Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 25, 2008
Pg. 1
By James Glanz
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc has agreed to return to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s cabinet after a boycott of nearly a year, several Sunni leaders said Thursday. They cited a recently passed amnesty law and the government’s crackdown on Shiite militias as reasons for the move.
The Sunni leaders said they were still working out the details of their return, an indication that the deal could still fall through. But such a return would represent a major political victory for Mr. Maliki in the midst of a military operation that has at times been criticized as poorly planned and fraught with risk. The principal group his security forces have been confronting is the Mahdi Army, a militia led by the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
Even though Mr. Maliki’s American-backed offensive against elements of the Mahdi Army has frequently stalled and has led to bitter complaints of civilian casualties, the Sunni leaders said that the government had done enough to address their concerns that they had decided to end their boycott.
“Our conditions were very clear, and the government achieved some of them,” said Adnan al-Dulaimi, the head of Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in the government. Mr. Dulaimi said the achievements included “the general amnesty, chasing down the militias and disbanding them and curbing the outlaws.”
The amnesty law, passed in February, has already led to the release of many Sunni prisoners, convincing Sunni parties that the government is serious about enforcing it. And the attacks on Shiite militias have apparently begun to assuage longstanding complaints that only Sunni groups blamed for the insurgency have been the targets of American and Iraqi security forces.
Yasseen Majid, the prime minister’s media adviser, confirmed that a broad agreement had been struck. “The Iraqi government declares that it welcomes the returning of the Tawafiq bloc to the government and during the next two days, the bloc will submit names of the ministerial candidates,” Mr. Majid said.
But he said no names had yet been submitted “because of arguments inside the bloc.”
In the fractious world of Iraqi politics, in which agreements are routinely announced and then abandoned or ignored, such arguments are no small matter, said Adnan Pachachi, an independent Sunni member of Parliament who has been involved in Iraqi politics since the 1950s.
“They are still negotiating about this among the Sunni groups,” Mr. Pachachi said. “There are problems with the ministries and who gets what.”
Ayad Samarrai, deputy general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest party in Tawafiq, agreed that the discussions centered on just which Sunni politicians would be given which ministries. Among those under consideration are the Ministries of Culture, Planning, Higher Education and Women’s Affairs and the State Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Samarrai said.
The details are complicated because Ali Baban, who leads the most powerful of those, the Planning Ministry, was a member of the Sunni bloc but left it to stay in his post after the boycott began. Mr. Samarrai said that the most likely arrangement was that Mr. Baban would remain in charge there and that another ministry would be given to the Sunni bloc.
“Now we are discussing the details,” he said.
Also on Thursday, court and legal officials said the capital case against Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein, would begin next week. The case involves the 1992 execution of more than 40 Iraqi merchants.
A lawyer for Mr. Aziz, Badi Arif, said Thursday that Mr. Aziz was having health problems while in prison, but that “his morale is high.”
The political developments in Baghdad appeared to have little effect on violence around the country as bombs exploded in Diyala Province, Kirkuk and several places in Baghdad, where at least seven Iraqis were killed.
Three roadside bombs exploded in the western, relatively upscale, neighborhood of Mansour alone, an Interior Ministry official said. One explosion all but obliterated a supermarket called the Star Baby about 1 p.m., leaving wreckage littered with charred food and partly burning a cosmetics shop next door.
Then, just after 5 p.m., a car bomb exploded in the central district of Karada, another formerly prosperous area, close to the July 14th Bridge, which goes over the Tigris River to the Green Zone.
A man who gave his name as Hani, 40, said he arrived 10 minutes after the explosion to see two young people still bleeding. They appeared to be dead already, he said, one in the shell of a car and another in an apartment nearby. Another person in the apartment was severely burned, he said.
“I am afraid of Thursdays,” he said, reflecting the superstitions that emerge in a place where death can visit anywhere at any time. “Most of the explosions happen on Thursday.”
Elsewhere in Baghdad, the struggle with the Mahdi Army continued, as residents of the northeastern Shiite enclave called Sadr City saw concrete walls being put in place by American and Iraqi forces to seal off two of the most violent districts, Jumaila and Ubaidi.
And in the southern city of Basra, where Mr. Maliki began his offensive against the Mahdi Army a month ago, clashes continued in some areas. Government forces arrested a former Sadr official, Abdul-Sattar al-Bahadili, in a restaurant in the Istiklal district. A current Sadr official who described the arrest said Mr. Bahadili had been fired in 2005, accused of forming a militia that became involved in kidnappings, assassinations and oil smuggling.
Whether the tentative political accord will have any effect in a country where violence seems to sprout like weeds is unknown, but what is certain is that a government weakened by absentee officials has little chance of prevailing, said Khalaf al-Iliyan, a senior member of the National Dialogue Council, also part of the Tawafiq bloc.
“I agree to end the boycott and come back to the government because it needs the support of all the political parties right now,” Mr. Iliyan said.
Reporting was contributed by Mudhafer al-Husaini, Tareq Mahir, Muhammed al-Obaidi, Mohamed Hussein and Alissa J. Rubin from Baghdad, and by Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, Kirkuk, Basra and Diyala Province.
