Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
May 1, 2007
Pg. 1
By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD, April 30 — The largest bloc of Sunni Arabs in the Iraqi Parliament threatened to withdraw its ministers from the Shiite-dominated cabinet on Monday in frustration over the government’s failure to deal with Sunni concerns.
President Bush stepped in to forestall the move, calling one of Iraq’s two vice presidents, Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab, and inviting him to Washington, according to a statement issued by Mr. Hashimi’s office and the White House.
The bloc, known as the Iraqi Consensus Front and made up of three Sunni Arab parties, “has lost hope in rectifying the situation despite all of its sincere and serious efforts to do so,” the statement said.
If the Sunni group followed through on its threat, it would further weaken a government already damaged by the pullout two weeks ago of six cabinet ministers aligned with the renegade Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and further erode American efforts to promote reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites.
Also on Monday, the White House expressed concern about a report in The Washington Post that aides to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki were involved in the arrests or removal of at least 16 army and police commanders, at least nine of whom are Sunni, who had been fighting Shiite militias.
“We’re aware of the reports, we’re concerned about them, and those are the kinds of things we do discuss with the Iraqis that will be a focus of conversations,” said the White House spokesman, Tony Snow. But he added that the Maliki government had taken aggressive enforcement actions in Shiite neighborhoods in the past.
As the Sunni cabinet ministers were threatening to step down on Monday, bombs and mortars killed at least 22 Iraqis. American and Iraqi soldiers squelched a three-pronged attack in Mosul by insurgents who struck at the main American military base, a police station and a provincial government center.
At least 104 United States service members died in hostile actions in Iraq in April, the highest of any month so far this year. Another 13 deaths among other allied forces have been reported, making it the highest monthly death toll for combined allied forces in more than two years. Military reporting typically lags at least 24 hours, so the final total for the month could be higher.
In his phone call with President Bush, Mr. Hashimi “talked frankly about the faltering political process,” the statement from his office said.
The White House, in a statement from the National Security Council, added that the two leaders “focused on the importance of additional steps in the reconciliation process and the need for all Iraqi parties to come together to overcome common challenges they face.”
Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said Mr. Bush invited Mr. Hashimi to the White House for what would be their second meeting there as part of a continuing dialogue with Iraq’s highest-ranking Sunni official.
If the Sunni bloc pulled its five ministers from the cabinet, it would be a stark reflection of the difficulty Mr. Maliki’s government has had in mustering support from a broad spectrum of Iraqis. The Shiite ministers who walked out two weeks ago have yet to be replaced.
Such a move would also undo some of the work of Zalmay Khalilzad, the former United States ambassador, who spent much of his tenure here persuading Sunnis to participate in the government.
Neither Mr. Sadr’s bloc nor Mr. Hashimi’s has threatened to pull out of Parliament, so technically the government would remain standing, but further cabinet resignations would seriously undermine efforts to move forward on legislation needed to ensure that Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds all feel they have a stake in the government.
Members of the Sunni bloc said that they had not yet decided to pull out their ministers but that they were divided between those who wanted to pull out immediately and those who worried that pulling out would diminish the bloc’s influence on government policy even further.
“The first group is enraged by what is going on and is pushing for withdrawal, saying that there is no use in staying in the government,” said Nasir al-Ani, one of the bloc’s 44 representatives in the 275-member Parliament. “The second group takes a rational approach and is not in favor of withdrawing, but prefers to try to work within the government to deal with the problems.”
The crisis was set off by what Sunnis describe as a continued lack of services to Sunni areas of Baghdad. For months, those areas have been deprived of adequate food rations and hospital supplies.
But the latest problem takes place against a backdrop of broader, longstanding Sunni concerns. Sunni leaders say the government has failed to move forward on an array of issues including legislation to ensure a fair distribution of oil revenue, bringing Sunnis into all levels of government and weeding out Shiite militias within government security forces.
In the last several days, the Iraqi Army has worsened the situation by occupying one of the few hospitals used by Sunnis in the heavily Shiite east side of Baghdad, according to politicians. Doctors at Al Numan hospital said that patients had been frightened by the presence of soldiers and that most had left the hospital.
