Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
February 13, 2008 By Alissa J. Rubin and Qais Mizher
BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces in the southern city of Basra searched Tuesday for two CBS television journalists who were captured there over the weekend, while in Baghdad Parliament remained stalemated on the budget and other major legislation.
A prominent Shiite legislator, Baha al-Araji, told an Iraqi satellite television channel that there were demonstrations in the streets, that Parliament should be disbanded and that new elections should be held.
His frustration was echoed by many lawmakers. The Constitution requires that lawmakers approve the budget before they end this session of Parliament.
The journalists, a cameraman-photojournalist who worked for CBS News and his interpreter, were taken from the Sultan Palace Hotel on Sunday by men who appeared to be members of the security forces, according to a senior security official in Basra.
There were indications on Tuesday that the kidnappers were linked to the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, but it was unclear how close their relationship was or whether it was still active.
Basra is at least partly controlled by armed gangs. The British military, which had been responsible for security there, transferred authority to the Iraqis in mid-December.
Harith al-Ethari, the head of Mr. Sadr’s Basra office, said his organization “didn’t have anything to do with the kidnapping.”
However, he acknowledged that one of two people who have links to Mr. Sadr and who have been connected by the senior security official to the kidnapping appeared to have been in the area of the hotel at the time of the kidnapping.
That person, Luay al-Jazeri, was at the hotel and “it was his bad luck that the kidnapping happened at the same time as his visit,” Mr. Ethari said.
The security forces were proceeding gingerly in order to avoid antagonizing the kidnappers, said the senior security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak about the case publicly.
“There are mediation efforts with people close to the kidnappers going on,” he said.
Journalists have been frequent targets in Iraq. The body of an Iraqi journalist abducted two days ago was found in Baghdad and identified Tuesday morning.
The journalist, Hisham Mijuet Hamdan, 27, worked for two small newspapers.
Parliament is arguing over three main pieces of legislation: the budget, a provincial powers law and a broad amnesty law that would allow thousands of detained Sunnis and Shiites to go free.
There had been a deal among Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis to approve all three, but because different parties favored each law, each party was afraid to vote on one of the other laws first, for fear that the law it wanted passed would be delayed.
Hassan Sinead, a member of Parliament from Dawa, the party of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, repeated the refrain heard often in the last few weeks: “Tomorrow maybe we will vote.”
Abeer Mohammed, Khalid al-Ansary and Balen Y. Younis contributed reporting.
February 13, 2008 By Alissa J. Rubin and Qais Mizher
BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces in the southern city of Basra searched Tuesday for two CBS television journalists who were captured there over the weekend, while in Baghdad Parliament remained stalemated on the budget and other major legislation.
A prominent Shiite legislator, Baha al-Araji, told an Iraqi satellite television channel that there were demonstrations in the streets, that Parliament should be disbanded and that new elections should be held.
His frustration was echoed by many lawmakers. The Constitution requires that lawmakers approve the budget before they end this session of Parliament.
The journalists, a cameraman-photojournalist who worked for CBS News and his interpreter, were taken from the Sultan Palace Hotel on Sunday by men who appeared to be members of the security forces, according to a senior security official in Basra.
There were indications on Tuesday that the kidnappers were linked to the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, but it was unclear how close their relationship was or whether it was still active.
Basra is at least partly controlled by armed gangs. The British military, which had been responsible for security there, transferred authority to the Iraqis in mid-December.
Harith al-Ethari, the head of Mr. Sadr’s Basra office, said his organization “didn’t have anything to do with the kidnapping.”
However, he acknowledged that one of two people who have links to Mr. Sadr and who have been connected by the senior security official to the kidnapping appeared to have been in the area of the hotel at the time of the kidnapping.
That person, Luay al-Jazeri, was at the hotel and “it was his bad luck that the kidnapping happened at the same time as his visit,” Mr. Ethari said.
The security forces were proceeding gingerly in order to avoid antagonizing the kidnappers, said the senior security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak about the case publicly.
“There are mediation efforts with people close to the kidnappers going on,” he said.
Journalists have been frequent targets in Iraq. The body of an Iraqi journalist abducted two days ago was found in Baghdad and identified Tuesday morning.
The journalist, Hisham Mijuet Hamdan, 27, worked for two small newspapers.
Parliament is arguing over three main pieces of legislation: the budget, a provincial powers law and a broad amnesty law that would allow thousands of detained Sunnis and Shiites to go free.
There had been a deal among Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis to approve all three, but because different parties favored each law, each party was afraid to vote on one of the other laws first, for fear that the law it wanted passed would be delayed.
Hassan Sinead, a member of Parliament from Dawa, the party of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, repeated the refrain heard often in the last few weeks: “Tomorrow maybe we will vote.”
Abeer Mohammed, Khalid al-Ansary and Balen Y. Younis contributed reporting.