April 25, 2008
Pg. 1
By James Glanz
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc has agreed to return to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s cabinet after a boycott of nearly a year, several Sunni leaders said Thursday. They cited a recently passed amnesty law and the government’s crackdown on Shiite militias as reasons for the move.
The Sunni leaders said they were still working out the details of their return, an indication that the deal could still fall through. But such a return would represent a major political victory for Mr. Maliki in the midst of a military operation that has at times been criticized as poorly planned and fraught with risk. The principal group his security forces have been confronting is the Mahdi Army, a militia led by the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
Even though Mr. Maliki’s American-backed offensive against elements of the Mahdi Army has frequently stalled and has led to bitter complaints of civilian casualties, the Sunni leaders said that the government had done enough to address their concerns that they had decided to end their boycott.
“Our conditions were very clear, and the government achieved some of them,” said Adnan al-Dulaimi, the head of Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in the government. Mr. Dulaimi said the achievements included “the general amnesty, chasing down the militias and disbanding them and curbing the outlaws.”
The amnesty law, passed in February, has already led to the release of many Sunni prisoners, convincing Sunni parties that the government is serious about enforcing it. And the attacks on Shiite militias have apparently begun to assuage longstanding complaints that only Sunni groups blamed for the insurgency have been the targets of American and Iraqi security forces.
Yasseen Majid, the prime minister’s media adviser, confirmed that a broad agreement had been struck. “The Iraqi government declares that it welcomes the returning of the Tawafiq bloc to the government and during the next two days, the bloc will submit names of the ministerial candidates,” Mr. Majid said.
But he said no names had yet been submitted “because of arguments inside the bloc.”
In the fractious world of Iraqi politics, in which agreements are routinely announced and then abandoned or ignored, such arguments are no small matter, said Adnan Pachachi, an independent Sunni member of Parliament who has been involved in Iraqi politics since the 1950s.
“They are still negotiating about this among the Sunni groups,” Mr. Pachachi said. “There are problems with the ministries and who gets what.”
Ayad Samarrai, deputy general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest party in Tawafiq, agreed that the discussions centered on just which Sunni politicians would be given which ministries. Among those under consideration are the Ministries of Culture, Planning, Higher Education and Women’s Affairs and the State Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Samarrai said.
The details are complicated because Ali Baban, who leads the most powerful of those, the Planning Ministry, was a member of the Sunni bloc but left it to stay in his post after the boycott began. Mr. Samarrai said that the most likely arrangement was that Mr. Baban would remain in charge there and that another ministry would be given to the Sunni bloc.
“Now we are discussing the details,” he said.
Also on Thursday, court and legal officials said the capital case against Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein, would begin next week. The case involves the 1992 execution of more than 40 Iraqi merchants.
A lawyer for Mr. Aziz, Badi Arif, said Thursday that Mr. Aziz was having health problems while in prison, but that “his morale is high.”
The political developments in Baghdad appeared to have little effect on violence around the country as bombs exploded in Diyala Province, Kirkuk and several places in Baghdad, where at least seven Iraqis were killed.
Three roadside bombs exploded in the western, relatively upscale, neighborhood of Mansour alone, an Interior Ministry official said. One explosion all but obliterated a supermarket called the Star Baby about 1 p.m., leaving wreckage littered with charred food and partly burning a cosmetics shop next door.
Then, just after 5 p.m., a car bomb exploded in the central district of Karada, another formerly prosperous area, close to the July 14th Bridge, which goes over the Tigris River to the Green Zone.
A man who gave his name as Hani, 40, said he arrived 10 minutes after the explosion to see two young people still bleeding. They appeared to be dead already, he said, one in the shell of a car and another in an apartment nearby. Another person in the apartment was severely burned, he said.
“I am afraid of Thursdays,” he said, reflecting the superstitions that emerge in a place where death can visit anywhere at any time. “Most of the explosions happen on Thursday.”
Elsewhere in Baghdad, the struggle with the Mahdi Army continued, as residents of the northeastern Shiite enclave called Sadr City saw concrete walls being put in place by American and Iraqi forces to seal off two of the most violent districts, Jumaila and Ubaidi.
And in the southern city of Basra, where Mr. Maliki began his offensive against the Mahdi Army a month ago, clashes continued in some areas. Government forces arrested a former Sadr official, Abdul-Sattar al-Bahadili, in a restaurant in the Istiklal district. A current Sadr official who described the arrest said Mr. Bahadili had been fired in 2005, accused of forming a militia that became involved in kidnappings, assassinations and oil smuggling.
Whether the tentative political accord will have any effect in a country where violence seems to sprout like weeds is unknown, but what is certain is that a government weakened by absentee officials has little chance of prevailing, said Khalaf al-Iliyan, a senior member of the National Dialogue Council, also part of the Tawafiq bloc.
“I agree to end the boycott and come back to the government because it needs the support of all the political parties right now,” Mr. Iliyan said.
Reporting was contributed by Mudhafer al-Husaini, Tareq Mahir, Muhammed al-Obaidi, Mohamed Hussein and Alissa J. Rubin from Baghdad, and by Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, Kirkuk, Basra and Diyala Province.