“The problem is not just with the sectarian practices, but with the government’s ineffectiveness,” said Mr. Ani, who emphasized that he was speaking for himself and not for the bloc.
“We see a lot of problems in Karkh on the western side of Baghdad, where the government is invisible,” he said. “People are suffering and the government cannot solve the problems.”
A cabinet minister who is not from the Sunni bloc said that Mr. Maliki had failed to make an effort to get the government to work. “He said he was going to appoint new ministers; he needs to do that,” said the minister, who asked not to be identified because of the delicacy of the situation. “What is he waiting for?”
The heavily fortified Green Zone, where the American and British Embassies are, suffered its second serious mortar attack in two weeks on Monday night when it was hit by a volley of mortar shells. The attack set off sirens, and loudspeakers broadcast messages warning residents that “cellphones are for emergency use only” and to “duck and cover.” There was no immediate information on casualties.
In Khalis, near the Iranian border, a suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded 27 when he detonated his explosives next to a funeral tent, the local police said.
Three people were killed by roadside bombs in Baghdad, and a suicide bomb in the western Baya neighborhood killed one person, according to an Interior Ministry official. A suicide car bomb in the Harithia neighborhood killed two people. Nine bodies were found in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry official said.
In Kadhimiya, a Shiite neighborhood, a peaceful demonstration was interrupted by the heavy gunfire of a fight between soldiers at an Iraqi checkpoint and a gunman who had fired at a passing Iraqi Army convoy. The shootout may have been tied to repercussions from a raid on Sunday by the American military on the local office of Moktada al-Sadr.
In the Mosul attacks, insurgents popped out of manholes near the police station and fired rocket-propelled grenades while three suicide car bombs exploded near the station, said Lt. Col. Eric Welsh, commander of the single American combat battalion there.
An American patrol responding to the attack killed at least six insurgents in a firefight, the colonel said. At least one American soldier and four Iraqi policemen were wounded.
Reporting was contributed by Edward Wong, Ali Adeeb, Wisam A. Habeeb and Ahmad Fadam from Baghdad, Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Diyala and Mosul, and Jim Rutenberg from Washington.
May 1, 2007
Pg. 1
By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD, April 30 — The largest bloc of Sunni Arabs in the Iraqi Parliament threatened to withdraw its ministers from the Shiite-dominated cabinet on Monday in frustration over the government’s failure to deal with Sunni concerns.
President Bush stepped in to forestall the move, calling one of Iraq’s two vice presidents, Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab, and inviting him to Washington, according to a statement issued by Mr. Hashimi’s office and the White House.
The bloc, known as the Iraqi Consensus Front and made up of three Sunni Arab parties, “has lost hope in rectifying the situation despite all of its sincere and serious efforts to do so,” the statement said.
If the Sunni group followed through on its threat, it would further weaken a government already damaged by the pullout two weeks ago of six cabinet ministers aligned with the renegade Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and further erode American efforts to promote reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites.
Also on Monday, the White House expressed concern about a report in The Washington Post that aides to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki were involved in the arrests or removal of at least 16 army and police commanders, at least nine of whom are Sunni, who had been fighting Shiite militias.
“We’re aware of the reports, we’re concerned about them, and those are the kinds of things we do discuss with the Iraqis that will be a focus of conversations,” said the White House spokesman, Tony Snow. But he added that the Maliki government had taken aggressive enforcement actions in Shiite neighborhoods in the past.
As the Sunni cabinet ministers were threatening to step down on Monday, bombs and mortars killed at least 22 Iraqis. American and Iraqi soldiers squelched a three-pronged attack in Mosul by insurgents who struck at the main American military base, a police station and a provincial government center.
At least 104 United States service members died in hostile actions in Iraq in April, the highest of any month so far this year. Another 13 deaths among other allied forces have been reported, making it the highest monthly death toll for combined allied forces in more than two years. Military reporting typically lags at least 24 hours, so the final total for the month could be higher.
In his phone call with President Bush, Mr. Hashimi “talked frankly about the faltering political process,” the statement from his office said.
The White House, in a statement from the National Security Council, added that the two leaders “focused on the importance of additional steps in the reconciliation process and the need for all Iraqi parties to come together to overcome common challenges they face.”
Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said Mr. Bush invited Mr. Hashimi to the White House for what would be their second meeting there as part of a continuing dialogue with Iraq’s highest-ranking Sunni official.
If the Sunni bloc pulled its five ministers from the cabinet, it would be a stark reflection of the difficulty Mr. Maliki’s government has had in mustering support from a broad spectrum of Iraqis. The Shiite ministers who walked out two weeks ago have yet to be replaced.
Such a move would also undo some of the work of Zalmay Khalilzad, the former United States ambassador, who spent much of his tenure here persuading Sunnis to participate in the government.
Neither Mr. Sadr’s bloc nor Mr. Hashimi’s has threatened to pull out of Parliament, so technically the government would remain standing, but further cabinet resignations would seriously undermine efforts to move forward on legislation needed to ensure that Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds all feel they have a stake in the government.
Members of the Sunni bloc said that they had not yet decided to pull out their ministers but that they were divided between those who wanted to pull out immediately and those who worried that pulling out would diminish the bloc’s influence on government policy even further.
“The first group is enraged by what is going on and is pushing for withdrawal, saying that there is no use in staying in the government,” said Nasir al-Ani, one of the bloc’s 44 representatives in the 275-member Parliament. “The second group takes a rational approach and is not in favor of withdrawing, but prefers to try to work within the government to deal with the problems.”
The crisis was set off by what Sunnis describe as a continued lack of services to Sunni areas of Baghdad. For months, those areas have been deprived of adequate food rations and hospital supplies.
But the latest problem takes place against a backdrop of broader, longstanding Sunni concerns. Sunni leaders say the government has failed to move forward on an array of issues including legislation to ensure a fair distribution of oil revenue, bringing Sunnis into all levels of government and weeding out Shiite militias within government security forces.
In the last several days, the Iraqi Army has worsened the situation by occupying one of the few hospitals used by Sunnis in the heavily Shiite east side of Baghdad, according to politicians. Doctors at Al Numan hospital said that patients had been frightened by the presence of soldiers and that most had left the hospital.
“The problem is not just with the sectarian practices, but with the government’s ineffectiveness,” said Mr. Ani, who emphasized that he was speaking for himself and not for the bloc.
“We see a lot of problems in Karkh on the western side of Baghdad, where the government is invisible,” he said. “People are suffering and the government cannot solve the problems.”
A cabinet minister who is not from the Sunni bloc said that Mr. Maliki had failed to make an effort to get the government to work. “He said he was going to appoint new ministers; he needs to do that,” said the minister, who asked not to be identified because of the delicacy of the situation. “What is he waiting for?”
The heavily fortified Green Zone, where the American and British Embassies are, suffered its second serious mortar attack in two weeks on Monday night when it was hit by a volley of mortar shells. The attack set off sirens, and loudspeakers broadcast messages warning residents that “cellphones are for emergency use only” and to “duck and cover.” There was no immediate information on casualties.
In Khalis, near the Iranian border, a suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded 27 when he detonated his explosives next to a funeral tent, the local police said.
Three people were killed by roadside bombs in Baghdad, and a suicide bomb in the western Baya neighborhood killed one person, according to an Interior Ministry official. A suicide car bomb in the Harithia neighborhood killed two people. Nine bodies were found in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry official said.
In Kadhimiya, a Shiite neighborhood, a peaceful demonstration was interrupted by the heavy gunfire of a fight between soldiers at an Iraqi checkpoint and a gunman who had fired at a passing Iraqi Army convoy. The shootout may have been tied to repercussions from a raid on Sunday by the American military on the local office of Moktada al-Sadr.
In the Mosul attacks, insurgents popped out of manholes near the police station and fired rocket-propelled grenades while three suicide car bombs exploded near the station, said Lt. Col. Eric Welsh, commander of the single American combat battalion there.
An American patrol responding to the attack killed at least six insurgents in a firefight, the colonel said. At least one American soldier and four Iraqi policemen were wounded.
Reporting was contributed by Edward Wong, Ali Adeeb, Wisam A. Habeeb and Ahmad Fadam from Baghdad, Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Diyala and Mosul, and Jim Rutenberg from Washington.