Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
February 12, 2008
Pg. 12
By Amit R. Paley, Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Feb. 11 -- Two CBS News journalists have been kidnapped in the southern city of Basra and remain missing, Iraqi officials said Monday.
The journalists, a British citizen and an Iraqi, were taken from their hotel late Sunday night by about 20 armed men wearing the uniforms of Iraq's security services, according to Brig. Gen. Jalil Khahlaf, the provincial police chief. He said authorities did not know the condition of the journalists and had not been contacted by the kidnappers, whose identities were unknown.
"All efforts are underway to find them," CBS News said in a three-sentence statement. A network spokeswoman said she would not comment on the account given by Iraqi police and asked news outlets not to report the missing journalists' names or jobs.
In Baghdad, a pair of car bombers killed at least 14 people Monday in a coordinated attack on the U.S.-backed Awakening movement, made up of Sunni tribesmen who have turned against insurgents, Iraqi police said.
The assault, which left at least 45 people wounded, was the latest in a wave of killings aimed at the tribesmen and was one of the deadliest car bombing incidents in Baghdad in months.
The target appeared to be the headquarters of Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, a leader of the Awakening movement.
In an interview an hour after the blasts, Suleiman said he was enraged that the U.S. military was not doing more to protect the Awakening fighters. The explosion, which destroyed much of his compound, killed or injured several of Suleiman's guards but left him with only minor wounds from flying glass.
"Where is the support of the Americans for us? They put us in this dilemma and now they are doing nothing for us," said Suleiman, who is also prince of the Dulaimis, one of the largest tribes in Iraq. "If they don't do something about this, then we may decide to withdraw our forces from the streets."
"Tell Bush: Great work," he added sarcastically.
Suleiman said a suicide bomber speeding down the street exploded a car near a guard station in front of his compound, killing primarily his own security team. That blast was set off shortly before noon. A second bomb, which exploded four minutes later, detonated a few hundred yards away near a gas station.
Meanwhile, the speaker of the Iraqi parliament warned that the political wrangling holding up passage of this year's budget could have serious consequences.
"If the parliament goes on in this manner, then its usefulness will be doubted," said the speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who is a Sunni. "This might lead to the whole collapse of the state."
The discord over the budget has centered primarily on funding for the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. In recent years, the regional government there has received 17 percent of the total budget. But many Shiite and Sunni lawmakers believe that the Kurds make up as little as 13 percent of the country's population, and so should only receive that fraction of government spending.
The Kurds also want the Iraqi military to fund payments for the pesh merga, the fighters in their region, while the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants them to be funded out of the allocation earmarked for the Kurdish regional government.
The current draft law calls for the Kurdish region to receive 17 percent of the budget, and for a census to be taken this year to determine the percentage of Kurds in Iraq. Future allocations would then be pegged to that figure. The proposed legislation would call for Maliki and the Kurdish government to resolve the issue of pesh merga funding.
Kurds have been furious in recent days that the vote on the budget continues to be delayed. Rumors circulated in parliament that the Kurds would walk out, though the leader of the Kurdish bloc, Fouad Masoum, said no decision had been made to do so.
"Why are we not voting?" asked Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker. "This is a parliament. We are supposed to vote on laws. If we don't, what is the point of being here?"
Also on Monday, the U.S. military announced that one soldier was killed and two others were wounded in northern Iraq on Sunday, after their vehicles were struck by a roadside bomb. No further details were released.
Correspondent Sudarsan Raghavan and special correspondents Naseer Nouri, Zaid Sabah, K.I. Ibrahim, Dalya Hassan and Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.
February 12, 2008
Pg. 12
By Amit R. Paley, Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Feb. 11 -- Two CBS News journalists have been kidnapped in the southern city of Basra and remain missing, Iraqi officials said Monday.
The journalists, a British citizen and an Iraqi, were taken from their hotel late Sunday night by about 20 armed men wearing the uniforms of Iraq's security services, according to Brig. Gen. Jalil Khahlaf, the provincial police chief. He said authorities did not know the condition of the journalists and had not been contacted by the kidnappers, whose identities were unknown.
"All efforts are underway to find them," CBS News said in a three-sentence statement. A network spokeswoman said she would not comment on the account given by Iraqi police and asked news outlets not to report the missing journalists' names or jobs.
In Baghdad, a pair of car bombers killed at least 14 people Monday in a coordinated attack on the U.S.-backed Awakening movement, made up of Sunni tribesmen who have turned against insurgents, Iraqi police said.
The assault, which left at least 45 people wounded, was the latest in a wave of killings aimed at the tribesmen and was one of the deadliest car bombing incidents in Baghdad in months.
The target appeared to be the headquarters of Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, a leader of the Awakening movement.
In an interview an hour after the blasts, Suleiman said he was enraged that the U.S. military was not doing more to protect the Awakening fighters. The explosion, which destroyed much of his compound, killed or injured several of Suleiman's guards but left him with only minor wounds from flying glass.
"Where is the support of the Americans for us? They put us in this dilemma and now they are doing nothing for us," said Suleiman, who is also prince of the Dulaimis, one of the largest tribes in Iraq. "If they don't do something about this, then we may decide to withdraw our forces from the streets."
"Tell Bush: Great work," he added sarcastically.
Suleiman said a suicide bomber speeding down the street exploded a car near a guard station in front of his compound, killing primarily his own security team. That blast was set off shortly before noon. A second bomb, which exploded four minutes later, detonated a few hundred yards away near a gas station.
Meanwhile, the speaker of the Iraqi parliament warned that the political wrangling holding up passage of this year's budget could have serious consequences.
"If the parliament goes on in this manner, then its usefulness will be doubted," said the speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who is a Sunni. "This might lead to the whole collapse of the state."
The discord over the budget has centered primarily on funding for the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. In recent years, the regional government there has received 17 percent of the total budget. But many Shiite and Sunni lawmakers believe that the Kurds make up as little as 13 percent of the country's population, and so should only receive that fraction of government spending.
The Kurds also want the Iraqi military to fund payments for the pesh merga, the fighters in their region, while the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants them to be funded out of the allocation earmarked for the Kurdish regional government.
The current draft law calls for the Kurdish region to receive 17 percent of the budget, and for a census to be taken this year to determine the percentage of Kurds in Iraq. Future allocations would then be pegged to that figure. The proposed legislation would call for Maliki and the Kurdish government to resolve the issue of pesh merga funding.
Kurds have been furious in recent days that the vote on the budget continues to be delayed. Rumors circulated in parliament that the Kurds would walk out, though the leader of the Kurdish bloc, Fouad Masoum, said no decision had been made to do so.
"Why are we not voting?" asked Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker. "This is a parliament. We are supposed to vote on laws. If we don't, what is the point of being here?"
Also on Monday, the U.S. military announced that one soldier was killed and two others were wounded in northern Iraq on Sunday, after their vehicles were struck by a roadside bomb. No further details were released.
Correspondent Sudarsan Raghavan and special correspondents Naseer Nouri, Zaid Sabah, K.I. Ibrahim, Dalya Hassan and Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.