
The announcement came the same day that a car bomb ripped through a busy commercial street in a Shiite area of Baghdad, killing dozens.
Deputy parliamentary speaker Khalid al-Attiyah told lawmakers they will move to the Saddam Hussein-era parliament building for the next legislative term, which is due to begin Sept. 1.
The National Assembly building that was used by the Iraqi parliament under Hussein is in the Allawi district, a religiously mixed area about 500 yards from the blast walls that form the perimeter of the Green Zone on the west side of the Tigris River.
It was looted and burned in the chaos that followed the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces in April 2003. But al-Attiyah said its reconstruction has been completed.
The announcement comes as the U.S.-backed Iraqi government tries to bolster public confidence in recent security gains, assert its independence and shed its public image as an institution isolated from its people inside the U.S.-protected enclave.
“There is progress in the security situation and the reconstruction has been completed of the new building,” al-Attiyah said, adding the new accommodations will be large enough for the full 275-member legislature and staff members.
The Green Zone, which also houses the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government's headquarters, is one of the main symbols of the continued American presence more than five years after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Hussein.
Iraqi legislators hold sessions in a former convention center amid tight security that was reinforced after a suicide bomber slipped through the checkpoints and blew himself up in the building's cafeteria, killing a lawmaker, on April 12, 2007.
Al-Attiyah said the building was prepared for the next term and security officials would meet to discuss preparations for the move. The relocation itself was meant to be temporary until a new compound for the parliament can be built, he added.
His adviser, Wissam al-Zubaidi, also said the parliament planned to shorten its two-month break that was due to start in July and adjourn only for the month of August.
The legislative body has been criticized for failing to take advantage of the decline in violence to make sufficient progress on U.S.-backed legislation aimed at promoting national reconciliation among Iraq's divided Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government has been trying to assure a fearful public that recent security gains can be maintained and has launched a series of offensives aimed at clamping control on some of the most violent areas in Iraq.
The U.S. military also has touted a steep decline in violence over the past year but has warned that Sunni and Shiite extremists remain a serious threat and the gains are reversible.
Despite the uncertainty, Iraqi officials have been eager to promote a sense of confidence among the war-weary Iraqi people after months of declining bloodshed in the capital.
June 18, 2008 Old parliament building rebuilt
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press
BAGHDAD – Iraq's parliament will start holding sessions outside the U.S.-protected Green Zone in the fall, the deputy speaker said yesterday.
The 275-member legislative body currently meets in a heavily guarded convention center inside the Green Zone, a sprawling maze of concrete barriers and checkpoints in central Baghdad.
The announcement came the same day that a car bomb ripped through a busy commercial street in a Shiite area of Baghdad, killing dozens.
Deputy parliamentary speaker Khalid al-Attiyah told lawmakers they will move to the Saddam Hussein-era parliament building for the next legislative term, which is due to begin Sept. 1.
The National Assembly building that was used by the Iraqi parliament under Hussein is in the Allawi district, a religiously mixed area about 500 yards from the blast walls that form the perimeter of the Green Zone on the west side of the Tigris River.
It was looted and burned in the chaos that followed the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces in April 2003. But al-Attiyah said its reconstruction has been completed.
The announcement comes as the U.S.-backed Iraqi government tries to bolster public confidence in recent security gains, assert its independence and shed its public image as an institution isolated from its people inside the U.S.-protected enclave.
“There is progress in the security situation and the reconstruction has been completed of the new building,” al-Attiyah said, adding the new accommodations will be large enough for the full 275-member legislature and staff members.
The Green Zone, which also houses the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government's headquarters, is one of the main symbols of the continued American presence more than five years after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Hussein.
Iraqi legislators hold sessions in a former convention center amid tight security that was reinforced after a suicide bomber slipped through the checkpoints and blew himself up in the building's cafeteria, killing a lawmaker, on April 12, 2007.
Al-Attiyah said the building was prepared for the next term and security officials would meet to discuss preparations for the move. The relocation itself was meant to be temporary until a new compound for the parliament can be built, he added.
His adviser, Wissam al-Zubaidi, also said the parliament planned to shorten its two-month break that was due to start in July and adjourn only for the month of August.
The legislative body has been criticized for failing to take advantage of the decline in violence to make sufficient progress on U.S.-backed legislation aimed at promoting national reconciliation among Iraq's divided Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government has been trying to assure a fearful public that recent security gains can be maintained and has launched a series of offensives aimed at clamping control on some of the most violent areas in Iraq.
The U.S. military also has touted a steep decline in violence over the past year but has warned that Sunni and Shiite extremists remain a serious threat and the gains are reversible.
Despite the uncertainty, Iraqi officials have been eager to promote a sense of confidence among the war-weary Iraqi people after months of declining bloodshed in the capital.